Georgian Bay Township
Historical Society
Bressette Homestead Project
Bressette house and barn as it sits today
Saving and restoring the Bressette Homestead, consisting of a c.1890 Victorian Gothic style house and barn was the impetus for the creation of the Georgian Bay Township Historical Society. With the imminent demolition of these buildings and the loss of the Bressette family’s physical representation of their part in the early homesteading of the Port Severn community, a dedicated group of community residents and businesses organized a group to move these historic buildings to a new and safe location. Once moved, these buildings were restored and have become the centerpiece of the Bressette Homestead Heritage Park.
The Bressette (Brissette) family first came to our area from Quebec in the mid-late 1800’s when the timber industry was booming in the Port Severn area, formerly Severn Mills, the 2nd oldest community in Simcoe county. The sawmill was known as Christie’s Mill and later purchased by the Georgian Bay Lumber Company. By the late 1870’s, the mills capacity was enormous producing over 20 million board feet of lumber per year with most shipped to American ports around the great lakes.
There were many French-Canadians, like the Bressettes, who moved to this area to work in the timber industry. Because of language and cultural differences from the English speaking workers, many preferred to live separated from the English community (who lived mostly on the Tay Township side of the river) in Baxter Township, now Georgian Bay Township to the northwest in an area known as Pointe aux Pines (Pine Point). This is where the Bressettes built their simple, yet beautiful Victorian-Gothic style home c.1890 and lived there for almost 100yrs.
By the late 1980’s, the Ontario Department of Highways had plans to widen #69 hwy to 4 lanes and the Bressette farm was expropriated to make way for a major interchange on the new #400 hwy. The house, barn and all of the outbuildings were to be demolished...a piece of our areas history to disappear!
In the fall of 1991, a joint committee consisting of local businesses, the Township of Georgian Bay and the Ministry of Tourism met and formed a committee called Opportunity Georgian Bay, later to become The Georgian Bay Township Historical Society. With the combined efforts of the Mayor and Council and the Historical Society, we were able to secure the buildings to be moved to their new location that would become the Bressette Homestead Heritage Park, just a few hundred meters away. With assistance from the municipality and the Ministry of Tourism, a $70,000.00 “Jobs Ontario” grant was secured and matching funds in an equal amount were raised within the community along with many volunteer hours given by local citizens passionate about saving this important part of our past!
Then the real work started
​
Once the house and barn were moved to their new location, the historical society proceeded to repair and restore the buildings to how it may have looked when Edmund Bressette first built what would have been an impressive house for this rural community. Over its’ 100+ years, additions were built to accommodate the growing family which we removed to return the house to its’ original configuration, and “improvements” such as “insul-brick” siding was applied, unintentionally preserving the original board and batten siding underneath which we then restored. The roof was stripped of many layers of tar paper and roll roofing, revealing evidence that the original roof would have been cedar shingles. With several local shingle mills in operation in the late 1800’s, it was logical to assume that this was what would have been used when the house was built.
Once the numerous additions were removed along with the insul-brick siding, original window locations were identified, including the beautiful “Gothic” style window in the front peak of the second floor. While speculative on our part, it is highly likely that the original house would have included a covered porch of some sort, and we elected to add a wrap around porch with a “bell cast” roof line, typical of many similar style houses of the era...the actual curve of the porch rafters an exact copy of an historic house nearby. A new addition was placed off the rear of the house to provide interior storage, handicap bathroom and utility area. The pathways and landscaping took on a practical plan with interlocking brick paths and wheel chair access ramps. With another nod to the era of the house, the small gardens across the front were planted with historically accurate, local plantings. The Lilac bush in the front yard was transplanted from the original homestead site.
The interior of the house had special features that may have seemed extravagant in the 1890’s like the beautiful “recessed or trayed” bead board ceiling in the main room, still completely intact. Under many layers of newspaper and linoleum, original wide pine floors were revealed, some boards over 12’ wide! The main room’s original wainscot was still intact. The second floor consisted of several bedrooms, but it was uncertain if their configuration would have been original to the house. To make this area more usable for present day and the future use of this space, the entire second floor was opened up creating a roomy meeting space that has been used for a Community Police Office and the offices of the local Chamber of Commerce.
The barn exterior has remained original with the exception of adding 4 vintage windows that serve as displays for historic items that can be easily viewed from a winding walkway, our “Pathway to the Past”. The wide wagon doors open up to reveal historic displays of early life in the area.
***
Since the creation of the Bressette Homestead Heritage Park, our Historical Society has rescued and restored the 1890’s farmhouse and barn, the original Lockmaster’s Office from Lock 45, the City of Dover propeller artifact and David Milne’s Six Mile Lake wilderness cabin where Milne, the renowned Canadian modernist painter, created some of his most significant works.
Over the years the house and park have served as the home for Muskoka Tourism, Community Police office, the Southeast Georgian Bay Chamber of Commerce, summer farmer’s market and, of course, the Georgian Bay Township Historical society.