Our Story
The Tisdale Mansion Historical Building
What / Why
What; The purchase and renovation of the Tisdale mansion to save it for future generations to enjoy.
Why; My First trip to Sackets Harbor was in 2011. While driving around town I spotted the Mansion. Where it was a beautiful stone structure and ground’s I also noticed its state of disrepair kind of gave me a sad feeling. For the next 14 years I drove by several times per year and watched it continue to go down - hill – the sadness deepened. In early 2024 I finally decided to make contact with the owner's, a wonderful older couple to see if they were interested in selling. It turns out they were interested in selling but they didn’t want to have a bunch of strangers in their house – so we made friends – friends for life, and did the deal.
So, the project began. The home was surrounded by trees and other vegetation some growing against the house. These trees made it very difficult to see the house. Project one was removing all the vegetation the blocked the view of the house. We actually did this clearing before we closed on the house.
The contractor removed all the trees on day one – the next day there were lots of cars driving past real slow taking pictures and giving us the thumbs up – since we began, we have had many people stop and thank us for what we are doing. It’s easy to tell the people of Sackets Harbor also love this home.
Since purchasing the Mansion people have asked me: What’s the end game? Then all I knew was to save the house and had no idea of what was next. It remains the same, to save her.
Here now at the end of 2025 we have the structure safe and secure - new roof, basement walls are buttressed up, copper gutters, functional shutters. She's now beautiful outside and we are moving into the inside. She is in remarkable condition inside. Some plaster work then wallpaper and floors and of course furnishing her to period correct.
Here at the beginning of 2026, we are all over stripping off all the 200-year-old floor paint and staining which is turning out to be a bigger job than we thought however we are just rolling up the sleeves so to speak and will master this step - you can check out this process in our tips section on the site. Also have begun to collect period correct furniture which is turning out to be fun.
Soon we will say; our work is done here and we will be ready to move to the next project with the hope there is someone out there that may love her as much as we do.
