In 1932, before there was an ACO, University of Toronto Professor of Architecture, Eric Arthur purchased Loyalist Barnum House near Grafton, Ontario. Like many buyers of heritage properties, he soon realized that he had invested in a money pit. But he had a solution to that problem: “Now that we had an unpainted house and a ruinous barn on our hands, it was obvious that something more had to be done and, at a meeting in Toronto, the Conservancy was born.”  In 1933, Eric Arthur and his friends founded the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, dedicated to “saving structures of architectural merit and places of natural beauty or interest.” Today, Barnum House, ACO’s first intervention to protect, is a beautifully conserved National Historic Site and museum house managed by the Ontario Heritage Trust. But, like all museum houses, Barnum House faces challenges that threaten its future; these challenges are being met by Ontario Heritage Trust and by ACO’s Cobourg branch.

Maintenance, conservation, attracting visitors, discovering new uses, funding, all are problematic for heritage buildings that should be open to the public. This is especially true for museum houses like Barnum House. In 2017 ACO Cobourg & East Northumberland met with Ontario Heritage Trust, which agreed to undertake a feasibility study for alternative uses, including the UK Landmark Trust model, where heritage properties become holiday rentals. The branch offered to become a key-holder, that would allow it to use the house for meetings and storage of its archives as well as field requests from community groups who might want to use the house.