It’s a big birthday this year for Loyalist House which turns 200 and the New Brunswick Historical Society is hoping the public can help them receive the gift of funding.
Loyalist House, which is a national historic site that sits on the corner of Germain Street and Union Streets, is part of a crowdfunding competition through the National Trust called This Place Matters and is looking to raise $20,000 to help restore the interior and also has the chance to win prize money.
“A lot of the wallpaper and drapes they’re as old as the hills, they’ve been there since it first opened as a museum in 1961 so they’ve done their time,” says Joshua Thomson of the society.
“Given the exterior overhaul that the house had in 2016, we knew it was on our mandate to eventually have the inside refurbished.”
The restoration of the outside was a $600,000 project which included new paint, the installation of shutters, the restoration of the coach house and servants’ quarters. When it comes to the inside, the society says the funds they raise will go towards replacing the wallpaper, draperies and paint in the main parlours, the nursery and maybe even other rooms depending on how successful the campaign is.
Thomson says the dining room, which has been restored, looks very regal.
“So I think that’s the approach we want to take with the parlours because they were the grand rooms of the house. That’s where the Merritts would have held event,” he says.
Through the This Place Matters competition, cash prizes are distributed to the projects with the most votes and you can vote for a project once a day. Groups can keep the funds they raise even if they don’t win one of the cash prizes.
Click here to vote, donate, and find more information.
