Minister's Island

Because we were so close to St. Andrews from St. George (only 22 km away) and...

Just a short drive across the ocean floor on the bar at low tide will take you to the summer residence of that visionary railway builder Sir William Van Horne.

It contained some fifty rooms, seventeen of which were bedrooms, and a grand drawing room as large as many of today's homes. Of course, there were servants' quarters and a huge dining room as well as a billiard room where his ornate six by twelve table still stands today.

Also constructed from the quarried beach stone is the circular bathhouse where Sir William would spend hours enjoying his hobby of drawing and painting.

Perhaps the loyalist Anglican minister, Parson Andrews whose old stone house (c 1790) still stands and for whom the island was named, felt the same magic that Sir William felt one hundred years later. Now another hundred years has passed and the mystique remains.

Thanks for the tour. Now to drive back across the ocean floor before the tide changes.