Built: 1860
Location: 11 New Street
Walk around the bend of New Street where it joins Ledge Street and you will find the first stone home constructed in the village. At the rear of this residence is an original single storey stone house. Built with ashlars of massive sandstone, it later served as a back kitchen. A fire in 1895 demanded extensive renovations and a second floor was added.
Born in Ireland in 1811, John Draffin emigrated to the Canadas. Prospering as a merchant, he added this magnificent residence to the original farmhouse c1860. Elaborate detail of Italianate style on the main house includes wide, bracketed cornices and on the corners are larger ashlars of a pattern termed quoining. Decorative round-headed doors grace the upper storey. Once these opened onto a small balcony above a grand front porch. From this balcony, Mr. Draffin, wealthy citizen of Newboro and his wife, Margaret Bell of Perth, could enjoy a magnificent view over Newboro Lake at a time when intervening trees had been cleared. Between 1895 and 1945 this was the parsonage for St. Mary’s Church.
