Description of Historic Place
The Massey Farmstead consists of seven simple, vernacular, wood-frame buildings with wood siding including a farmhouse, an ice and milk house, a privy, a chicken coop, a pump house, a calving barn, and a large barn. The Massey Farmstead is located towards the eastern end of Grenadier Island, which is one of a series of islands found on the St. Lawrence River between Lake Ontario and Brockville. The designation is defined by the footprints of the individual buildings.
The Massey Farmstead (as a group of buildings) is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and architectural and environmental values.
The Massey Farmstead is associated with the national historic theme of agricultural development in the St. Lawrence Islands prior to 1914 and the establishment of the St. Lawrence Islands National Park of Canada. The Massey Farmstead also illustrates an important phase in the development of the St. Lawrence Islands National Park of Canada, that is, the evolution of the St. Lawrence Islands from an agriculturally based economy to one dependent on tourism. The Massey Farmstead is also associated with the Heffernan family who owned and operated a very popular local eating-house called Canusa between the early 1930s and 1961, which was supplied by the farm.
The Massey Farmstead, a complex of residential and farm buildings, features good examples of 19th and early 20th-century agricultural architecture. The Farmstead’s residential buildings consist of a farmhouse, a privy, and a pump house that is located over the well, and the farm buildings consist of a chicken coop, a large barn, a calving barn, and an ice and milk house. With the exception of the ice and milk house, the farm buildings are grouped together to form a courtyard with an earthen ramp leading to the large barn, which is a standard functional arrangement of farm outbuildings. The ice and milk house is located adjacent to the farmhouse and is intrinsic to the operation of the former dairy. Simple and utilitarian wood-frame buildings clad with wood siding, with the exception of the calving barn, these buildings are all characterized by good quality craftsmanship and materials, and are generally devoid of decorative detailing.
The seven buildings that comprise the Massey Farmstead reinforce the pastoral character of Grenadier Island’s rural setting by virtue of their vernacular design, scale and materials. The Massey Farmstead has some local landmark value owing to its location and close proximity to the island’s township road, and its accessibility to boaters and hikers using the park’s walking trail.
Sources: Kate MacFarlane, Twenty-eight Buildings, St. Lawrence Islands National Park, Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office Report 93-023 to 93-038; Massey Homestead (Grouping), East Grenadier Island, St. Lawrence Islands National Park, Ontario. Heritage Character Statement 93-027.
The character-defining elements of the Massey Farmstead should be respected.
The simple, agricultural architecture, functional design and good quality materials and craftsmanship, for example:
- the buildings’ small scale and simple, rectilinear massing with either gable or shed roofs;
- the design of the large barn including the gable roof, wood structure, stone foundation, and interior layout which are characteristic of a “bank” barn – a barn built into the natural slope of the land;
- the use of a wood-frame structure clad with wood siding consisting of either clapboard, shiplap, vertical siding, or board and batten;
- in general, the plain, utilitarian layout and treatment of the building interiors;
- the interior layout of the ice and milk house which consists of a two chamber ice house with a cool chamber for milk or meat.
The manner in which the Massey Farmstead reinforces the pastoral character of Grenadier Island’s rural setting, as evidenced in:
- the complex’s barnyard layout and its contribution to the picturesque setting;
- its landmark value as a tourist destination.