Heritage designation shouldn't scare off buyers: committee member
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One of the town’s most historic homes — the 1888 Quance house on Western Ave. — is up for sale.
Current owner Chris Wolfer, whose family has owned the home for more than 40 years, is having health problems and wants to put it on the market.
The buyer will get a grand two-storey brick structure with 27 rooms on a half-acre lot.
It has unique decorative pieces, known as corbels, that hang from under the eves and loads of woodwork and character inside.
It is also infused with the history of Delhi itself. The Quance family is synonymous with the town. They are one of Delhi’s early families and in the late 1800s owned the dam and mill that carries their name to this day.
The home was also the first in Delhi to have indoor plumbing as well as electricity — powered by the dam a short distance away.
“It’s a really special home,” said Wolfer. “People would come from miles around just to hydro in the windows.”
Whoever buys it, he said, “will have something you can be proud of. You can make it look good.”
Wolfer, 47, said he had a deal lined up, but the buyer got cold feet due to the official historic designation on the home, which protects certain features of the home from being changed.
The situation has put Wolfer in a bind. He is weighing whether or not to try to get the designation removed, a long and involved process.
Laurie McGregor, vice-chair of the Norfolk County Heritage Committee, said designations are not the all-encompassing restriction people often think they are.
“People think these designations tie their hands. They don’t,” she said. “We realize people have to live in these older buildings.”
Designations, including this one, protect specific parts of a home only. Owners are basically free to do what they want with the rest of a structure.
In the Quance home, the window and door openings are protected. So are the corbels, the roofline, and the facades. That means the red brick can’t be covered over with, say, plastic siding while the windows can be replaced but not covered up.
“There’s really nothing to it at all,” said McGregor.
The heritage committee, she added, is trying to contact the people who wanted to buy the home off Wolfer and explain to them what a designation actually means.
“We’re trying to help Chris get over this hump” and at the same time “satisfy the needs of the new purchaser,” McGregor said.
The home holds special significance for Wolfer, who lived there for 25 years, that go beyond its ties to the town.
His father bought the home in the early 1970s and liked the location in part because his two sons could walk to the arena on their own for early morning hockey practices.
His dad is also the one who got the heritage designation placed on the home in 1988.
But now Wolfer feels he must part with the house. “I need to sell because of my medical situation,” he said.
It would make a great bed and breakfast, Wolfer noted, or perhaps could serve some purpose if the municipality bought it.
Daniel R. Pearce
519-426-3528 ext. 132