370474 B Concession, Meaford, Ont.<\/p>\n
Asking Price: $1,895,000<\/p>\n
Taxes: NA<\/p>\n
Land Size: 10 acres<\/p>\n
Agents: Max Hahne and James McGregor (Engel & Volkers Toronto Central)<\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Home of the Week, 370474 B Concession, Meaford, Ont.Joe Scully\/showyourlisting.com<\/p>\n The back story<\/p>\n Katharine Lochnan and George Yost were searching for a weekend retreat when they happened upon a classic Gothic revival stone cottage in rolling farmland near the shores of Georgian Bay.<\/p>\n The circa-1876 dwelling in Grey County was not for sale on that day in 1985, but Ms. Lochnan, senior curator emerita at the Art Gallery of Ontario, was enamoured.<\/p>\n She noted a plaque outside, which commemorated the 250-acre farm founded by Thomas and Isabella Fraser in 1847.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was every child\u2019s drawing of a house,\u201d she says of the farmhouse with a steep gable and pointed arch window above the front door.<\/p>\n The exterior was built of granite boulders left behind by the last ice age and fossilized limestone quarried from the Niagara escarpment. The result was a medley of pink, ochre, black, white and grey stone.<\/p>\n \u201cIf that house was ever for sale, that\u2019s the house I want,\u201d she told Mr. Yost, an architectural designer and landscape architect.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Home of the Week, 370474 B Concession, Meaford, Ont.Joe Scully\/showyourlisting.com<\/p>\n The following winter, the couple were visiting friends in the area and asked a local real estate agent to search for any stone houses for sale.<\/p>\n The agent turned up three, but the first two were too rough to restore. With one left on the tour, the agent turned onto a road that the couple recognized immediately.<\/p>\n \u201cWe simply couldn\u2019t believe it when she turned down this side road,\u201d Ms. Lochnan recalls.<\/p>\n The Fraser farm, which extended to the bay, had been purchased by a developer who planned to build new houses along the waterfront. The original homestead was parcelled off with 10 acres of land.<\/p>\n Ms. Lochnan and Mr. Yost stepped into their cross-country skis and set off down the unplowed drive.<\/p>\n If the home had preserved woodwork, an indoor bathroom and a working furnace, they would buy it, Ms. Lochnan decided before they reached the front door.<\/p>\n Satisfied that the building had all three, the couple told the agent they would take it. Mortgage rates were 16\u00be per cent at the time, Ms. Lochnan recalls, but she scraped together a down payment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were just so thrilled,\u201d Ms. Lochnan says. \u201cIt was the most extraordinary synchronicity.\u201d<\/p>\n