My husband Rich and I visit Stratford, Ontario most years to watch one or more shows at the Stratford Festival. Often this would be a day trip where we have lunch or dinner before a matinee or evening performance respectively, then drive home after the show. Occasionally we would try to watch more than one show on the trip and would stay overnight at a bed and breakfast or rental apartment.
In 2022, we brought our bicycles to Stratford and combined our theatre experience with a cycling tour of the city that allowed us to visit more areas and sites than we usually could on foot. This brought us to Gallery Stratford and Confederation Park for the first time, as well as allowing us to ride through some residential neighbourhoods where we found older, historic homes.
We also checked out the nearby town of
St. Mary’s, just 20 minutes South-west of Stratford by car. While we were there, we spotted a postcard advertising a very eccentric-looking house that was called “
The Art of Ideas Gallery”. We did not have time on that trip to go see it, but I did make a note to research the details for a future visit. I found out that the Italianate-styled mansion was built in the 1880s for wealthy grain merchant George Carter, who gave it to his daughter Charlotte and her new husband Henry Rice as a wedding gift. The exterior of the red-brick mansion includes Mansard roofing, wrought-iron windows, ornate gingerbread-styled decorations on the veranda and a widow’s walk on the top of the central tower. The house changed hands multiple times through the centuries with each new owner taking care to preserve the architectural and historical aspects of the home.
The current owners, visual artist
Eugen-Florin Zamfirescu and his partner Elena Dumitru, bought the house during the pandemic, and have turned it into a museum, artist studio and art gallery which they called “Art of Ideas Gallery”, displaying Zamfirescu’s works on the walls and giving tours of the public spaces. They live in a few rooms at the back of the house, which originally were probably the servants’ quarters. I found out that we could get
guided tours of the house including regularly scheduled 90-minute tours on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays for $25 per person (maximum 10 people). There was also the option for a privately arranged tour on other days, with a minimum of 4 people, or a payment of $100 for a group smaller than that.
This year, my husband Rich and I bought 2-for-1 tickets to watch
Something Rotten on a Tuesday night with our friends Yim and Murray joining us. Our plan was to attend the evening show, stay overnight, then stop by
Castle Kilbride in
Baden (a community within the Township of Wilmot) on the way back to Toronto. This left the afternoon before the show free and gave me the opportunity to arrange a private tour of the
Art of Ideas Gallery in
St. Mary’s. Not reading all the details, I did not realize that there are usually two types of tours. The first one titled “
Echoes of Elegance: Tracing Timeless Treasures” describes the history of the house plus the background of some of the cool pieces of antique furniture found in each room. The second is named “
An Unexpected Journey” and focuses more on art works on the wall. When we showed up, we had not specified which tour we wanted but were told it would be the one about the history of the house. Luckily, this is the one that we wanted anyways.
While it was interesting to view Zamfirescu’s art in passing, the most impressive part of the tour was getting to see the stunning
architectural details inside the amazing house. Intricate woodwork is found throughout the home, in the patterns of the original hardwood flooring, and carved in the archways, entranceways, and staircases. The wooden shutters, with a ridiculously large number of extremely narrow slats that run floor-to-ceiling, date back to 1881 and must be impossible to keep dusted. Persian rugs found in several of the rooms also date back to the 1800s. Stained glass windows found on the landings of the stairwell were added by the new owners.
To complement the beautiful house, the owners have scoured antique stores to find unique pieces of furniture that align with the historical era and architectural significance of the home. The items fit in so well that I initially thought the pieces came with the house. One particularly impressive item was a buffet hutch that seemed to fit perfectly into a built-in niche against the far wall of the dining room. Our tour guide Elena explained that they fell in love with the item and bought it without properly measuring the space, just to find that it was a bit too narrow to handle the edges of the buffet. Ingeniously, Zamfirescu cut a narrow strip into either side of the wall space at just the right height to slide in the hutch. Had she not mentioned it, we would not even have noticed. Additionally, they have filled the spaces with interesting sculptural art pieces, antique navigational and scientific instrumentation, and art pieces made by Zamfirescu himself.
It was quite the experience to be able to tour The Art of Ideas and hear about the history of the home, its past owners, the furnishings, and sculptures found throughout. If you haven’t already visited, this is a hidden gem that should be added to the itinerary of any trip to Stratford.
Located in
Baden, Ontario (about 30 minutes East of Stratford),
Castle Kilbride is yet another Italianate-styled mansion, similar to the “Art Of Ideas” house that we saw the day before. Built in 1877, this was the home of flax and linseed oil magnate James Livingston, his wife Louise and their twelve children. One of the most prominent features of the house is the central belvedere or rooftop lookout that rises above the peak of the hipped roof. Stairs from the third floor lead up to the
belvedere where double windows on all four sides provide panoramic views of the surrounding areas. Livingston used to survey his flax fields and mills from here. Viewed from above, you can see that the front lawn was designed in the
shape of a heart, as a tribute from James to his wife. At one point, the third floor was used as storage. Today, it is sparsely furnished with some old games on display including a
Skittles and Top game where you wind string around the top and release it to spin through an obstacle course of skittles in an attempt to ring the bell at the other end.
Castle Kilbride was named after Livingston’s birthplace in Scotland. It is known for the elaborate
fresco murals painted on the walls and ceilings in Renaissance Revival style, which was popular in the late 19th century. Several paintings are created using the
trompe l’oeil technique, used to fool the eye into thinking the renderings are 3-dimensional when they are in fact flat paintings. In the front hallway, a marble sculpture flanked by columns and a beautiful vase of flowers sitting on a ledge are prime examples of this. Additionally, one of the downstairs rooms has a mural on the ceiling that appears to be augmented by dangling orange trimmings hanging from decorative crown molding that encircle the room. You can even see the shadows that the trimmings create, but all of this is done using paint. In the passageway between a sitting room and the dining room, we saw the same extremely intricate lace-like carvings in the archways that we had noticed in the “Art of Ideas” House and marveled again at the skill and craftsmanship that was required to produce this.
Castle Kilbride retains many of its original finishes including plasterwork, hardware woodwork, marble fireplace mantles in the principal rooms and hand-carved mahogany valances. The central hallway features a
grand staircase with a beautiful sculptural light fixture atop an intricately carved newel post. Situated on the second floor are the bedrooms for the family although there did not seem to be enough rooms to house twelve children! The basement level has been turned into a
toy museum, featuring toys from different eras. An interesting feature on the property is the unique double-room brick
privy or outhouse, designed in a similar Italianate style as the main house with the green and red corbels and hipped roof. Each outhouse stall has two holes, one large and one small for adults and children respectively. Instead of dug pits to contain the waste, bins are used which were retrieved and emptied daily via small doors at the back of the structure.
The Art of Ideas Gallery and Castle Kilbride are two great side trips that can be added to any trip to Stratford. They are fun to experience if you like architecture, art or history.
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