Yesterday was quite hectic and that drive down the Evangeline Trail and tour to Bear River First Nation Heritage and Cultural Center followed by evening walk to Yarmouth’s Victorian heritage areas certainly made me exhausted.
But that day is gone, and new sun has arrived with new adventures and excitement.
Breakfast is the most important thing to have to start any day and so it was first on my list of the day. I got ready and dressed up and walked towards the adorned dining area of Mackinnon-Cann Inn.
Breakfast was being ready by one of the co-owners of Inn named by Neil Hisgen. He sometimes also stops at inn to see if guests are enjoying themselves. I chatted with him for almost ten minutes about Mackinnon-Cann and other properties.
He belongs to Racine, Wisconsin and has a family with six offspring. The man served six years of his life in navy but after very short time period he came back to home having a plan of settling down in Fort Lauderdale in Florida to make career in hospitality.
First work he did in this career was at front desk in Marriot Hotel. Then he worked for 18 years in different hotels to gain experience. The last job he did as an employee was as a general manager in some popular hotel.
As the year 1997 was approaching its end, Neil came across his life partner Michael Tavares who also happens to be his business partner. He earned quite well an amount on sell of his foremost house. They used the 200 acre land of Michael at peninsula as their vacation house. On the special invitation of Michael, Neil spent about a month of his life at farm near Yarmouth. Neil loved it as he always had cherished the seasons.
Together, Neil and Michael were exploring themselves and finally reached on a decision of opening a bed and breakfast in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. They got lucky when they found out a stunning Victorian residential district having countless restoration breaks. Now, Neil had to finish his work in kitchen and so Michael joined me and told me about his life.
Michael belongs to Boston and is raised in southern part of the Boston. His majors were education in college. Later after schooling, he switched his field to real estate and opened his own brokerage firm. He always found himself attracting to ancient buildings and proved this by narrating a childhood story.
When he was 12/13 years old, there was an old farm house located near his house. He always thought on who owns this place and lives in this place. He shared his views with his mother. Seeing his curiousness, his mother with him went to land registry to find out history of the farm house.
Then he took the document and went to the current owners of the place. He let them knew about history of the place. Owners loved it. From that time, Michael is in love with beauty and history of ancient properties. He converted his love in to his profession and started buying and restoring old buildings. He has restored eight buildings in the south end of Boston.
Later he shifted to Key West and started new career of landscape architect. There he lived for five-six years and completed some assignment of designing garden for gay community.
In the year 1980, he finally took the decision of buying 200 acre land and using it as vacation property in Nova Scotia. The relationship with Yarmouth had already started at that time. Michael later made Fort Lauderdale his permanent home and met Neil at fundraising event. They lived in for a year.
In 1988, Michael invited Neil to visit his land in Nova Scotia as they were planning to spend life together. Their relationship is almost eight years old and they have been living in Nova Scotia for same period of time. The first building they restored is Victorian brick mansion presently Charles C. Richards House.
In 1887, The Mackinnon-Cann was originally built and is an art of Italianate Victorian style. The house was basically built for two cousins. Presently too, the inn has two staircases side by side.
In 2000, Neil and Michael took the hold of building and transformed it into stunning and one of the beautiful manors. The manor is consisting of seven rooms; each is adorned in different and stunning style reflecting the interior of 20th century.
The main floor has five parlors and whole dining area is made of stunning wood floor. Neil himself is a glass artist and he himself has designed every glass window of Mackinnon-Cann.
Further, Michael told me how activate he is in Nova Scotia’s heritage community. He too is a member of two historic organizations.
He is also a board of director of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia. The aim of this trust is to preserve the beauty of ancient buildings in the province.
Mackinnon-Cann Inn and the Charles C. Richards House; both are provincially registered heritage belongings. Michael also serves as a member of the Provincial Heritage Owners Association of Nova Scotia consists of 265 provincial heritage properties. Both the inns are also rewarded at several events.
In 2005, restoration award from the Yarmouth County Historical Society and L.B. Jenson Award was given to Michael and Neil for making great contribution in the development and economic health of Yarmouth Heritage Community.
Now a days, Michael is working on restoring another Victorian heritage property. He is planning to transform this building into a restaurant targeting tourist and local people of the community of Yarmouth.
Example of Neil and Michael’s recent work is blue-colored Victorian heritage property situated in middle of Mackinnon-Cann and Charles C. Richards House. In total, Michael and Neil have restored an entire street block, four historic places and have transformed these properties in beautiful architecture.
Michael Tavares also serves as the president of the Nova Scotia Association of Unique Country Inns. This marketing and branding group supports the endorsement of tourism in historic places. Michael looks in to marketing of inn and Neil takes care of hospitality and inn-keeping.
Michael has committed himself for the protection and restoration of old properties. He thoroughly respects historical properties. He starts and finishes all his projects with special care and feelings which according to him many renovators do not think about. According to Michael, if we want to safeguard our culture then we should start it by restoring ancient properties.
At the very same time, he is also concerned about future of his investments and as a member of Local Yarmouth Town Planning Council he aims to take active role in shaping the town’s future. Michael and Neil are definitely one of the important persons of town who have invested many dollars and countless hours in protecting heritage and business projects.
When Michael started his career in hospitality and in preserving old building in Yarmouth, he was not accepted immediately. He was an outsider, outspoken, and always questioning and arguing on old ways of doing works. New society took some time to accept Michael especially when he and Neil was a gay couple.
But once he was accepted, no doubts remained in believing his intentions for the betterment of society. He always gave local electricians, plumbers, carpet layers, etc a chance to work in transformation of old properties.
He made local workers his main supplier. This earned him the respect and trust of local merchants. He has earned such goodwill that people take his suggestions and advices before make important decision on important issues of the town.
After I was done with my yummy and healthy breakfast, Michael gave me special tour of all of his properties. The first on the list was smaller Victorian house. The house is under renovation. Michael is conducting himself his other assignments.
He himself will do all the architecture and call the specialized contractors only when needed. He definitely has an art of rescuing a property and turning it into most stylish and stunning property from bad looking almost ruined property.
Then we visited blue Victorian mansion which is recently restored. We finished the visits with Charles C. Richards House. The house is a striking Victorian brick mansion with elegant architecture. The building work was started in 1893 and completed over a period of two years. It was the first brick house that ever builds in Yarmouth.
Special material was used in building like brownstone, granite, and bricks especially imported from United States. Michael informed me about interesting fact that it took him one season to strip the layers of paint and thirty two weeks to repaint it.
Unique and stunning looks of each room is definitely admirable. The flower-filled conservatory adds more beauty to it. Before leaving the Inn, I requested for a photograph of Neil and Michael. They posed for me in front of beautifully wooden staircase which takes you to the rooms in upper floor.
I finally have now reached to the end of my beautiful and memorable journey of introduction to architectural preservation and heritage tourism in Yarmouth. I expressed my gratitude for welcoming me here and giving me all the details of their work.
I prepared myself for next journey ahead: exploration of Yarmouth history at the Yarmouth County Historical Museum situated right side of the street from Charles C. Richards House.
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