Fairfield-Gutzeit House History

The Fairfield Gutzeit House
1. A Short History of the Fairfield-Gutzeit Estate, Bath

William and Benjamin Fairfield, sons of William Fairfield Sr., United Empire Loyalist, purchased Lot 11, Con 1 in Ernestown from the original Loyalist grantee George McGinnis in 1793. They built, in 1796, what is now known as the Fairfield-Gutzeit House. Both brothers were prominent in the community, serving as members of the Legislative Assembly. William was a magistrate and a commissioner of roads, and Benjamin was a member of the Court of Quarter Session and a businessman with special interests in shipping. The Walling Map of 1859 lists the property as belonging to Benjamin, son of W.J. Fairfield, Post Master and Collector of Customs.

House Ownership History:

The house remained in the Fairfield family until 1860s. After that the property left the family, being owned by C.F. Gildersleeve and later by the Mon. B. Seymore. In 1900 the boathouse, having been built on Campion’s Point as a house was towed across the ice to the present location. From 1900-1938 the house, now called "Bay View Villa, was used as a summer home and fishing lodge by Americans, Gilbert and Wallace Brown from Newark, New Jersey. In 1938, the estate returned to the Fairfields when Dr. William Gutzeit and his wife Mabel Fairfield Gutzeit, a great-granddaughter of William, purchased the property and created the lovely home you visit today. Mrs. Gutzeit bequeathed it to the St. Lawrence Parks Commission in 1961.

Mabel Fairfield Gutzeit:

Mabel Fairfield Gutzeit was a Fairfield descendent born in Belleville, Ontario, While training to be a nurse in New York City, she met her future husband, Dr. W.H. Gutzeit. When she returned to nurse in Canada in the Kirkland Lake area, Dr. Gutzeit followed and they were married in 1911, She was a member of the Toronto Branch of the United Empire Loyalists and was instrumental in the restoration on the "United Empire Loyalist Burial Grounds" at Adolphustown. She also worked hard to help St. John’s Anglican Church, Bath to acquire a new organ. Wartime efforts included a garden party, which realized over $500.00 for the orphans of Bath, England.

Dr, William H. Gutzeit:

Dr. Gutzeit was born of a musical family in the United States where he became a successful organist at the very young age of ten, and later received his doctorate in music. Dr. Gutzeit established himself as a choirmaster, organist, composer, teacher of voice and instruments in Toronto and Kingston. In 1911 after the marriage to Mabel Fairfield he became a Canadian citizen. During their long residence in Toronto he took an active part in the musical life of the city being organist of Wesley, Parkdale and Rosedale United Churches. He also studied traditional Hebrew music at the Holy Blossom Synagogue. After moving to Bath he became choirmaster and organist at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Kingston. At that time he wrote and produced with his own choir two oratorios - Joseph and His Brethren and David the Shephard King. Rev. L.G. Osborne-Walker of Bath assisted in compiling the Biblical text. Indeed a truly gifted man who "gave so devotedly of his talent to the service of God," Dr. Gutzeit passed away on October 6th, 1949’

The Gutzeits enjoyed a very active social life; they held musical evenings in which Dr. Gutzeit would play the piano and Mabel would sing and play the harp. Cultural interests also extended to collecting the paintings and furnishings which remain in the house today.

The Fairfield-Gutzeit House
2. Description
The original building was a simple, I 1/2 storey structure with an unadorned, steep-pitched roof which reflects the origins of the Fairfield family in Vermont, The rectangular shape with a plain roofline would have been free of dormers, gables or porches. Many features of the original Georgian structure survive, such as the south facade with a central doorway flanked by sidelights and two windows on either side. The doorway leads to a central hall, extending the symmetry to the interior.

The interior plan with an end chimney and one centered between adjoining rooms is an early one. The main walls and the partition remaining between the hall and east end rooms are filled with a nogging of clay mixed with straw and reinforced with split sticks. The timbers supporting the ground floor are hewn and mainly oak. The large room now occupying the westerly end of the house downstairs was formerly two room. Dr. and Mrs. Gutzeit opened the space as a music room by removing a partition of handmade brick. When these changes took place during WWII, the ceiling beams also were exposed. Some of the old floors have been retained and the stair plan is an early form. The balustrade and newels are representative of the turn of the 19th century.

Other details from that early period are the brass thumb latches, some chair rails and broad cyma and fillet moulded trim the "H and H-L" form hinges are reported to be original to the house. It appears that the dining room was once two rooms – one a kitchen and the other a smaller room on the south end. The present kitchen seems to have been a summer kitchen and woodshed.

The Boathouse

The Fairfield/Gutzeit school project garden . Members of the Landscaping committee and children from the Bath Public School put in a garden every year, planting vegetables that would have been grown in 1796.

The house is now clapboard on the exterior. Harrington in 1913 described the house as being rough-cast. The quoins even at that time were painted to contrast with the rest of the building. Many changes have taken place in the Fairfield-Gutzeit House. Its evolution demonstrates the economic conditions of 1900-1950, the lack of materials and skilled labour during wartime and the early attitudes toward restoration in a rural community in the 1930’s. As such, it is a valuable social history of the Village.

More Pictures of the House

The Fairfield-Gutzeit House	2. Description The original building was a simple, I 1/2 storey structure with an unadorned, steep-pitched roof which reflects the origins of the Fairfield family in Vermont, The rectangular shape with a plain roofline would have been free of dormers, gables or porches. Many features of the original Georgian structure survive, such as the south facade with a central doorway flanked by sidelights and two windows on either side. The doorway leads to a central hall, extending the symmetry to the interior. The interior plan with an end chimney and one centered between adjoining rooms is an early one. The main walls and the partition remaining between the hall and east end rooms are filled with a nogging of clay mixed with straw and reinforced with split sticks. The timbers supporting the ground floor are hewn and mainly oak. The large room now occupying the westerly end of the house downstairs was formerly two room. Dr. and Mrs. Gutzeit opened the space as a music room by removing a partition of handmade brick. When these changes took place during WWII, the ceiling beams also were exposed. Some of the old floors have been retained and the stair plan is an early form. The balustrade and newels are representative of the turn of the 19th century. Other details from that early period are the brass thumb latches, some chair rails and broad cyma and fillet moulded trim the "H and H-L" form hinges are reported to be original to the house. It appears that the dining room was once two rooms – one a kitchen and the other a smaller room on the south end. The present kitchen seems to have been a summer kitchen and woodshed.
The Boathouse
The Fairfield/Gutzeit school project garden . Members of the Landscaping committee and children from the Bath Public School put in a garden every year, planting vegetables that would have been grown in 1796.