S1 | Rewind Design | E3 Sadie on Action Island
Sadie on Action Island
A steamy story of provocative island history, an original 1898 cottage, string quartets, bootlegging gin and a undying love of Georgian Bay!
On this week's episode, we have an incredibly captivating story, which just might be the most fascinating, intriguing and sexy one yet. Today I speak with lifelong cottager Sadie who has flipped my world upside down with her breathtaking cottage history. Sadie shares the history of her Georgian Bay Island, how her grandparents acquired the striking island property in the 60’s and how the whispers of this property’s true origins baffled her family for decades until they found out the seductive truth behind their 1898 original island cottage. There were unmistakable clues sprinkled around the property that took a lifetime to unravel. I won’t give any more away in this intro, this story is way too extraordinary! If you are dying to learn the meaning behind their Island’s colloquial name, it’s not just the island that was getting a lot of action…
Understanding the giggles and the laughs in town, understanding, you know, the things I found in the ice house, the things I found in the dump and some of the other things about the place all started making sense to me then. And it all started making sense to Terry when he came out here. Yeah. I was finding jars of face creams. I was finding used tubes of different, um, hair creams that looked like they were all from maybe like the thirties or forties brands that I've never heard of and like hair products, I've never even heard of, you know, so just different things that seemed really, really odd along with, I was also finding a lot of bottles that appeared to be gin bottles as well….
- Sadie on Action Island
Let’s backtrack for a moment - One day on Instagram I got a message from an account that I hadn’t heard of before called @islandgirltalk… and the message started with "I’ve taken a look at your blog, and I think you’ll want to hear my story”. So we started chatting and what she revealed to me was beyond exciting! The more you research a place, the more you realize you really know nothing about it at all!
Without further ado, let’s jump into Episode #3 Sadie on Action Island - listen below, or on your favourite podcast platform. Just search for “Rewind Design” and look for Episode #3.
Sadie answers my questions!
Where is your property located, is it land or water access and what body of water does it sit on?
We are a water access only island cottage in the Big Sound of Georgian Bay.
Can you describe your property, and your buildings over time?
The island size really varies year to year based on the water level - more so than a lot of properties as our shoreline is much more sloped.
The buildings on our island were built in 1898, and they were built with used building supplies that were taken from a farmhouse near Parry Sound that was being torn down. So though the buildings are now 124 years old, the materials are much older.
In 1898 the owners of the island built a large cottage in the center of the island, a smaller four bedroom cottage, a large boathouse with an apartment on top, a double walled insulated icehouse, and an outhouse.
The small four bedroom cottage is still standing, as well as the icehouse and outhouse.
The ice took out the boathouse in 1961, yet the cribbing for it remains. What happened to the large main cottage though remains a mystery.
Can you describe for the readers what your cottage looks like, the type of construction and the general feeling of the cottage?
Our cottage is a traditional Muskoka style cottage, like you would see there back in the day. Many also describe it as something similar to what you would see in Point Au Baril. Though it is small at 654 square feet, the layout and wrap around porches make it feel much larger. There’s a center living room with a large store fireplace that was built with rocks from the island. The person who built the fireplace put his signature on it, which is having the lightest colored stone at the top in the center.
from 1963 to now
The cottage is still standing in it’s original glory
Do you know who built your cottage + who may have designed it?
We are unsure.
How did you end up here - is this a recent purchase or a family generational cottage?
After spending seven summers renting a cottage at Inverlochy Resort on Deep Bay, my grandparents decided to purchase our place in the early 1960s. I’ve been spending my summers here since I was born.
How long have you owned this property and what drew you or your family to the area?
We have owned our property since the early 1960s. Like so many other Northeast Ohioans up here oddly enough, we learned of the Parry Sound area of Georgian Bay from my grandfather’s barber who always said that this is where you find the best fishing. I’ve heard this same story from so many other Ohioans up here and I really wonder if they all had the same barber, who just talked up Georgian Bay to everyone or if multiple barbers were doing that.
What can you tell me anything about the history of your property?
Though we are not sure if our island cottage was built with this intention or not, for a large chunk of its life, our island was notoriously known as a type of party island. String quartets would be brought up on the train from Toronto on weekends to play in the front yard to greet guests. The small cottage, which was a brothel, was where the parties were. There was also gambling, and lots of gin drinking (the gin was made on site).
In the boathouse was a 30ft launch style boat, which was used in the bootlegging, transporting gin to Parry Island. This was a big business as prohibition existed in the town of Parry Sound until the mid 1950s due to the Beatty Covenant.
The larger main cottage, which went away long before our time was where the owner lived.
During the world wars, CIL workers lived in our cottage year round and they would travel across the bay year round to work at the CIL plant.
30’ launch style boat
a 30’ wood racer used to sit at the once standing boathouse which had a full apartment on top. This boat was most likely used for bootlegging gin to main land during the Beatty Covenant and beyond. (this photo is for reference, the original boat was destroyed!)
coffee table
Made from the hatch of the 30’ launch still sits in their cottage living room to this day!
What is a special tradition you do at your cottage?
Our cottage has so many traditions. Some notable ones include our sail away parties that we have every time a cruise ship is in town. As a former cruise ship social director, my mom understood the importance of a good sail away party to celebrate moving on to your next port. When the cruise ships began frequenting the port of Parry Sound in 2015, my mom was beyond excited. Even though she obviously wasn’t aboard, she thought this was the best thing ever and absolutely something to celebrate. She soon realized that even though we weren’t on the cruise ships ourselves, we could still have our own sail away parties where we could drink rum drinks, watch the cruise ships crossing through the Big Sound, and dance the night away pretending that we are on the lido deck having the time of our lives. Some of our sail away parties would even last well into the night.
Other traditions include my opening weekend talk in the front yard with the former owner of our cottage who lost the place to foreclosure. We’ve learned over the years that if any of his items are disturbed or moved out of the icehouse, guests will soon start having problems where they will daily get locked out of the cottage or locked inside the outhouse. Since I have started the tradition of having my annual chat with the former owner in the front yard, we haven’t had issues though. In our chat, I thank him for taking such great care of the place all winter long for us, and assure him that we will take care of the place all summer for him so he can take the summer off and relax.
I have kept the island gin making tradition alive by making my own homemade gin using juniper berries from the island.
the loo, the john the outhouse!
the original 1898 two seater outhouse is still standing strong and is the only toilet on the property.
What kind of activities do you do at the cottage?
I hike and kayak a lot, and I love to explore the bay in our boat. Cottage maintenance takes up a lot of my time too.
What year was your cottage built?
It was built in 1898 from repurposed building materials from a local mainland farmhouse that was being torn down.
Is this the original cottage - have you done any updates to it?
Not much has changed at our cottage since 1898 other than we added a propane kitchen in the early 1960s. We have also added a small solar system to charge phones and so we can have a few lights. Much of the furniture is even still original..
Have you had any design challenges at the cottage? (ex septic issues, no electricity, no dishwasher)
The largest challenge will always be the weather. The Big Sound can have some really rough water, which makes getting back and forth to mainland at times unsafe and / or impossible. It can be frustrating when mainland is so close, yet because of rough conditions it can seem so far away. Because of that we have to always be prepared in terms of having enough supplies, and being self sufficient enough that we are able to take care of problems on our own.
What do you like most about your cottage, and what do you like least?
As so many people say about our cottage, the porch is truly magical. It’s where life gets figured out, it’s where the big talks and big laughs happen, and it’s a beautiful constant in an ever changing world.
What do you have at your cottage to make it feel like home + unique?
Since I’ve lived here 10 weeks a year for my whole life, I’ve really lived here longer than anywhere else. This is what feels like home.
the infamous cottage porch
As so many people say about our cottage, the porch is truly magical. It’s where life gets figured out, it’s where the big talks and big laughs happen, and it’s a beautiful constant in an ever changing world - Sadie
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Katy McNabb xo