Humble but still affluent, Ingersoll, Ontario, is the kind of town where people always smile and say hello, and folks go lawn bowling on Saturday mornings. And, situated between Ontario's two main theatre towns, Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ingersoll is the kind of town you'd want to kick back after a night or two of good theatre in an elegant bed and breakfast.
So thought Toronto-based interior designer Robert Tanz. He and his partner were captivated by this grand brick house in Ingersoll. They bought the Mason Home, as it was known, three years ago and set about restoring it. A year-and-a-half later, Quince Hall opened, jauntily renamed after three quince bushes on the property.
The restoration process was a labour of love, though very little structural work was required. The original Italianate building, constructed in 1866, has walls three brick courses thick, so it hadn't budged in 140 years. “Hardly a crack in the wall,” recalls Tanz.
At the turn of the last century, an Ionic-columned porch with Georgian-style pediment was added. Then, somewhere down the line, the entire house was painted a dingy grey with ill-fitting blue shutters. Tanz has since removed the shutters and freshened up the exterior with pale sage-coloured paint and cream-coloured trim.
Over the years Quince Hall has had only five owners, and all respected the house's architectural heritage. The previous owners, however, had done some do-it-yourself renovations that needed undoing. Tanz turned the large '70s-style bathroom on the second floor, for instance, into three small vintage-inspired bathrooms. Otherwise, most of the work has been interior decorating. Tanz has enhanced the best of the era, while taking liberties with furnishings to create a cozy yet not clichéd period feeling.
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