The Doll's House and Ste. Anne's

There's a quaint, stone cottage that has a tiny turret on the outside. Located in Grafton at Ste. Anne's Spa, it's what I still like to call the Doll's House, even though it was recently renovated and renamed.

Four close girlfriends and I called it our tiny dream escape for many years in a row. The Doll's House, with its cozy, rustic rooms that housed most of us upstairs and down, helped get us through the drab mid-point of winter – at least 48 hours of it.

Once inside the Doll's House, we'd wrap ourselves in warm blankets after various treatments, or a yoga class in the nearby main building. We'd whip up some makeshift appetizers in the small kitchen, and watch the sun go down from the windows that looked out into the hills.

We never had to change out of our spa robes for meals (an unwritten rule we loved about Ste. Anne's). They became our dinner jackets. We'd shove our bare feet into winter boots, then march briskly (more like run) across the cleared stone path. Our destination: the warm, main building where we'd enjoy an incredible meal.

Even though a few in our group stayed in the main inn, after dinner we'd all return to the Doll's House. The little turret room had a small fireplace for warmth, and we'd gather there, and talk and laugh – for hours – not an iPhone or flat screen in sight.

Simple. Comfortable, country peace.

The past is part of the comfort of Ste. Anne's. So how did this magnificent "Grafton castle" come into being?

The fieldstone country estate now known as Ste. Anne's Spa first got its start as a stone house built in 1858 by Samuel Massey (a family later known for its farm equipment name). Mr. Massey chose the location based on its elevation overlooking the rolling hills with Lake Ontario on the horizon.

In 1939, stone additions to the home and outbuildings were started by its owners, the Blaffers (a Texas oil family). Mrs. Blaffer hired an American architect with a summer home in Cobourg to give the estate the same look as the stone cottages in the UK's Cotswolds.

Much of the stone came from the foundations of abandoned barns and Northumberland's original Academy Hill School. The additions were built with timber framing and finished in random stone.

As recounted on the Ste. Anne's website: The Blaffers named their summer home "Ste. Anne’s after Canada’s patron saint, Ste. Anne de Beaupre". Much later, in the spring of 1981, a newspaper ad offered a castle for sale in the Northumberland Hills. Mrs. Nan Corcoran was shown through the old stone house by flashlight. Nan returned to her husband Carl and initially said, “Forget it! 

Despite its rundown appearance, the house intrigued the Corcoran family. They purchased it and undertook a restoration that lasted more than two years. In 1991, Jim Corcoran, second son to Nan and Carl, introduced elements of a Country Inn, then a larger spa destination.

Today, due to meticulous work and care, Ste. Anne's is Canada's largest destination spa.

I recently called Ste. Anne's to ask about staying in the Doll's House. I discovered it's been remodeled. "It's really lovely," I was told, and is now two completely separate units upstairs and down. The outside is similar, but is now bigger and with larger outside deck space. It's also been renamed in memory of the much-loved Port Hope painter, illustrator and writer, Martha Robinson.

Ste. Anne's now features 28 treatment rooms, 15 guest accommodations in the main inn and 7 spa cottages. In a typical year, it welcomes about 30,000 guests.

As I think back to our little Doll's House (and now, the Martha Robinson Cottage), I don't think of Ste. Anne's as a crowded place. From the small stone cherub that I remember placed in the cottage's turret wall, Ste. Anne's reminds me of our history. And its namesake will remain my patron saint of both wellness and friendship.

(Note: You can read more about Ste. Anne's history on the Ste. Anne's website here, or in more detail in The History of Ste. Anne's Country Inn and Spa written by Patricia Sullivan.)

STE ANNE’S SPA

1009 Massey Rd., Grafton

888-346-6772 • SteAnnes.com

By Heather Starke

*Article written based on experiences prior to COVID-19.