Bellevue House could soon be Amherstburg property

The Town of Amherstburg will pursue the purchase of the historic 200-year-old Bellevue House, currently listed for just less than $2 million.

A numbered company owns the crumbling structure on Dalhousie Street.

• Bellevue House in Amherstburg up for sale at nearly $2M

Council unanimously voted to have Amherstburg CAO negotiate a deal for the house, which has connections to the War of 1812.

"No offence to the current owner, but the property has decayed to its current state. That is something that could continue if we don't take it over," Amherstburg Mayor Aldo DiCarlo said.

It is one of the few remaining examples of Georgian architecture in Ontario, according to the National Trust for Canada.

According to the trust's website:

"It was built in 1816-1819 by Robert Reynolds, the Commissary to the nearby British garrison at Fort Malden, after he returned from serving in the War of 1812."

Reynolds lived there with family, including his sister Catherine Reynolds, the artist whose landscape paintings provide records of early 19th-century life in Upper Canada, according to National Trust of Canada."

Bellevue House was declared a National Historic Site in 1959, and three years later wasselected for an OntarioHeritage Trust plaque.