The Goode House, one of the oldest properties in Westmount, already has heritage status to protects its Greek Revival exterior.
Now the city wants to go one step further and use a rare regulatory measure to protect the interior of the home as well.
“At the time of its construction in 1840 there were four houses that were built identical,” said Youki Cropas of the municipality’s urban planning department, standing outside the building on Cote St. Antoine Road.
She said it is only one of the surviving two that is still in its original state, which includes inside, preserved by three generations of the Goode family since 1884.
According to Cropas, this kind of preservation is rare for a dwelling house this old. It’ll be the first time in Quebec that a residential building has gotten heritage protection for the interior.
Cropas pointed to the almost square shape, the stone walls and the window mouldings, which she said are typical of that design. She also noted the nearly 2,000-square-metre property, which she said was modelled after the typical English garden of the time.
“Different species of trees and plants have been studied in order to determine their heritage value as well,” she said.
Westmount resident Robert Platt said there are challenges with these kinds of initiatives for residential properties.
“Obviously it would be complicated to live in one of these places if you had to preserve the interior and make it exactly what it was,” he told Global News.
The next step in the process, said Cropas, is for the city to have public consultations before drafting a bylaw for the heritage recognition in fall 2020.
Global News was unable to reach the owner of the home.