25 Wellington Street, Kingston

25 Wellington St – 175 years young and wholly magnificent – offers the perfect riposte to those who feel the world is crumbling around us. Built in 1851 by English-Canadian architect John Grist, this two and a half storey landmark limestone (with a superb board and batten addition) is one short block from City Park and two from Lake Ontario and ideally located between the market square and the university and the hospitals. This is its first appearance on the market since 1963. There are three fireplaces (including one in the largest of the second-floor bedrooms), more staircases than I could count, and a very rare “horsewalk” – an interior alleyway intended to permit a horse to be moved into long-gone rear stables. A window on the landing between floors is so large that one could launch a shuttle from it. The formal living and dining room have nearly unreachable ceilings and plaster mouldings. Serious plans have been hatched in these spacious Victorian parlours, jokes delivered, kids shushed, courtships proposed and dissolved. Life is packed right into the lath and plaster walls. The modern addition contains a main-floor bedroom (we’re up to five now), and a bathroom (that makes three), as well as a breakfast room longer than the Brighton Pier. On the finished third floor you might install a guest suite, or hobby room, a cinema, or bed-sit. The lot is L-shaped, having merged with an old property that exits onto Lower Union. There is gravel parking, and a walkway and a garden. You expect Anthony Hopkins to appear with pastries. It is hard to know where to stop. I wrote some of these words on-site, a radiator ticking faintly, and felt strongly I was being shown a more hopeful way of thinking about the world, a comforting blend of history and perspective. My feeling is you should move for it. But a century from now it may be offered for sale again, so perhaps you wait.