BY WENDY ELLIOTT
Kings County Advertiser/Register
Kent Lodge is the oldest home in Wolfville. A portion of its foundation is reputed to be an Acadian cellar, so the house has been dated to 1761. Built by two Planter men, the home was purchased in 1780 by Elisha DeWolf, son of Wolfville founder Nathan DeWolf.
Local legend has it that Elisha, who was a successful businessman, turned his home into a hospitality centre. The inn he kept allowed him to entertain Queen Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent, as he rode from Halifax to Annapolis Royal.
Over the years, Kent Lodge was a kind of chameleon. It was used as a school, a shop, a post office and a tourist bureau. At one point it had a huge 19th century addition on the east side. Wolfville's first female town councillor, Laura Haliburton Moore, ran it as a university residence until it burned. Luckily the original structure was saved.
Back in the late 1970s, Reg and Pat Moore took on its restoration and returned the house to its original 18th-century look, while maintaining it as a family home. Their garden is a local landmark.
There are few incentives for homeowners to take on official built heritage status like the Moore's have - other than love. In Toronto, for example, there is matching grant funding of up to 50 per cent of the estimated cost of heritage conservation work. The city's heritage property tax rebate program provides eligible heritage property owners with a 40 per cent rebate on their municipal and educational property taxes.
In parts of Australia, free and expert architectural or conservation advice and onsite consultation is available. The Heritage Council in Tasmania, for instance, can provide funding for up to one-third of the cost of approved work, usually there's a limit of $25,000.
Provincially, there is very little and municipally we have almost no way to encourage more householders to take on designated heritage property status. Lunenburg, with its UNESCO world heritage label, is one positive example. With the Grand Pré landscape heading for a similar UNESCO approval, it would be great to bolster heritage property owners in this region.
Realtors across the country indicate built heritage is a prime selling point, but there isn't much drive currently to join the heritage bandwagon in Nova Scotia.
Two Wolfville property owners have been quietly boosting one notion that seems to work successfully in Britain. They've suggested a bulk furnace oil-buying project to reduce heating costs for heritage homes.
Organizers arrange for a group of householders in the same community to get a discount for delivery on the same day. There is an annual subscription fee of about $30.
Those who band together feel better ecologically too. It makes sense that the carbon emissions sent up by oil delivery trucks can be reduced by making fewer deliveries to one community. The suppliers save money by sending one vehicle to an area and emptying it, so they're willing to pass a discount on.
The Broad Town Oil Syndicate has been fielding group discount orders since 2006 and has bulk purchased over half a million litres. The organization started near Oxford and has now spread through a number of counties in the south of England.
A heritage property owners association in this area might be able to pull off some important fuel oil discounts to help heat the old homes with historical interest that dot our landscape. Any home built prior to the First World War could likely fit the bill.
