Low Down Articles
Houses of the Gatineau Hills
Low Down Articles
Houses of the Gatineau Hills
Article 64 of 74
This article first appeared in the "Houses of the Gatineau Hills" column in the February 23, 2005 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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(Possibly) Wakefield's oldest home
By Mike Caesar
It could be Wakefield's oldest house, and it certainly is home to the right man.
Known as the Miller House, Irvine Young's 1851 one-and-a-half story home looks very much the way you might expect a house to have looked 150 years ago.
Although the inside has been renovated, the exterior is unchanged except for coats of paint and a tin roof installed some 25 years ago. Standing as it does beside the La Peche River and across from the Wakefield Mill, the home forms a perfect compiement to the heritage corner at the west end of Mill Rd.
"It's the only piece of land the NCC doesn't own here," said Young. "They've come a few times asking if we wanted to sell...butI want to keep the place as long as I can."
Having moved into the place when he was 18 months old, the 63-year-old Young's attachment to the place is perhaps natural. Add to it the fact that his father Kenneth and uncle Ernie were the Last of the millers to live in the house (it was originally built for mill owner James MacLaren), and it would seem no one could be better suited to the place.
During his interior renovations, Young found up to eight layers of wallpaper in one spot, a testament to the generations of maintenance that has gone into the place.
"It's not bad for an old house," he said.
In 1998, the house was recognized for its heritage value by La Peche.