October
5, 2006
Hello from Nova Scotia: The MacKinnon-Cann
Inn – Where Home and Garden Television Meets the Travel Channel
I had spent a wonderfully rejuvenating night wrapped up in the soft
high-thread-count sheets and comforters of my temporary home at
the MacKinnon-Cann
Inn in Yarmouth. After an exciting drive down the Evangeline
Trail yesterday that included a very informative tour of the
Bear River First Nation Heritage and Cultural
Centre, followed up by an early-evening walking tour to admire
Yarmouth’s Victorian heritage areas,
I had definitely needed a good rest. But a new day had broken and
I was ready for more adventures.
First on the plan was of course breakfast, so I got myself ready
and walked downstairs into the tastefully decorated dining area
of the MacKinnon-Cann Inn. Neil Hisgen, one of the co-owners, was
working in the kitchen to prepare breakfast and occasionally dropped
by to see how the guests were doing. I caught him for about ten
minutes to find out more about this property and his own personal
background.
Neil Hisgen and Michael Tavares
Neil is originally from Racine, Wisconsin, and hails from a family
with six children. He spent six years in the navy following which
he briefly returned home, only to move to Fort Lauderdale in Florida
where he started his hospitality career. He started working at the
front desk at the Marriott Hotel and for the next 18 years worked
in various hotels and restaurants, gaining experience at the front
desk and in the kitchen. He capped his employed career after 15
years with a general manager’s position of a major hotel.
Neil met his business and life partner Michael Tavares at the end
of 1997. Neil had made a good return on the sale of his first house
and decided to invest it in a bed and breakfast. At the time Michael
owned a 200-acre property on a peninsula near Yarmouth which they
used as a vacation home. Michael had invited him to spend about
a month at his farm near Yarmouth and Neil loved it. Being from
the mid-west, he had always enjoyed the change of the seasons.
Victorian beauty: The MacKinnon-Cann Inn
Neil and Michael were thinking about what they wanted to do and
decided they were ready for a change, so they went ahead and opened
a bed and breakfast in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia where there was a beautiful
Victorian residential district waiting for them with many restoration
opportunities. At this point Neil unfortunately had to go back in
the kitchen to continue working, but Michael, his co-owner, joined
me at my table to give me a more in-depth overview of their projects
and his own life story.
Michael is originally from Boston and grew up in the southern part
of the city. During college he majored in education, but after school
he went into real estate and started his own brokerage firm. He
was always fascinated by old buildings and illustrates this with
a story from his childhood: at 12 or 13 years of age there was an
old farm house nearby, and Michael always wondered who had owned
it and lived there. So he talked to his mother about it and she
took him to the land registry office to do a title search, obtaining
a record of all previous owners of the property.
Parlour at the MacKinnon-Cann Inn
With these documents in hand he approached the current owners and
gave them the historic ownership records of the property. They absolutely
loved it, and from that point forward Michael was hooked on the
mystique of historic properties. In his words, he loves to “peel
back the layers of time” and started to buy and restore his
own historic buildings. Over several years he completed eight restoration
projects in the south end of Boston.
Dining room at the MacKinnon-Cann Inn
After Boston he moved to Key West and became a tropical landscape
architect. He spent five or six years living and working in Key
West, completing many garden design projects for the local gay community.
In the 1980s he finally bought a 200 acre farm as a vacation property
in Nova Scotia together with several friends. This was when his
love affair with Yarmouth began. Michael moved his permanent residence
from Key West to Fort Lauderdale where he met Neil in 1997 at a
fundraising event. They lived together for a year and Neil helped
Michael in his landscaping business. In the summer of 1998 Michael
invited Neil to his property in Nova Scotia because he wanted Neil
to share this part of his life. So for the last eight years Neil
and Michael have been residing in Nova Scotia. Their first Yarmouth
property was a run-down Victorian brick mansion which they lovingly
restored in 1999 and turned into the present Charles
C. Richards House, a historic bed and breakfast with three guest
bedrooms decorated in the 1930’s Art Deco Period. Each room
at the Charles C. Richards House features a private bath, cable
TV with DVD players and period furnishings.
The Charles C. Richards House
The MacKinnon-Cann
Inn where I was staying was built in 1887 and is an example
of the Italianate Victorian style. The house was built as a duplex
for two female cousins, and to this day the inn features two staircases
side by side. Michael and Neil rescued the property in 2000 and
took it from a condemned state to the stunning mansion that it is
today. All seven guest rooms are uniquely decorated in a style reflecting
a different 20th century decade, from the 1900s to the 1960s. The
main floor features five lavish parlours and Michael pointed out
the beautiful patterned wood floor that was installed at great expense
throughout the dining area. Neil is a talented glass artist, and
many stained glass windows throughout the MacKinnon-Cann Inn and
the Charles C. Richards House feature Neil’s artwork.
A gorgeous fireplace with a beautiful wooden floor
Michael explained that he is very active in Nova Scotia’s
heritage community and mentioned that he is a member of two historic
organizations: he serves on the Board of Directors of the Heritage
Trust of Nova Scotia whose mission it is to preserve and protect
the heritage properties in the province. Both the MacKinnon-Cann
Inn and the Charles
C. Richards House are provincially registered heritage properties.
Michael is also a member of the Provincial Heritage Owners Association
of Nova Scotia which encompasses 265 provincial heritage properties.
Both inns have won several awards, including the 2005 Restoration
Award from the Yarmouth County Historical Society and the L.B. Jenson
Award as a contribution to the development and economic health of
the Yarmouth Heritage Community.
Another restoration project in the works
In addition to the two inns, Michael is also currently renovating
the property right next door to the MacKinnon-Cann Inn, another
Victorian heritage property which he is thinking of turning into
a restaurant that will serve the tourists and local community of
Yarmouth. The fourth recently renovated property owned by Michael
and Neil is a blue-coloured Victorian heritage property located
right between the MacKinnon-Cann Inn and the Charles C. Richards
House. In essence, Michael and Neil have single-handedly transformed
an entire street block, rescued four historic properties and turned
them into stunning examples of architectural revival.
Michael shows me his work in progress
As an astute tourism marketer, Michael Tavares is also the President
of the Nova Scotia Association of Unique Country Inns, a collective
marketing and branding group that promotes upscale heritage tourism
in unique historic properties. Michael is generally responsible
for the inn’s marketing while Neil’s responsibilities
focus more on hospitality and innkeeping.
Michael’s restoration mindset is based on a commitment to
the preservation of buildings and a respect for the historical integrity
of the property. He approaches his projects with a certain humility
which he says many renovators today are missing since they are only
looking for the highest return on investment. He is a strong believer
that the cultural renaissance and economic revival of a town begins
with heritage restoration and then trickles down to Main Street.
The blue house
At the same time he also recognizes the need for protecting his
investments, and as a member of the local Yarmouth Town Planning
Council he has a chance to participate in shaping the future of
this town. Michael and Neil have invested hundreds of thousands
of dollars and countless thousands of hours in their heritage properties
and business ventures. Their efforts make a significant contribution
to the economic well-being of the town.
The beginning was not easy since Michael was an outsider with
new ideas in a town with long-standing traditions and established
power structures. He was the new kid on the block. In addition,
it took some time to gain acceptance, particularly as a gay couple
in a rather conservative community. Conflict arose originally since
Michael was also very outspoken and questioned the old ways of doing
things.
One of the bedrooms at the MacKinnon-Cann Inn
However, his commitment to the community became evident in his
renovation projects. Michael would call together all the contractors
for each project, such as electricians, plumbers, carpet layers,
etc. and told them that he would deal exclusively with them as local
merchants instead of choosing a big box home renovation store as
his main supplier. This commitment to local merchants has earned
him a lot of respect and goodwill in the surrounding community,
and today many people call him for his opinion before a debate of
important issues that will affect the town.
A hearty breakfast for a big day on the road
After I completed my delicious fruit salad and omelet breakfast,
Michael took me on a tour of all four properties. We started off
with the smaller Victorian house currently under renovation where
the entire first floor has currently been stripped down to the bare
walls. As with his other projects, Michael is going to do the vast
majority of the project himself and will call in specialized contractors
only where needed. He is one of those people who have that special
gift of spotting a diamond in the rough and taking it from a derelict
hovel in danger of collapsing to a stunningly updated and stylish
historic jewel with all modern conveniences.
We then went over to the recently restored blue Victorian mansion
that was renovated by the previous owners according to Michael’s
recommendations since Michael and Neil were going to purchase the
property. We capped the visit off with the Charles
C. Richards House, a stunning Victorian brick mansion with gorgeous
architectural details, built for a wealthy local businessman. It
was started in 1893 and took two years to finish and was the first
brick house of this class to be built in Yarmouth. Most of the special
building materials, i.e. the brownstone, granite and brick, were
imported from the United States and make this house unique. Michael
told me that it took him a whole season to strip the many layers
of paint on the ornately carved porch and 32 weeks to repaint it,
using eleven different colours.
Lots of work went into these deatils
I admired the wonderful details and stylish décor of the
various rooms, including the flower-filled conservatory. Michael
and Neil posed for me in front of the intricately carved wooden
staircase that leads to the upstairs bedroom and this was the fitting
ending for my introduction to architectural preservation and heritage
tourism in Yarmouth. I thanked them both for their welcoming hospitality
and got ready for my next item on the itinerary: an exploration
of Yarmouth history at the Yarmouth
County Historical Museum, located right across the street from
the Charles C. Richards House.
Useful books about travel to Nova Scotia:
Related articles:
My five whirlwind days in Nova Scotia
Acadian
history at the Grand Pré National Historic Site
400 years of history at Annapolis
Royal
Port-Royal, a French habitation from 1605
Dinner at the Garrison House
in Annapolis Royal
The Annapolis Royal
Graveyard Tour
The Garrison House Bed and Breakfast
Exploring the Evangeline Trail from
Annapolis Royal to Yarmouth
Learning about Mi'kmaq heritage at the
Bear River First Nation Heritage and Cultural Center
Victorian heritage in Yarmouth
The MacKinnon-Cann Inn: Where Home
and Garden Television meets the Travel Channel
Yarmouth explained - the Yarmouth
County Museum
My car is in the ditch in Chebogue
River
The Lighthouse Trail from Yarmouth
to Shelburne
The Lighthouse Trail from Shelburne
to Lunenburg
The Town of Lunenburg - a UNESCO World Heritage
Site
An interview with the owners of the
Lunenburg Inn
The Lighthouse Trail from Lunenburg to
Halifax via Mahone Bay and Peggy's Cove
Arrival in Halifax and a stunning
musical performance - DRUM!
A Halifax city tour, the city's
connection to the Titantic and the 1917 Halifax Explosion
Exploring the Halifax Harbourwalk and
Pier 21 - Canada's immigration museum
A ferry trip to Dartmouth and saying
goodbye to Halifax
An interview with Pier 21 -
Canada's immigration museum
Helpful links for travel to Nova Scotia:
Tourism
Nova Scotia
Destination
South West Nova Scotia
Halifax Tourism
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