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Forty-one years ago, my husband and I happened to drive by an unassuming modernist building that had a small “for sale” sign by the road. So began our love affair with the Hart Massey House in the historic heritage village of Rockcliffe Park – then independent, but now part of Ottawa.

Built in 1959, the house was designated a national historic site by the government of Canada in October. The citation describes it as “an iconic example of mid-20th-century modernism in residential architecture in Canada, and a Canadian example of International Style because of its sensitivity to its natural surroundings.”

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The property, a little more than 12,000 square feet in size, looks out over MacKay Lake.Adrienne Herron

Because of our concerns about privacy, we have resisted many requests in the past to publicize our house. But to celebrate its designation, we are now prepared to tell its story. Its designation as a national historic site provides no legal protection, but we expect that the powerful statement that it makes about our house’s importance as a piece of Canada’s architectural heritage will help preserve it long after we are gone.

Hart Massey – son of governor-general Vincent Massey – designed the house for his own family of four. “For an architect, there are more relaxing pursuits than building his own house and almost any number of safer ones,” he wrote. “Most architects are wise enough never to try and I would probably have been one of these if a quite beautiful site had not come my way some years ago.” Massey, educated at Oxford University, had served overseas as an intelligence officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, and then studied architecture at the University of Toronto.

The beautiful site he referred to came his way as a gift when he married Melodie Willis-O’Connor, whose parents severed a part of the property they owned on MacKay Lake – a small lake 10 minutes from downtown Ottawa – and gave it to the newlyweds. Melodie’s father, Colonel Henry Willis-O’Connor, had been aide-de-camp to General Sir Arthur Currie throughout the First World War and then served as ADC to five governors-general of Canada.

The property was a challenge to Massey. Not large – just over 12,000 square feet – it slopes steeply down to the lake. To preserve the setting, Massey tells us that he took an early decision to keep the house entirely above the ground on slender steel beams so that, in his words, it would not smother the site.

From the roadside, there is not much to see – a long, low, flat-roofed box topped by a row of triangular skylights, with no doorway. Massey says that “the whole house intentionally turns its back on the street for the sake of privacy.” But then, you are beckoned down a stone staircase – not visible from the street – to discover the first hidden garden (known to us as “Susie’s Slope") and beyond it a heavily treed woodland expanse.

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The Hart Massey House was built in Rockcliffe Park in 1959 and officially designated a national historic site by the federal government in October.Adrienne Herron

At the base of the stairs, the walkway turns sharply and you are taken by surprise by the stunning beauty of the lake ahead of you, framed by the simple precision of the balcony that leads to the red front door.

This ample balcony – tucked away from public view – is where we live much of the time from May to September. Facing east, sunrise over the lake is particularly ravishing, silhouetting herons and ducks about their early-morning business.

The house that confronts you – with its expanses of glass within a black steel frame – appears, rather mysteriously, to float on its thin steel columns. Simple, clean and elegant in form, without ornamentation of any kind, it honestly expresses its structure.

Inside, much of the time you feel that you are perched over the lake – not beside it. The line between indoor and outdoor space dissolves. Where there are walls, they are topped by clerestory windows so you can everywhere see outside and never feel confined. The finely proportioned, spare interior spaces would make a perfect setting for the best of mid-century-modern furniture – which we admire. However, when we bought the house, we had recently returned from living in England where we had learned much about 17th- and 18th-century English furniture, and had frequented the auction houses and antique stores in search of the best of the simpler elegant pieces. These now lend great warmth to the modernist interior of our house, along with hundreds of books, artworks and the loveable clutter that speaks of our lives.

When we bought the house from Massey in 1977, it had been rented for a number of years and needed much attention. As well, we discovered the truth in a comment that Massey had made about the design of the house – that it is not ideally suited to the Ottawa climate where half of the year is winter. The skylights dripped condensation all winter, the walls and floors were poorly insulated, and the great expanses of windows were far from the standards now available. It took two furnaces to heat the house.

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The house is described as 'an iconic example' of mid-20th-century modernist architecture.Adrienne Herron

It has been among our labours of love over the years to meticulously restore and maintain this house, and upgrade its materials where appropriate. Giving us great pleasure, we have spent endless time creating, from the raw landscape, naturalistic plantings that spill down the slopes in waves to gently envelop and soften the geometry of the house. We also acquired adjacent lakeside property to enlarge and protect the house’s natural setting in perpetuity.

The design of the house earned Hart Massey the Silver Medal of the Massey Awards for Architecture, the highest honour at the time. The gardens have since won awards. When the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada did a nationwide search for great Canadian architecture to mark the millennium, the Hart Massey House made the list. But of all the accolades the house has earned, the one that we most prize came many years ago from our neighbour across the road, the distinguished landscape architect Humphrey Carver. He said simply, the Hart Massey House is “an architectural treasure … beautiful and very cerebral.”

With his wife, Massey stopped by one day in 1993 when, unfortunately, we were out of town. He kindly wrote us of his reaction, saying: “This house is rather like a thoroughbred racehorse. … It demands special care and can sometimes be tricky in its behaviour. … It gave me great pleasure to see something I created about 30 years ago being so immaculately cared for and sparkling like new. May you and the house continue to have what is obviously a mutually beneficial association.”

And we say thank you to Hart Massey. We have had the great good fortune of living in, and sharing with so many others, the work of art he so meticulously and magically created.

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