Commemoration
This is one of the few eighteenth-century Loyalist residences remaining in Ontario. William and Abigail Fairfield were among the first Loyalists to settle this area after the American Revolution. They arrived in 1784 and probably completed this farmhouse by 1793. Its symmetrical style and timber-frame construction evoke the architecture of the family’s native New England. Except for its verandahs and French windows, added by 1860, Fairfield House survives much as it was built. It offers rare evidence of building techniques and interior detailing from the Loyalist era. By 1959, when it was donated for public preservation, Fairfield House had been in the family for six generations.
Background
William Fairfield Sr. was a loyalist from Vermont. He arrived in the Kingston area in 1784.
You can get a guided tour of the house. The house is maintained by the St. Lawrence Parks Commission.
Amherstview is part of the Greater Kingston Area and largely a bedroom community for that municipality. It came into being in the 1950s as Kingston grew, although it has had loyalist settlers since the late 18th century.
It is named after Amherst Island which is in the river here. That, in turn, was named for Jeffrey Amherst, a Governor of British North America. As a general, he was a key architect of the British strategy in the Seven Years War that saw this land come under the British crown.