Photo Courtesy of Guelph.ca/Museum
Beside a park on the Speed River in Guelph, Ontario sits the historic home of famous Canadian soldier-poet Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. The house itself is barely noticeable. On an adjoining property McCrae’s memorial stands for all to see, but for the sign out front and a few plaques, his family home sits inconspicuous, and almost exactly as it would have when he lived there almost 100 years ago.
Photo Courtesy of ramblingsoftheterminallyaging.blogspot.ca/
John Mccrae is famous for having written the poem ‘In Flanders Fields.’ A poem ubiquitously repeated in schools and on posters across the country every year on the 11th of November: Canada’s Remembrance Day, a day when we think back to the Second World War.
The poem and some history surrounding it can be found here
The house is surrounded by gardens that are maintained as Janet McCrae would have kept them. In the gardens they keep the famous red poppies from his poem that have come to symbolize the civic date.
Courtesy of historicplaces.ca
The house is classic Ontario Cottage style, with a twist. The symmetrical 3 bay layout is foiled with a later addition on the east side under a distinct roof line. The entire front of the house is swathed in a verandah, a provision for a social function slowly fading from today’s suburban houses. It would have acted as an extension of the interior where they could have both rested and taken family meals. The porch looks over the front yard’s white picket fence, across the road and park, planted with mature silver maples and out to the river beyond.
Photo Courtesy of ramblingsoftheterminallyaging.blogspot.ca
The old limestone structure has been well maintained, as has the traditional cedar shingle roof. Indeed, the interior, now decorated with memorabilia of McCrae’s life, still retains much of the original material such as pre-1875 plaster walls and wood flooring.
The house is run by the Guelph civic museum, for more information visit their website and even book a tour of the historic home located at 108 Water Street in Guelph.
Researched and Written by Robin R. V Whitteker, undergraduate student at OCAD University in the Environmental Design program.
