Redesigner

The Babylon log cabin, moved piece by piece from its origin in South Bay, was reconstructed this year behind Angeline’s Inn.

County man finds diamonds in the ruins

Alexandre Fida learned to read English using The Settler’s Dream. In his family, it became a common joke to call his tattered copy—now missing a dust jacket, its pages tattered and spine torn—Alex’s bible.

It makes sense. When his family moved to the County from Switzerland, his parents bought and restored what is now Angeline’s Inn and Hubb Restaurant. Alex grew up in the County, surrounded by some of the country’s oldest built heritage.

When he and his sister inherited their parents’ business eight years ago, Alex began to focus on improving accommodations. Part of that was to increase capacity. First was the build of motel-style suites, named the Walter. Then Alex got creative.

He had noted an old, dilapidated log house on a property for sale on Babylon Road in South Bay. The house seemed to be on its last legs, and would likely have been slated for demolition once the property was sold.

One of the studios in the house of Falconer, which holds popup artist shops until renovations begin in earnest.

So with the help of heritage building expert Kip Brisley of Sophiasburgh, Alex bought the building, and replaced demolition with deconstruction.

“It was under four layers of siding, this log house. We stripped it all back, catalogued the whole building, brought it here and reassembled it and then made it into a suite,” says Alex.

The cabin was rebuilt behind Angeline’s, and is now the Babylon, an attractive guest suite. It was his first project, but there was no way Alex would stop there.

Before he began running the family business, Alex headed back to Europe, studying interior design in Florence. He supplemented that education with a degree from Ryerson. But built heritage was his passion from the start.

“Sometimes I think there’s a little bit of an undervaluing of what built heritage is in Canada. Because it’s not as old here, I think sometimes people don’t feel like it’s as important. But I think the clapboard farmhouse speaks volumes about the settlers that came here, and the conditions that they had lived in,” Alex says.

“And the silhouettes and the design elements that they chose had meaning. You can see references to upstate New York or Dutch forms, and I think that’s really interesting that you have these whispers of different eras and different countries here in Ontario. And then they have that Canadian or Ontario or County twist to them.”

Alex Fida sits in the lobby of Angeline’s Inn holding his copy of The Settler’s Dream.

After he finished the Babylon, Alex found another property in danger of being torn down. He intervened, using the techniques he had learned with his first project. That building, in pieces, is in storage, awaiting a rebuild. It will become a tack shop.

Last year, Alex acquired a historic house on Walton Street, just off Picton Main Street, which had all but fallen to ruin. The house once belonged to Captain John Pepper Downes, and had been known as the Downes house. Alex named it the House of Falconer, in honour of its last occupant, antiques dealer Thera Falconer, who died in 2008. The house had been sitting empty since then.

After some preliminary renovations of the interior, Alex opened the house as a pop-up shop for local artists. This will be the case for another year or two, then he will begin a complete renovation of the building, restoring it and giving it new life.

Still in his 20s, Alex has piqued the interest of other heritage lovers in the County, and has been asked to sit on the heritage advisory committee. He’s not sure what role he will play in improving built heritage in the County, but hopes to educate and foster a greater interest in it.

He feels there’s no limit to what can be done to protect and restore old buildings, and his projects so far seem to prove this.

“It’s been a real trial and error process. But I started off with the very beginning of architecture in Ontario, which is a log cabin. I figured if a pioneer could do it, I could do it too,” says Fida. “So that was my stepping stone, and it’s evolved from there.”