Lorna Somers says there was "serendipity" in her move to 340 Dundas St. E. in the early '90s.
When she and her husband bought the house, also known as Eager House and Little Woods, the Eager family had owned it for more than a century. Somers and her husband were the second family to move into a home that had been built in 1871.
Now, Somers is selling the home. In an interview with FlamboroughToday, she reflected on her three and a half decades in the house.
“I felt like I was a steward and still am a steward of the house, which is why I'm delighted it's going to be designated,” she said.
Eager House is currently being considered for a historic designation, which would protect its exterior from being changed.
Somers, who grew up in nearby Aldershot, said she had always wanted to see inside the home on Vinegar Hill when she was younger.
The last Eager to live in the home was Helen Eager, who passed away in 1988. She left the home to her two nephews and one niece.
"And by coincidence my husband, who was a curator, had been in the house to pick up three William Kurelek paintings which are very, very important Canadian paintings, when Helen died. So he had been in the house,” she said.
After they moved into the house, Somers said she was at a work event for McMaster University, when she met a professor from Carleton University who had his own long history with the home.
“I said, ‘I've just moved from Aldershot to Waterdown. I bought this beautiful old house called the Eager House and he looked at me and he said, ‘I actually grew up in that house. I spent every summer in that house.’”
The man was one of Helen Eager's nephews.
“We became very good friends. I'd visit him in Ottawa, he'd come down and visit the house and tell me about it,” she said.
A home fit for a museum
Somers’s home garnered attention in March of this year, when it was put up for sale and photos of its interior were posted online and featured in The Hamilton Spectator, showing her extensive collections.
Somers is currently the vice president of Mohawk College’s advancement and alumni engagement, and said she has taught around the world for around 35 years.
And over those years, she has collected hundreds of unique items from her travels, which were displayed in her home.
Somers collected art, textiles, and other items which were displayed around Eager House, her very own museum exhibit.
“I've been a collector my whole life and one of the things I loved about the house is that it was so adaptable. I did a lot of work in Africa, so all of my collections of African pieces or Indian or Mexican, the textiles I've collected, have just been right at home in that house,” she said.
“It’s been such a great showcase.”
Most of those collections have been packed away, as Somers prepares to sell the house and retire to a farm nearby. She said the home now only has the essentials in it; all of her collections have gone elsewhere.
"But it's a lifetime of collecting and it hasn't stopped. I was still collecting last week when I was in England, so old habits die hard,” she said.
Home's original features 'have meaning' in 'disposable' world
Letting go of Eager House hasn’t been easy, Somers said, as the home's spirit and charm of the home are so important to her.
“It’s very, very painful,” she said, especially when she thinks about the new owners potentially renovating the inside of the home.
Somers said she tried to keep its original features intact in her time there, and that she hopes the next people to move in will be able to appreciate the house for what it is.
She said it pains her to think of someone doing a full interior renovation and modernizing the inside of the home to fit the most recent trends.
“I know things can’t be preserved in amber forever,” she said, adding that she hopes certain aspects of the home will be preserved because of their historic importance.
Things like the 153-year-old glass in all of the home's windows, and the original 18-inch baseboards and a massive folding door between its front and back parlours— all original features from when the house was built.
“These things have meaning in a world that is very disposable. Throw away this, buy it tomorrow, throw it away the next day. That's not the way these houses were built and that's not sustainable,” she said.
“But there's only so much I can do. I've been a steward for almost four decades. I have loved it and cared for Eager House. I've got to make a move as I think about retirement and, fingers crossed, someone will love [the home] as much as we have.”
