Iconic Phillips Estate ready for new hands

After almost two decades of trying to be a good custodian of the once-elegant Phillips House on the corner of one of the most prestigious landmark intersections in town, owner Rainer Hummel is ready to see it go to someone who wants to complete the restoration project he began.

He would like to see his vision of a boutique hotel at the Queen-Mississagua Street corner eventually realized, but it won’t be by him. He is ready to move on, says his daughter Raiana Schwenker, a Sally McGarr sales representative now charged with selling the property, which Hummel bought in 2003.

“His plans to bring a beautiful boutique hotel to life are not going to come to fruition. It would still be several years before it’s finished, and for personal reasons, including the negative memories attached to it, he’s ready to move on. This deserves to be taken over and finished as a hotel, or to be lived in.”

In 2005, Hummel had some of the original parts of the exterior and a few pieces inside, such as three fireplace mantels and the columns in the front room, designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.

Once an elegant summer home for wealthy Americans, the estate has passed through many hands, from the early prominent citizens who originally owned portions of the property, to the Americans who first built the summer home, and then through generations who have renovated and added to it over the years.

It is listed in the Town’s heritage registry as The Ketchum-Thomas-Phillips House (named Peace Acres by the Thomas family). Known locally as the Phillips Estate, it was purchased by the Phillips family in 1955.

The documents prepared for the designation process say the “building and grounds represent a significant example of the type of elegant summer properties constructed by wealthy Americans who spent their summers in Niagara-on-the-Lake during the heyday of the grand summer estates that sprang up in the town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.” 

“The landscape setting, including the greenhouse and the specimen trees located throughout the property, is an integral defining element of the property, marking it as one of the few remaining significant summer estates in Niagara- on-the-Lake.”

The bylaw prepared to designate the property describes the building as “an amalgamation of a number of revival styles, including neo-Classical Revival and neo-Greek Revival, with generous, light-filled reception rooms, spacious bedrooms, screened porches and a multiplicity of fireplaces.”

Hummel’s plan was to build an upscale 24-room hotel, with a restaurant and spa, and fill it with the tourists who would come to town for a music festival that was being planned for Parks Canada land on Lakeshore Road. When that project fell through, Hummel realized he needed to expand his ideas, and began to plan something on a larger scale, on a piece of property that includes three lots equalling more than two acres, significantly larger than the property of the Prince of Wales Hotel, which anchors the other main intersection in town.

In the spring of 2020, Hummel told The Local that his wife urged him to renovate the estate as their future home, and he compromised, agreeing to build it as a hotel but live in it for a few years, while he decided what he would do with it long-term. That plan was abandoned when the couple separated in 2014, partly due to disagreements over that property, and it was another five years before he began work again on the estate. By then, his plan was for a 75-room hotel of “understated elegance,” with underground parking. It would include the main building, at about 150,000 square feet, the two-storey coach house with two two-bedroom apartments, an outdoor-indoor spa, a pool, indoor and outdoor dining areas, and an annex for guest suites.

In the main building, there are also several lounge areas with fireplaces, surrounded by huge expanses of glass, and a dramatic spiral staircase to suites upstairs, including one that was intended as a bridal suite.

Schwenker says Hummel had a dream of completing the hotel and leaving it as a legacy for the family to operate, but realized that would be a huge undertaking and responsibility to put on them.

Instead, he decided to put that project and the associated memories behind him, and the decision was made to sell the property. There was some discussion about finishing the interior of the main house — none of the rooms are completed, although what has been done is elegant and upscale — or to leave it as is, which is the choice they’ve made. Potential purchasers will have their own idea of what they want to use it for — a boutique hotel, or a very large family estate. How the work is completed will depend on how the next owners plan to use it, and their personal taste, Schwenker says, so best to leave it for them to finish it with their own touches.

“It’s an unbeatable location, and it has a grand history. It could be a very-high end, exclusive retirement home. Or it could also be a perfect venue for weddings,” Schwenker points out, having held her own wedding on the front lawn of the estate. 

“This is a house of prestige and stature, but we don’t know what it will be used for — we don’t know the endgame. It is a magical place, and whoever buys it will put their own stamp on it.”