Captain William Kennedy left the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in 1846 after a disagreement with his employers.

In 1851, he ventured north as commander of a crew searching for Sir John Franklin’s Party who vanished five years earlier while searching for the Northwest Passage.

After three years of searching, Kennedy found no trace of Franklin and returned to work with the HBC in 1860. Six years later, after settling in St. Andrews, Manitoba, work began on his new home. The walls are built with local stone, taken from the banks of the Red River at the St. Andrews Rapids. Georgian style architecture was favoured for stone house construction in Manitoba. These homes were rectilinear with symmetrical facades.

Kennedy’s house, however, draws more from Gothic Revival style with a more irregular outline with a sharply pitched gabled roofline. The windows, rectangular and double-hung, are cased in wood frames and been painted a historically accurate green. The painted window frames contrast with the lighter colouring of the limestone walls.

Kennedy lived in the home until his death in 1890, and today is remembered as an advocate for confederation and a founding member of the Manitoba Historical Society. His home is part of the River Road Heritage Parkway.