The Cottage

Sited on a spacious lot at 135 Essex Street, The Cottage resides in a neighbourhood of permanent year-round residences, which once was populated by similar seasonal homes. This property is an important visual link to the history, architecture and land use of this once-seasonal, lakefront neighbourhood.

The Cottage at 135 Essex Street is a rare surviving example of a late 19th century building type that formed a pattern of summer lakeside residences in the Town of Goderich. At one time many such cottages lined the bluff in this area. Nearby, at the junction of Essex Street and Picton Street, was the Sunset Hotel and dance pavilion. The Cottage is also known as “The Crow's Nest” after William “Crow” Morgan who lived there during the 1940s and is said to have supplied illegal liquor to the Sunset hotel.

This circa 1880 lakefront cottage is a rare existing example of the cottages in Goderich. It sits on its original site on a west-facing bluff overlooking Lake Huron and remains largely unaltered from its original appearance. In relation to its form, The Cottage incorporates a characteristic prominent pyramidal roof extending over the veranda on the façade, which features chamfered wood columns and decorative brackets. The original beaded board ceiling and pine plank floor are still present. The sun porch windows installed during the 1950s when the north veranda was enclosed, are also intact.