For 35 years, Henry Island has been a private retreat for William F. Baker and his wife, Jeannemarie Gelin-Baker. The couple, who purchased the remote property in 1991, used it as a holiday home. The 220-acre remote isle off the coast of Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island has a four-bedroom house and a functioning 53-foot lighthouse dating from 1902. After owning it for more than three decades, the couple has listed the property for C$6.99 million, according to a report by CBC. The most interesting part? The only way to reach the property is by boat or helicopter!
The history of the island
Pic credit: Sotheby’s International Realty
A working lighthouse, a red-and-white house and about 220 acres of cliffs, coves and forest are for sale off Port Hood, Nova Scotia! Henry Island sits about four kilometres offshore from Port Hood, on the west coast of Cape Breton. The Bakers are not the first family to own the isle. The island was first settled in 1832 and named after the son of a Halifax admiral who was stationed in the city in the mid-1700s, according to Cottage Life. A post office opened five decades later. By the turn of the century, a general store there served fishermen during the season. Those buildings are gone now. The lighthouse survived. It went into operation around December 1902 and stands 53 feet tall. Parks Canada recognised the tower as a federal heritage building in 1991, describing it as a wooden tower with a cast-iron lantern.
The Bakers’ 35 years on the island
Pic credit: Sotheby’s International Realty
William F. Baker and his wife, Jeannemarie Gelin-Baker, bought the island in 1991. Baker, who grew up on the shores of Lake Erie, had a soft spot for lighthouses. When he heard about an island off Nova Scotia with one, he went to see it.“Lighthouses are pretty special,” Baker told the broadcaster. “They represent the very best of humanity, really selfless, helping others with no payment in return. That’s what a lighthouse stands for, and that’s what the lighthouse has meant over the centuries. So being part of all that, it’s virtually religious.”The house needed work when they arrived. The Bakers restored it, and the island became a summer home they returned to for decades.“We’d come every year and spend two or three weeks repairing and fixing and painting and all. But it was such a powerful distraction. It took my mind off all of my work in New York City and the pressure of the film and TV business,” he told the broadcaster.
The sale listing
Pic credit: Sotheby’s International Realty
The house is now fully renovated and makes for a perfect off-the-grid property. Rainwater is harvested for drinking. The house is solar-powered, as is the outhouse. Baker also wrote a book about his days on the island, Lighthouse Island: Our Family Escape. So it’s pretty much famous. The property is listed by Angie Bryant of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.Why are they selling the property after 35 years? Well, the couple feels it is time to “pass the torch”.“I think they’re just getting to the stage in life where they feel it’s time to pass the torch,” Angie Bryant told the outlet. “Mr. Baker is in his 80s and had hoped that his family would take over the island, but they all live in different parts of the world now, and it’s getting more difficult to make the trip back and forth.”Baker is in his 80s, and he had hoped his family would take over the island. But his children and grandchildren now live in different parts of the world, and the trip back and forth has become increasingly difficult.They are not in a hurry to offload the property either. They want to find a buyer who would keep Henry Island as untouched as possible. “So something has to be done, and it’s too precious just to close the door and let it sit and rot. We’re not gonna let that happen,” they told the broadcaster.
