We like to think of this one as ”The Blue Lady”. This historic home is simply MADE for Christmas! With its beautiful staircase, ornate woodwork, front parlour, wood fireplace and a spacious second floor, you will LOVE what our decorators have in store for you!
With thanks to Heritage Home Partner: Louise Sproule, REALTOR®, Remax Delta Realty.
Decorator: A fun team of friends who call themselves the Real Housewives of Vankleek Hill.
Theme: A 90s Christmas.
Specialty Vendor #1: A community favourite! Gibbs Honey will be selling honey and delicious honey projects, and you will get to meet a real honey sommelier. Find out more: https://gibbshoney.com
Specialty Vendor #2: Bun’s Donuts makes old-fashioned potato donuts, hand-cut and made using simple ingredients and traditional recipes. They will be bringing their Original Recipe and Cinnamon-Sugar donuts, along with a special Christmas Home Tour exclusive flavour created just for the event! Bun’s Donuts is a local enterprise! Just saying: These passed the organizer taste test with flying colours!
House History
2026 Christmas Home Tour
132 High Street
by Michelle Landriault
In 1889, Solomon Grout Jr. purchased five acres at this end of High Street, on which this house was later built. The acreage, which contained an orchard that crossed several lots, cost $1500. This may be a reason why this lot is so deep.
Solomon’s brother Silas Grout had a busy sawmill in town. It is known that the two brothers contributed to the construction of 5 beautifully appointed homes in town. This is one of them.
Solomon Grout Jr. built this home in 1904 for his daughter Maud who was married to Oliver Wood, a successful baker. Maud and Oliver lived here until 1912. In 1909, their young son Cecil died in an Ottawa hospital within hours of surgery for appendicitis. In 1912, their 8-year-old son Sol died of illness while he and Maud were in Winnipeg visiting family. This tragedy prompted the decision by Maud, Oliver and their son Crawford to move next door to care for Maud’s widowed mother. They sold the house for $3900 – the close equivalent of $100,000 today.
The new owner was Finlay McKillican. He lived here with his sisters, Jennie, Margaret Ann, Aggie, and Lizzie. They were in their 40s and 50s at the time of the 1912 purchase. They never married, and lived out their lives here together.
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This remarkable 2-storey late Victorian home is a mix of Queen Anne and Italianate influences. The rustic stone veneer is unique in Vankleek Hill.
The romantic corner turret is carried up through the two levels – imagine living in a turret. It is capped by its own roof, with a distinguished finial – to emphasize the importance of the house and its height. This picture-book detail is a sample of Queen Anne architecture (roughly 1880–1910).
The front entry porch, and the gallery above, are each highlighted by decorative Victorian lattice-work. Each entry door has a transom window to allow a summer breeze to flow into the home.
Italianate influence is seen in the wide over-hanging eaves supported by heavy brackets under the cornice. The wide eaves helped to protect the stonework from the rain.
Inside the home, amongst the original staircase millwork and mouldings for doorways and windows, there is a Victorian spandrel grille that highlights movement from the hallway into the front room. The central detail is a decorative pierced scallop medallion bracketed by sets of slender spindles. Note the opening from which to drape heavy curtains – an early feature to capture heat within the front room in the winter.
This home is one-of-a-kind in so many ways – a father’s gift to his daughter.