LOCATION:
Egmondville, Huron East, Province of Ontario, Canada. The house is located on the southwest corner of Bayfield Street and London Road
Coordinates:
N 43 32.355
W 81 24.350
The Van Egmond house (c.1845) is an architecturally and historically significant building in Huron County, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north bank of the Bayfield River in the village of Egmondville. The two and a half storey residence with a single storey kitchen wing to the rear is in the Georgian style. It is a relatively plain brick structure but it possesses a pleasantly proportioned facade adorned by a hipped-roof verandah and gable parapet walls. The grounds around the residence are spacious and treed.
The house has a unique history. It was the home of the Van Egmonds, a key pioneering family who, in 1827, settled down in the center of the Huron Tract. The head of the household was Colonel Anthony Van Egmond. The early years of settlement in the Huron Tract were turbulent and difficult, and injustices were common. The Colonel stands out as a man whose influence was used untiringly to correct and alleviate injustices and difficulties.
Ultimately he lost patience with the government of Upper Canada and joined the rebel forces of William Lyon Mackenzie. The rebels were defeated at Montgomery’s Tavern in the Town of York - now Toronto. The elderly Colonel Van Egmond died ingloriously in the Don Jail a few weeks later and his body was brought back to the Huron Tract by his sons through a bitter January blizzard.
The house was built by Anthony Van Egmond’s son Constant in 1845.