On November 2, 1987, the Town of Flamborough passed Bylaw Number 87-150-H that designated the building and grounds at 315 Dundas Street East, Waterdown, as a property of architectural/historical interest under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act. The house and property located on part of Lot 7, Concession 3 in the former township of East Flamborough, has over the years been known by various names, including the Drummond House, Fraser House and Chestnut Grove.
The house is situated well back from Dundas Street, on an attractive treed lot, and bounded until recently by a sturdy white picket fence. The pleasant landscaping, rare in a downtown area was carefully developed by Mr. Craig Fraser, early in his ten years of ownership. Sadly the magnificent and rare Northern Catalpa tree that grew close to the front of the house has also disappeared.
The house presently on the property, maybe described as a large brick one-and-a-half storey building, a typical asymmetrical 1880s Victorian home with traditional gables and bargeboard or “gingerbread” decoration. However, this building is certainly not the original house that was built on the property, as there is definite evidence of an earlier house in virtually the same location on the lot. The central location of this property in the village core would almost certainly assure that there would have been some development on it, possibly of a commercial nature, since most of the properties fronting onto Dundas Street were developed in this way.
An earlier house of which there is physical evidence, dates from the 1850s. This building probably had a centre gable, and while it cannot be verified at this time by photographic evidence, it is likely that the original house actually faced east towards the Grindstone Creek. Though there may have been about thirty years between the building of the original brick home and its transformation into a much larger and grander residence by Charles Sealey, the first Reeve of Waterdown, between 1880 and 1882, the brick work, gables and window openings in the newer section have been carefully matched to those of the original house.
The brickwork of the 1850s house is almost identical to the brickwork of the 1880s addition. The bricks of both are similar in colour and dimension. Both are laid in a stretcher bond coursing with similar mortar joint sizes and with similar detailing, such as the brick arching over the round-headed windows. Once place where there is noticeable evidence of the house being enlarged is under the back porch on the west side, as here the brickwork coursing does not line up completely, suggesting that the 1850s building was re-bricked.
From Main Street, the steeply pitched centre gable with a round-headed window, radiating brick voussoirs and matching shutters is visible above the back porch, and on the other side of the building, a matching centre gable can also be seen, somewhat concealed by the 1970s sun-porch that was added by Mr. Fraser. Both facades or sides have a doorway under the gable, on the eastern side the doorway is centred under the gable, while on the west the doorway is shifted about two brick-widths to the north. This suggests that the present east facade was the original front to the building.
The very prominent 1880s southern addition that was constructed for Mr. Charles Sealey, now causes the houses to face towards Dundas Street. An early, undated photograph in the Society’s Archives, copied from the original held by Mr. James Sealey of Hamilton, shows Chestnut Grove much as it is today. Mr. Sealey believes that the photograph was taken very soon after the addition was constructed, as the family only stayed in the house for a couple of years, so this dates the picture c.1880-1884.
This late Victorian style house for the Sealey family has an irregular outline at ground level, decorative gables of varying pitches, a broad front porch and bay windows projecting from the major first-storey rooms. On the historic photograph there was a chimney on the western side, presumably for stoves. The eastern chimney remains, an example of a double chimney, again used for stoves. Both chimneys were substantially larger than the present remaining one, and included decorative brick bandcourses and an elaborate brick capping.
Today the house is entered through a handsome oak door with two upper panels of etched glass and stained and frosted glass transom and side lights. Originally this front entrance consisted of a set of glazed double doors and transom. Inside, the narrow front hall opens to the second floor up a wide Victorian oak staircase, with a decorative carved newel post. Though most of the staircase is original, the decoration probably along the side appears to be fairly recent.
Two large formal rooms lead off from the central hallway, and contain the most important interior features within this heritage building. Each has a ceiling height of nine feet, ten inches, with decorative plaster cornices and medallions. A fine marble fireplace mantle with metal screen is located in the formal front parlour on the eastern side of the hallway, and is one of the finer architectural elements of Chestnut Grove. The door and window trim and baseboards in both rooms appear to be unaltered.
One special feature of the house is a small second-storey porch that also appears on the c.1880-1884 Sealey photograph. A round-headed door from the second floor hallway leads out onto the ornately decorated porch, allowing a fine view over the village of Waterdown.
Historically the house has been home to a number of notable Waterdown residents. Dr. Ormand Skinner, the village physician and surgeon owned and occupied the property during the 1860s and 1870s. The Sealey family had the large south facing addition constructed during the early 1880s, to serve their needs as important members of the community, members of the McMonies and Drummond family owned the property during this century, and the last owner before the Town of Flamborough purchased the property was Mr. Craig Fraser, a noted Antiquarian Book Seller.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1991, 2022.
