This grand home, well let’s be honest, estate, is situated along the Niagara Parkway on the “broke front” of lot 9 in Niagara-on-the-Lake. In 1826, John Hamilton purchased 8 acres of this property for only 150 pounds. John Hamilton was the son of prominent Queenston resident, Robert Hamilton (Sr.), who was a politician, judge, and businessman.
At the age of just 21, John collected his share of his father’s wealth, and unlike his older, half-brothers, he invested it wisely. Besides land, John bought and leased steamships, and with his brother, Robert (Jr.), they created the Queenston Steamboat Company. For many years, the sight of his steamships was common in the lake, running mail and goods between Niagara, Hamilton, Toronto, Kingston, and Prescott. Around 1832, Hamilton solicited John Latshaw (the same architect who would go on to design Willowbank) to build him a two-storey, 2,500 square foot home—complete with 9 fireplaces—facing the Niagara River.
Glencairn Hall. Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum
Here John and Frances Hamilton would raise their 10 children. It is believed that in the 1830s a stone schoolhouse was built for the family’s children and for the estate workers.
By 1844, John transferred his shipping business to Kingston and moved his family there. Rather than sell this home, he became a landlord and rented the land to farmers, and his family used the residence in the summer months. In 1861, the house and land (now totalling 12 acres) was valued at $2,500. In comparison, Willowbank, with about 14 acres of land was valued at $1,940. This goes to show you how truly grand this house was.
In 1866, Hamilton sold the property, and it made its way into the hands of another transportation Barron, William A. Thompson, the President of the Erie and Niagara Railway. Thompson put quite a bit of money into improving the house and property. The house was renovated/restored, the stone wall around the property was built and the coach house, complete with wine cellar was also constructed. But most notably under her ownership the estate was named “Glencairn”. Those enjoying a drive along the Parkway will only be able to see the stone wall of Glencairn…unless they are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of it during the winter months.
After the deaths of Thompson and his wife, the property remained in the hands of their eight children. In 1888, they sold it Bronson Rumsey, a merchant in Buffalo for $5,500. Rumsey, who remained a resident of Buffalo, likely used Glencairn as a summer home, but with the property taxes nearing $3,000 he opted to sell it in the fall of 1900 to John D. Larkin for “$1 and other valuable considerations”.
Larkin was a wealthy soap manufacturer from Buffalo who pioneered the mail-order business model. He made major contributions to the property including planting honey suckle, dogwood, and white lilacs to complement the forsythia and wisteria likely planted by John Hamilton. He also had a Japanese teahouse built for his wife Francis sometime before famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright visited in 1905. In that same year, Blanche Elizabeth Wade published “A Garden in Pink”, which was inspired by the teahouse on the property and illustrated with images of it.
Even though it was only a summer house, he also added a south wing to accommodate additional bathrooms and bedrooms, as well as a dining room, a pantry, a kitchen, and rooms for their servants. He also added other buildings including a carriage house, built by local resident James Calvert, and the caretaker’s house. He also had three additional homes built on the property for his children.
In 1923, Larkin “sold” Glencairn for $1 to his daughter Ruth L Robb, whose husband Walter, had once lived in the schoolhouse on the property.
Today, this home has been designated and remains an important and rare example of a Classic (Greek) Revival house in a picturesque setting in Ontario.