In hopes of restoring a heritage home that has deep roots to the Poplar Grove region at Innisfail, the Innisfail Historical Village is looking for some further monetary support.

Last fall they completed phase 1 of their Sinclair House project, moving it from the Thomson family west of Innisfail onto a new foundation at their site, now it's in need of a new roof and further work to make it ready for visitors.

Lawrence Gould with the Historical Village Board of Directors explains the historical significance of the home, which dates back to 1888.

(Sinclair House - photo courtesy Central Alberta Historical Society Facebook Page)

“The Brown’s, two brothers come out here working on the CPR railroad, and they were building bridges, and then their sister came out, she kind of done the housekeeping for them and then she met David Sinclair and they got married, but she was the first Caucasian woman in this area.  It’s the significance of all the settlers that come out here and settler in here and this is one of the houses that tells that story”.

Gould says unfortunately they ran into some unexpected costs for phase 1 so they had to dip into much of the funds they had earmarked for this second phase of restoration.

“We didn’t have to pay for the move, but we had to pay for the foundation and we had to pay for taking the asbestos out of the house.  We had to hire a company that does that, they charged us $25,000, we didn’t expect to have that cost on the first phase.  The first phase of it cost us about $70,000”.

The group recently made a pitch to Innisfail Town Council for some further monetary support, they're working to access some grant dollars and are turning to the community for donations to help make the project a reality.