The Ground Floor
KITCHEN
The floor was refurbished using old floorboards from a farmhouse in Brodhagen (a village to the northeast of Egmondville and Seaforth). The boards are almost as old as the Van Egmond house. The kitchen fireplace was reconstructed taking as its model an old photograph of the original. You can see this photograph on the mantelpiece. A large pot hangs from a “chimney crane” in the fireplace. The usual methods of cooking in those days was boiling or baking. They had no oven, as we understand the term. The women of the house did their baking in a reflector oven that was placed in front of the open hearth. They prepared meat on a spit within the hearth. The hearth is constructed of period bricks. Before the house was restored, the north wall of the kitchen had a modern picture window in it. This was very much out of character. The picture window was taken out and the wall was reconstructed using bricks from an old piano factory in Clinton. The new kitchen window with its twelve lights (windowpanes) was manufactured especially for the Van Edmond house, as was the window in the south wall. In the corner stands a “walking” spinning wheel. The spinner (usually a woman) would walk back and forth, as she worked wool into yarn. Most of the domestic activities of the household were carried out in the kitchen, perhaps because it was the warmest room in the house.
MADAME VAN EGMOND’S BEDROOM
As you look into this room, you will see a rope bed with a straw palliasse (straw filled mattress). Madame Van Egmond, the widow of Colonel Van Egmond, moved into her son’s new house as soon as it was built. She spent the last fifteen years of her life in the bed in this room. She died there in 1874. Madame Van Egmond was a strong-willed matriarch. She had her bed placed in its present position so that she could monitor work in the kitchen. In the far right hand corner there is a fireplace and you will notice that it is not as deep as it should be. The back had to be bricked up in order to accommodate a flue from a modern furnace. Around the room, you will see artifacts and furniture that are pre-1867. You will see a small Bible and a pair of eyeglasses that we believe belonged to Madame Van Egmond. Several scatter rugs cover the floor. They were woven in a mill located on the banks of the river near the house. This mill belonged to one of the Van Egmond sons. Against the wall on the left is a large freestanding cupboard, which is a recent acquisition. It is also pre-1867. The wall colour matches paint chips discovered at the edge of the doorway and is it is therefore believed to be the original colour of the walls.
THE FRONT HALLWAY
As you leave Madame Van Egmond’s bedroom you will move eastwards through the hallway to the front parlour. The floor of the hallway was refurbished with floorboards from the Brodhagen farmhouse. Notice the coat hooks on the left and observe how high they are. The front door has small windows over the top of the doorway. These transom “lights” were not in place prior to restoration. The space was then boarded up. Now the front doorway is as it was when the house was built. Note the unique front doorknocker in the shape of a hand holding a ball. This is the original doorknocker. The original key to the front door is in a display case upstairs.
THE FRONT PARLOUR
The front parlour contains the Van Egmond piano. In the corner stands a bureau. It was found in pieces. A local high school shop teacher restored it and presented it to the house. The fireplace in the left corner of the room is original to the house and is in working order. The settee is a good example of period Victorian furniture. The floor covering was made be weavers at the mill across the river.
THE SITTING ROOM
Unlike the parlour, were special guests were received, the sitting room is furnished more informally and was used for community gatherings and general family living. Several genuine pre-1867 pieces of furniture are in this room. The doors are of the “cross and bible” type. The top half of each door is in the form of a cross and the bottom half resembles an open bible. This door design was popular in the first half of the 19th century. It was said to ward off evil spirits. The cross and bible design is again gaining popularity today. You will notice it frequently in modern houses. Folding doors at the west end of the sitting room opened into a smaller room. These folding doors no longer exist, but there is evidence of their boltholes in the floor. A small room like this is called a “slip room”. Slip rooms were often used as office areas. When the slip room was closed off, heating the sitting room during the winter months was easier. The fireplace in the sitting room was restored using as model the one in the parlour. Leopold Van Egmond manufactured the guns over the mantle in his Egmondville factory.
For the most part, fluorescent lights illuminate the rooms of the Van Egmond house. Originally, of course, oil lamps and candles illuminated the rooms.
The Second Floor
At the top of the stairs, there is a small bedroom on your immediate left. This was the servant’s bedroom. For a long time it belonged to Sophie Soda Water, a long-term servant. The room now serves as a display room for artifacts.
On your right is another bedroom serving as a storeroom and study room for artifacts, documents and genealogical materials.
The upstairs hallway is wide and suitable for displaying artifacts and documents.
As you approach the front of the house, you will notice two more bedrooms.
The one on the left is a room where paintings and other art works are often displayed for sale. In this room is an interesting artifact that seems to be a cross between a billiard table and a butter-pressing table. It is not certain which use, if any, it performed.
The room on the right is the “Van Egmond Room” devoted to the display of artifacts and photographs of the Van Egmond family. It is dedicated to the memory of Mary Jackson Hinton - a direct Van Egmond descendant.
The walls of the second floor rooms have been painted or papered in an appropriate manner.
Currently, the attic is not open to the public.
The Basement
In the basement, you will see a window with iron bars. Was this a prison? Constant Van Egmond was a magistrate. Harsh winter weather would have made it sometimes difficult to send prisoners to Goderich, and Constant could have used his basement as a holding jail. Nevertheless, there is no evidence of a jail being there apart from the barred window. Evidence that is more convincing may have been destroyed when the level of the basement floor was lowered sometime in the past.
There is a story that Constant Van Egmond buried a keg of whiskey every time a son was born to him. There is also a tale that there was once a tunnel leading from the basement to the river but there is no real evidence of this.
The basement is mainly used for displaying artifacts.
A utility room containing the furnace, air conditioner, and electrical panels is on the left side of the basement as you descend the stairs. This area is not open to the public.
The Grounds
All that remains of the vast estate promised to Colonel Van Egmond by the Family Compact are the grounds on which the house now stands. A carriage house stood behind the kitchen and was rebuilt in 1981 based upon old photographs. The interpretive centre situated behind the carriage house was built a few years later. Many outbuildings were originally located on the property - a large barn, a small barn, an outdoor oven, and privies. Some of the foundations to these buildings are still visible. It was in the west field that the slop bricks were fired to build the house. The bricks closest to the centre of the firing kilns attained a darker colour than those to the outer edges. This variation in colour was used in decorative architectural elements. Dark brick was used up to the second storey windows and the walls then continued upwards with lighter brick. This gives a nice effect and adds character to the building. Before restoration the profile of the roof was straight out from the gables. According to old photographs, the roofline featured a parapet and this has been restored.
KITCHEN
The floor was refurbished using old floorboards from a farmhouse in Brodhagen (a village to the northeast of Egmondville and Seaforth). The boards are almost as old as the Van Egmond house. The kitchen fireplace was reconstructed taking as its model an old photograph of the original. You can see this photograph on the mantelpiece. A large pot hangs from a “chimney crane” in the fireplace. The usual methods of cooking in those days was boiling or baking. They had no oven, as we understand the term. The women of the house did their baking in a reflector oven that was placed in front of the open hearth. They prepared meat on a spit within the hearth. The hearth is constructed of period bricks. Before the house was restored, the north wall of the kitchen had a modern picture window in it. This was very much out of character. The picture window was taken out and the wall was reconstructed using bricks from an old piano factory in Clinton. The new kitchen window with its twelve lights (windowpanes) was manufactured especially for the Van Edmond house, as was the window in the south wall. In the corner stands a “walking” spinning wheel. The spinner (usually a woman) would walk back and forth, as she worked wool into yarn. Most of the domestic activities of the household were carried out in the kitchen, perhaps because it was the warmest room in the house.
MADAME VAN EGMOND’S BEDROOM
As you look into this room, you will see a rope bed with a straw palliasse (straw filled mattress). Madame Van Egmond, the widow of Colonel Van Egmond, moved into her son’s new house as soon as it was built. She spent the last fifteen years of her life in the bed in this room. She died there in 1874. Madame Van Egmond was a strong-willed matriarch. She had her bed placed in its present position so that she could monitor work in the kitchen. In the far right hand corner there is a fireplace and you will notice that it is not as deep as it should be. The back had to be bricked up in order to accommodate a flue from a modern furnace. Around the room, you will see artifacts and furniture that are pre-1867. You will see a small Bible and a pair of eyeglasses that we believe belonged to Madame Van Egmond. Several scatter rugs cover the floor. They were woven in a mill located on the banks of the river near the house. This mill belonged to one of the Van Egmond sons. Against the wall on the left is a large freestanding cupboard, which is a recent acquisition. It is also pre-1867. The wall colour matches paint chips discovered at the edge of the doorway and is it is therefore believed to be the original colour of the walls.
THE FRONT HALLWAY
As you leave Madame Van Egmond’s bedroom you will move eastwards through the hallway to the front parlour. The floor of the hallway was refurbished with floorboards from the Brodhagen farmhouse. Notice the coat hooks on the left and observe how high they are. The front door has small windows over the top of the doorway. These transom “lights” were not in place prior to restoration. The space was then boarded up. Now the front doorway is as it was when the house was built. Note the unique front doorknocker in the shape of a hand holding a ball. This is the original doorknocker. The original key to the front door is in a display case upstairs.
THE FRONT PARLOUR
The front parlour contains the Van Egmond piano. In the corner stands a bureau. It was found in pieces. A local high school shop teacher restored it and presented it to the house. The fireplace in the left corner of the room is original to the house and is in working order. The settee is a good example of period Victorian furniture. The floor covering was made be weavers at the mill across the river.
THE SITTING ROOM
Unlike the parlour, were special guests were received, the sitting room is furnished more informally and was used for community gatherings and general family living. Several genuine pre-1867 pieces of furniture are in this room. The doors are of the “cross and bible” type. The top half of each door is in the form of a cross and the bottom half resembles an open bible. This door design was popular in the first half of the 19th century. It was said to ward off evil spirits. The cross and bible design is again gaining popularity today. You will notice it frequently in modern houses. Folding doors at the west end of the sitting room opened into a smaller room. These folding doors no longer exist, but there is evidence of their boltholes in the floor. A small room like this is called a “slip room”. Slip rooms were often used as office areas. When the slip room was closed off, heating the sitting room during the winter months was easier. The fireplace in the sitting room was restored using as model the one in the parlour. Leopold Van Egmond manufactured the guns over the mantle in his Egmondville factory.
For the most part, fluorescent lights illuminate the rooms of the Van Egmond house. Originally, of course, oil lamps and candles illuminated the rooms.
The Second Floor
At the top of the stairs, there is a small bedroom on your immediate left. This was the servant’s bedroom. For a long time it belonged to Sophie Soda Water, a long-term servant. The room now serves as a display room for artifacts.
On your right is another bedroom serving as a storeroom and study room for artifacts, documents and genealogical materials.
The upstairs hallway is wide and suitable for displaying artifacts and documents.
As you approach the front of the house, you will notice two more bedrooms.
The one on the left is a room where paintings and other art works are often displayed for sale. In this room is an interesting artifact that seems to be a cross between a billiard table and a butter-pressing table. It is not certain which use, if any, it performed.
The room on the right is the “Van Egmond Room” devoted to the display of artifacts and photographs of the Van Egmond family. It is dedicated to the memory of Mary Jackson Hinton - a direct Van Egmond descendant.
The walls of the second floor rooms have been painted or papered in an appropriate manner.
Currently, the attic is not open to the public.
The Basement
In the basement, you will see a window with iron bars. Was this a prison? Constant Van Egmond was a magistrate. Harsh winter weather would have made it sometimes difficult to send prisoners to Goderich, and Constant could have used his basement as a holding jail. Nevertheless, there is no evidence of a jail being there apart from the barred window. Evidence that is more convincing may have been destroyed when the level of the basement floor was lowered sometime in the past.
There is a story that Constant Van Egmond buried a keg of whiskey every time a son was born to him. There is also a tale that there was once a tunnel leading from the basement to the river but there is no real evidence of this.
The basement is mainly used for displaying artifacts.
A utility room containing the furnace, air conditioner, and electrical panels is on the left side of the basement as you descend the stairs. This area is not open to the public.
The Grounds
All that remains of the vast estate promised to Colonel Van Egmond by the Family Compact are the grounds on which the house now stands. A carriage house stood behind the kitchen and was rebuilt in 1981 based upon old photographs. The interpretive centre situated behind the carriage house was built a few years later. Many outbuildings were originally located on the property - a large barn, a small barn, an outdoor oven, and privies. Some of the foundations to these buildings are still visible. It was in the west field that the slop bricks were fired to build the house. The bricks closest to the centre of the firing kilns attained a darker colour than those to the outer edges. This variation in colour was used in decorative architectural elements. Dark brick was used up to the second storey windows and the walls then continued upwards with lighter brick. This gives a nice effect and adds character to the building. Before restoration the profile of the roof was straight out from the gables. According to old photographs, the roofline featured a parapet and this has been restored.