BRENDA O’FARRELL
The Advocate

In the world of home decor and design, fashions come and go. In many ways, they evolve.

The origins of some modern home style elements can be linked to early whispered trends in colour and texture, while others emerge from the latest innovations in technology and function.

Rarely, though, can a distinctive decor motif trace its origin back to one man’s legacy that is described as global in scope and unmatched in science by a source as unlikely as the Canadian Agriculture Hall of Fame.

That’s right.

Call it the shades of Holstein heredity, the machinations of Macaulay ingenuity or simply vintage Victoria Farm. But the art that adorns a recently completed house in Hudson, a little town off the western tip of Montreal, offers an inspired and unique nod to the historical and distinctively local legacy of a farming heritage that has spread throughout the world.

“I really wanted to make sure that when they see the house, you know the history of that land,” said designer Samantha Vince, who took on the challenge of giving this new house its unique flare.

That house is a two-storey structure described as “a modern farmhouse” that was completed earlier this year by a couple who had up until recently lived in neighbouring St. Lazare. It is built on land that was once part of the farm owned by Thomas B. Macaulay.

A site with farming history

Back in early 1900s, Macaulay bought the 200-acre property that had a magnificent view of Mount Victoria. He christened it Mount Victoria Farm. It is from this location that Macaulay, who had made a name for himself as an actuary and then president of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, made his mark in the agricultural world.

More specifically, it was on this modest farm that featured iconic red wooden barns with grey metals roofs and twin silos built in the 1920s, that Macaulay applied his training as an actuary to the science of genetics, creating a prize-winning herd of Holstein dairy cattle that was so unparalleled that it has been recognized as “the origin of all Holsteins on the planet” today, according to dairy experts.

“With his actuary training, (Macaulay) applied his mathematical theories to genetic selection, in order to develop a purebred Holstein line with a much sought-after morphology, excellent mammary systems and fat ratings of 4 per cent,” Macaulay’s biography in the Canadian Agriculture Hall of Fame states.

The house, which has a traditional rural-setting rear wrap-around porch, has many stunning features, including impressive 18-foot ceilings, a large fireplace and many modern touches. But it is the art that adorns the walls throughout the home that reflects the history of the site on which it stands.

Cow art

Among the most eye-catching is the commissioned original painting of a single Holstein cow by Coteau du Lac artist Carole Lessard that hangs at the top of the stairs.

Affectionately referred to as Delores, this black-and-white Holstein cow has a slightly whimsical flare that commands attention as she looks out from a stretched canvas that measures four feet wide. Adding a touch of the personal, the date of the homeowners’ wedding anniversary provides the number featured in the cow’s ear tag.

In the dining room, another original painting features the image of the iconic Victoria Farm barns, which were torn down in 2013. The large work by St. Lazare-based artist Allison Robin Smith draws the eye, allowing the space to open an artful window onto the past.

The painting of the barns, with their crimson walls and white trimmed windows, that more than a decade earlier were the focus of heated public discussion in Hudson, where some residents attempted in vain to preserve the by-then neglected farm buildings from being torn down, casts the viewer back to a much earlier time, when the buildings stood proud, yet understated within a field of green.

And throughout the house, in a variety of locations, are framed vintage photographs of Hudson, which Vince selected from the archives kept by a local photographer. The prints, selected from among hundreds of images, showcase views of the original Macaulay farm in all seasons before the barns were demolished and the land subdivided. Included in the collection are photographs of the town’s principle thoroughfare, Main Road, the local train station and kids in canoes on the Lake of Two Mountains.

The effect gives this new home a warmth and charm that is not only elegant in look, but respectful of the place it looks out onto – a little patch of land that lays claim to a fabled piece of Canadian agricultural history that continues to stand unparalleled to this day.

Cutline:

As a nod to heritage of Victoria Farms being the place where all Holstein cattle can trace their lineage back to, this painting by Coteau du Lac artist Carole Lessard has a slightly whimsical flare that commands attention. Adding a touch of the personal, the date of the homeowners’ wedding anniversary provides the number featured in the cow’s ear tag.