The House Will Tell Me

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the house has been calling to me for the last 15 years, and I never knew why. When I had the opportunity to purchase it, I jumped on it, “Cutting the stick” without even discussing a price or seeing the inside. I had no idea what I was going to do with the place, or why I had to buy it, I just knew I did.

Since that initial act of closing the deal with a wink and a smile back in July, so many people have asked what we are going to do with the place. My answer was always the same, “I’m not sure. The house will tell me.”

In my mind, no one really owns a house like the Renwick house. The house is an entity in and of itself, You are just chosen to be its next caretaker, and while I am honored to take that position, I knew from the start that whatever the house was going to become wouldn’t be my sole decision. The house would have a say in it too.

I have always loved rooms with lots of windows and great light, and being an artist, I pictured that lovely belvedere room at the top of the house as an art studio. That is my favorite room in the house, and I often find myself just sitting at the top of the steps, enjoying the silence for a bit and just listening to the house and all of its sounds. I’m sure part of the reason I sit up there is to catch my breath, as it is a long hike up those stairs to the top, but I’ll just keep making believe that I still have the body of a 16 year old and I am in perfect physical shape. Maybe if my mind believes it, my body may someday too.

The one thing I always knew I wanted to do with the place was open it up occasionally for historic tours. My husband and I have both done that type of thing before, him as an interpreter at Mumford’s Genesee Country Village and Museum, and myself at Rolling HIlls Asylum as a tour guide. We are both dedicated to preserving history and telling the tales from long ago, lest they be forgotten.

This new year started out a bit rocky for us. Illness, death of a family member, and what just seemed to be one thing after another. I kept telling 2022 that it could keep trying, but it wasn’t going to get the best of me! The one thing that has kept me smiling and kept me going is the outpouring of love and support from not only the local community, but new friends made worldwide thanks to social media.

Over the years, the house has been a station on the Underground Railroad, a refuge for those seeking a safe place to stay on their way to freedom in Canada. It has been a hotel, sheltering many travelers on their various journeys. And it has been a home, a safe haven for those that lived in her. A place filled with happy and warm memories. A place where you could shut out the world and all that laid just outside its doors. That is what we hope it will be again.

So, while we would love to be the Lord and Lady of the Manor, we have realized that the house has spoken to us in so many ways. Not just through its walls, but through you all as a community. We have decided that it needs to be part of that community again.

While we will definitely be giving historical tours, and have plans to make a small museum, we would also like to turn it into a place where the community can gather again and plan on holding classes there for things like quilting, knitting, crocheting, flint knapping, the list goes on and on. We are also hoping to create a commercial kitchen there that local community members can use for their small business purposes. Once the rooms are fixed up, we can host small weekend retreats, possibly working with other local places of interest in joint events. The to-do and to-plan lists are very long folks!

I still plan on using the belvedere as an art studio, as I’m going to have to crank out a lot of pieces to help pay for the renovations, which is another huge concern of mine. We have watched our investments sink faster than the Titanic on that cold night in April over 100 years ago over the past year, but the one thing I have is unwavering faith. Faith that things will work out just fine. Faith that it will be a beacon for the community once again. But most of all, I have faith that when I worry about how we are going to finance it all, the house will tell me.