St. Andrews, New Brunswick was recently recognized by USA Today as the top Canadian destination to visit. I thought it would be a great time to blog about my recent visit to the historic Van Horne Estate on Minister’s Island which is near St. Andrews.
You can only access Minister’s Island by driving across the ocean floor during low tide. As a result, the tourist site’s hours of operations vary daily. You can end up trapped on the island if you fail to return to the mainland before the tide comes in!
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- Ministers Island is situated in the Passamaquoddy Bay, which is named after the local First Nations people. Active fishing boats can be seen in the area.
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- The house is named Covenhoven and is one of many buildings on the island.
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- Many of the furnishings inside the house were auctioned off decades ago, but most pieces remain true to the time period. Many original pieces have since returned.
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- Ample natural light was something I noticed in so many of Covenhoven’s 50 rooms.
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- The house is tastefully decorated to showcase various activities and hobbies of the Van Horne family.
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- These dolls are creepy.
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- Self portrait!
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- This picture doesn’t do it justice, but this is actually a really large pool table, measuring 6 feet by 12 feet.
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- The bath house was constructed from stone harvested from the shoreline. The removal of this rock created a large hole, which fills up with tide water to function as a swimming pool. The sun would warm the water. Today, it is completely full of sand.