By Jim Hagarty
Stratord, Ontario, Canada, two hours’ drive from Toronto, couldn’t be much farther removed from the U.S. Deep South. Nevertheless, for more than a hundred years, we have had our own “White House.” The man who owned the large, fairly standard brick home in the late 1800s, once toured the southern U.S. states. He was so impressed with the plantation mansions he saw, that he decided to replicate, with his own home in Canada, what had so fascinated him on his U.S. trip. So when he came back home, he set to work having large columns added to his house along with balconies and other signature features of the southern mansions. Other Stratford homes also sport tall columns but none so closely resembled the real White House in Washington. This house was painted white, top to bottom, which completed the look. Unfortunately, the home has fallen on a bit of hard times, it is badly in need of a re-painting. A headline in local newspaper suggested the house, in fact, might be torn down.
