Glengarry House National Historic Site of Canada

Glengarry House was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1921 because:

• it was the residence of Lieutenant Colonel John Macdonell (Aberchalder), a pioneer in the settlement of Ontario and first Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada.

John Macdonell received a land grant from the Crown at the conclusion of the American Revolution in recognition of his military service. Although he likely first constructed a log dwelling, it was recorded that he had almost completed a large fieldstone house near the shore of the St. Lawrence River in 1792. Macdonell called the house Glengarry House.

It is unclear what happened to the house after Macdonell’s death. During the War of 1812, it was converted into a barracks for the local militia and was badly damaged by the soldiers. There is a local tradition that the house burned in 1813, but this seems unlikely, since claims were made in 1815 and 1825 to the British authorities for the cost of repairs. By the 1890s, the building was in ruin with only the gable walls standing. In 1921, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada recommended that the house be recognized as a national historic site of Canada.