While there’s still plenty of work that needs to be done in restoring Brantford’s iconic Crystal Cottage, Dan and Carol Lyn Brown officially crossed another item off the project’s to-do list on Thursday, September 5, 2024.
The couple, who are known for preserving and restoring heritage homes in the Brantford-Brant area, purchased the house earlier this year and have been working hard to repair the 19th century home to its former glory ever since.
The house was originally built around 1876 and was located at 35 Chatham Street for over 140 years, however in 2020, a developer purchased the property as part of a larger project to build an apartment building on the lands bordered by Market, Chatham, Queen and Nelson Streets.
As part of the agreement, the developer sold the house to the Brant Historical Society (BHS) for $10.00 and agreed to pay the estimated over $300,000.00 required to move the building to 53 Charlotte Street.
While the relocation was successful, the developer eventually abandoned their redevelopment project and ended up leaving the BHS to pick up the bill.
With the BHS already experiencing dire financial circumstances, the society was unable to afford the mortgage or the work needed to repair the building, and eventually decided to sell the house and entrust the project with the Browns back in May.
A distinct feature of the Crystal Cottage is the 300-plus glass Bixel Beer bottles that border the top of the building and the bottom of its window sills, and during the move 99 of the bottles were damaged and in need of replacing.
Set on staying true to the house’ original character and design, the Browns began seeing if they could source any Bixel bottles from various collectors.
“We didn’t know there were societies of glass bottle collectors but we ended up finding somebody who doesn’t live in Brantford anymore, but was born and raised here, and he’s a Bixel Beer bottle expert,” said Carol Lyn. “He’s been collecting for decades and through him, we found out this house actually features the largest known collection of Bixel bottles out there. Now, that made it tricky to find replacements, because obviously collectors wouldn’t love that we’re cutting them in half, but we did end up finding four of the 99 that we needed and so the rest of the bottles we’ve sourced are still period correct.”
While they may not have been able to acquire the full number of original bottles they were hoping for, the two are adding in something special as a nod to the historic feature.
“In the spring we were able to remove all the trim out of the old Red Cross building where Mr. Bixel actually lived, and so all of that will actually be going inside of the Crystal Cottage,” said Dan. “It’s great because we now kind of have this little history crossover.”
Looking to get the community involved, the Browns put out a call earlier this summer for people to stop by with a letter or some form of memory to go into the bottles before being added back into the mortar.
“We probably have about 60 bottles that now have a little message inside of them and there’s all sorts of things in there,” said Dan.
“We know there’s wedding invitations, there’s baby pictures, there’s a front page of the newspaper, a handful of coins and of course… plenty of letters,” added Carol Lyn. “Most of them, if not half, are all sealed in envelopes and so we don’t know what’s in them because it’s a private message, right? Maybe it’s someone’s wishes or dreams, maybe it’s their predictions or their favourite memory, there could even be a love letter or two, who knows.”
Brian Wood, Curator of the Bell Homestead, also contributed a little something towards the message in a bottle project, a printed off quote from a letter that was originally sent from Alexander Graham Bell to the Brantford Expositor in March of 1916.
The note reads “Brantford is justified in calling herself ‘The Telephone City’ because the telephone originated there. It was invented in Brantford at Tutelo Heights in the summer of 1874.”
Adding to the collection of memories, Kevin Davis, Mayor for the City of Brantford, as well as other council representatives and city residents stopped in last Thursday to drop off their contributions to the time capsule project.
“How often do you get an opportunity to send an undiluted, unfiltered message to future generations? That’s really exciting. I can’t tell you what’s in it, but my little message is right above the front door and it’s been done on Mayor Stationary and then I wrapped it in the Mayor’s seal as well,” said Davis. “I’ve always appreciated Brantford’s history, but having moved into that old clock tower building I’ve become much more passionate about our history and preserving those iconic trademarks, and this is one of them.”
Davis added that overall, he’s pleased that not only has the Crystal Cottage project been a team effort led by two fully capable and passionate people, but that down the line it will be sold to owners who are interested in continuing to preserve the history of the building.
“What’s great about this is that it’s not a government project, it’s truly a representation of team effort by the community, particularly those who are passionate about history,” he said. “Knowing that it’s not going to become an empty historic monument and that eventually it will be passed on to a new owner who will be able to maintain and care for it… now that’s a good news story.”
In all, with the bottles now replaced and the brickwork finishing up this week, the Browns say they’re looking forward to replacing the windows and continuing with the rest of the work they need to get done before they can finish up the project.
“We’ve put a lot of hours into finding bricks that match and the bottles we need so the next thing is really the windows. They do take a bit of time but we finally decided on a colour and now we need to cut a template with that arched top and order them. Once the outside is done, we’ll be able to re-think and refocus our energies on the next course of action inside,” concluded Dan.
