VACANT PROPERTY

VACANT AND LISTED WITH A CATCH. The two hundred year old county building was offered at an asking price of only $99,000 via Remax Realty. An additional tease was added by the Realtor/Broker that the successful buyer should provide the agency with their idea for repurposing the building from an expired use courthouse and jail constructed during the end of slavery in United States and Canada. The first of its origin in the area, it was situated within the end destinaton of so many who sojourned north during the late 1800's to find new life and freedoms in the Canadian Northlands. Sydenham was where those traveling the rails of the Underground Rail Road traced the stars to find. Sydenham is where stowaways from ships across the Atlantic found initial sanctuary in their new world. It was the first courthouse and jail in Sydenham.

With those details in mind and a venture inside the antiquated entryway... the anticipated arched panel door long replaced with glass and stainless steel; sound boards mounted to the ceiling immediately caught the eye. Sound boards suspended by wooden braces still held most panels in place as originally intended to ensure the accused an audible sentence. A full audience could attend the court hearing from any of the crowded floor of wood and metal seats spaced regimentally across the main floor. A podium and bench sat at the front of the spacious room. Along one side of the entryway was a long hall that led to various offices. A wall inside that hall presented a curved face cement staircase which hosted those who dared, to an upper level which eventually wound into a hall of iron bar holding cells each still complete with cement bed and a steel toilet. The dingy gray cement with faded green pain on cell doors and some walls was enough to boast of a dismal history held stagnant in it's slow drift into today's world. What could possibly be created... of use to public or private venture was the challenge any winning purchaser would need present. The end of ten cells and ten windows spaced along the hall opposite a row of five benched steel tables, presented another doorway with stairs that led to a hall of holding rooms designated for female prisoners. Those painted in pinks and reds, some with graffitied wallpaper denoting eraed angle comments regarding ones experience inside the room or trespassers protested comment on the gender biased permissions.

Wandering through the entire structure presented view of a very intact bare beam attic in two connected portions connected by stairs, that included something of a bell tower with windows and venting. A lengthy trip in the opposite direction brought a visitor to a cement block and mortar basement with some areas boasting greenhouse windows which provided a view of a courtyard area in a near distance. There was a door that provided access to the cement paved courtyard with grassed space beyond a concrete bench. An aerial image showed two additional walled courtyards previously used by prisoners for yardtime, now presenting a handsome consideration for use as something of English Strolling Garden styling with a small cement or stucco cottage house at the far end of the entire property. A raised wall between the cottage house courtyard at the end of the back area; and the middle courtyard sporting its own divider wall put a viewer in mind of calm entertainment and a relaxed stay purpose. A twelve foot wall at the far back perimeter of the property boasted a gate to the outside leading to a grassed area to the side of a country manor; accessible from the first courtyard.

Anyone with a clear mind could envision this as a bed and breakfast focusing upon the historical preservation ideal represnted by the end of slavery, first structure of its purpose in the county and region during the abolition era; and despite there being hotels in the distant situs of downtown Sydenham (renamed in the 1800's) and a few bed and breakfast options in private residences in the bay community the decision to repurpose the building as such would bring tourism specific to the north bayshore. Add a functioning food source, gift shop and access to individual history as a take home token... a souvenir, to the existing interest presented by the building an it becomes a slight gold mine. Soujourner Truth could not have found a better solution. It was the end of the RailRoad.