25 Wellington St, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3B9

25 Wellington, making its first appearance on the market since 1963, is a landmark two and a half storey limestone home (with a superb modern board and batten addition) one very short block from Kingston's City Park and two from Lake Ontario. Located between the market square and the university and the hospitals, this wholly magnificent property offers the perfect riposte to those who feel the world is crumbling around us. The formal living and dining room have nearly unreachable ceilings and plaster mouldings. Serious plans have been hatched, I bet, in these spacious parlours, secrets confided amid the cool lath and plaster. There are three fireplaces (including one in the largest of the second-floor bedrooms), more staircases than I could count, and a very rare "horsewalk" - an interior alleyway intended to permit a horse to be moved into long-gone rear stables. A window on the landing between floors is so large that one could launch a shuttle from it. The recent addition contains a main-floor bedroom (we're up to five now), and a bathroom (that makes three), as well as a breakfast room that faces the pretty garden, like something out of Evelyn Waugh. You expect Anthony Hopkins to appear with pastries. Up on the finished third floor you might install a guest suite, or hobby room, a cinema, or bed-sit. The lot is L-shaped, having merged with an old property that exits onto Lower Union Street. There is parking and a winding, contemplative walkway. It is hard to know where to stop. I wrote some of these words on-site, and felt strongly in these rooms that I was being shown a more hopeful way of thinking about the world, a comforting blend of history and perspective, a glimpse of what is still possible if only you look hard enough.