Historical society ‘in the hole’ $328,000 for relocation of Crystal Cottage

The Brant Historical Society is more than $300,000 in debt related to the relocation of Crystal Cottage.

Tim Philp, president of the historical society, told city councilors the society, which operates the Brant Museum and Archives and Myrtleville House, needed to access almost $134,000 from an endowment fund and take out a mortgage of $119,000 after the move of the historic home didn ‘t go as planned.

“We are in the hole $328,000,” said Philp.

The Crystal Cottage, built around 1876, stood on Chatham Street for more than 140 years. But in 2020, the developer of a large apartment agreed to sell the historic home, which was in the way of the project, for $10 to the Brant Museum and Archives and pay an estimated $300,000 to move it several blocks to a vacant property at Charlotte and Wellington streets, owned by the museum.

“The purpose for the society was to help the city save a building that is unique in our community,” Philp told city councilors at an operations committee meeting on Tuesday. “I am unaware of any other similar building in Ontario.”

Philp said the cottage was significantly damaged by the move and the developer, who had agreed to pay the cost of returning its condition prior to the relocation, hasn’t followed through.

Philp said the cost of building a foundation for the house, originally estimated at $100,000 – which was provided by the city – skyrocketed when material costs increased following the pandemic.

“If anybody has any illusions the Brant Historical Society was donated a building and council contributed some money and we were going to sell the building and make a fortune, I can assure you that’s not true,” said Philp.

After the historical society put the cottage up for sale last month, Coun. Richard Carpenter suggests the organization return $50,000 given by the city for the home’s relocation. He suggests the $46,300 in annual operating funding provided by the city to the society be reduced to $29,680 for the next three years in order to recoup $50,000 “we’ve already paid from taxpayer money” related to the cottage.

Philp told councilors a reduction in operating funding would be devastating to the historical society.

“If we don’t get that grant, we will be in a position where the museum will close, Myrtleville will close and our ability to care for the artifacts of more than 150 years of Brantford’s history will be in danger.”

Carpenter agreed at Tuesday’s meeting to withdraw his amendment asking for the funding reduction.

Philp said the Crystal Cottage, also known as the Beer Bottle Cottage because of the bottles embedded in the yellow brickwork, “is in such shape it’s almost unsalable.”

“We got an offer for less than the land its sitting on is worth,” said Philp.

He said although it hasn’t turned out that way, the project, at the outset, “looked like a win-win for everybody.”

“Everybody at the time made the right decisions,” said Philp. “The difficulty was when the developer decided to abandon the project. We’ve poured more into something to prevent it from being a stranded asset that nobody would want and prevent its further deterioration.”

Mayor Kevin Davis said it was an “innovative arrangement to save a building with a great deal of historical significance.”

“Moving a building comes with a lot of risks,” said Davis. “Kudos to those involved. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as well as we want it to due, in part, to interest rates, Covid and some things internal with the developer we don’t know about.

“Now we’ll get additional information so we can avoid something similar happening in the future and better understand how we can protect really unique and valuable buildings.”