McFarland House — Attraction in City of Niagara Falls

We visited the McFarland House, Friday July 25 th. Our visit started in the opulent gardens which were such a treat. They were a combination of Country English Garden that combined a fully versatile Kitchen Garden. What a world of abundance we would live in if we all planted with so much purpose and beauty.

As we entered the house there were three hosts were bubbling around. They were full of so much joy and laughter.

We signed up for a tour of the house to learn about the McFarland House, John McFarland and his family. That house had interesting features including the brickwork and the methods applied in building the house. Very interesting to anyone in construction or architecture. The guide highlighted many original features including peek holes into the original paints. The main stairway which was ahead of its time. The original locking mechanism on the front door. To one of the original cast iron heaters.

Upstairs they have set up the main bedroom, a child’s bedroom, a servants room (Which in all likelihood would not have been in the main house.) and as the house was used as a hospital during the war of 1812 there was a soldiers room. This area is ripe in history especially of the war of 1812. It is the focus of the tour.

My only disappointment was there was no mention of the history of of our First Nations and how this land came to be in the possession of the McFarlands. Not to takeaway from the families history. Yet to honour the history of these lands and how our country came to be.

Our tour was about 45 mins. We had some wonderful conversations with our tour guide and shared some trips down memory lane. We were able to share living history of seeing some of the artifacts in use in our families homes.

My Great Grandmother used a chamber pot and a bed warmer her passing in 1979. My Great Aunt always used a wash stand in her bedroom til early 1980’s There was a clay pipe similar to the one my husband had til 2020.

We were then fortunate to stay for High Tea in their beautiful Tea Room in the Conservatory. They were served by the tour guides in period dress. The sandwiches were watercress, cucumber and turkey. The scones cheese and chive, berry and plain with jam , cream and butter. Finished with an assortment of desserts and fruits.

You have a selection of teas to enjoy. We loved the Scottish Breakfast Tea. I indulged in a mimosa.

My only regret was not taking a picture of the Lady with the Pearls.

We are making plans to return for the Murder Mystery event they offer.

Accessibility of the fist floor was great. Sadly being a period home the 2nd floor would not be available to wheel chair users. I left my walker used my cane and they did provide spots to sit along the way.

If you wish to have high tea I would recommend...

This was the first time we have visited McFarland house, and we're very impressed. We arrived early for our tea room reservation, so we took the tour of the house. The tour was great, the tour guide Lex was fantastic very informative, knew a lot about the house, John McFarland himself and also the Era. He was funny during the tour with some of the explanations which was great. The tour last 30 minutes, it starts from the garden and ends back in the reception area. Our table was ready when we had finished the tour, so we were asked if we wanted to go in early. We decided on Afternoon tea, there is a good selection of teas, we chose Lavender Earl Grey, and Peach Earl Grey which were both great. The staff are all in period costume and the tearoom is a glass conservatory attached to McFarland house. The tea consisted of eight finger sandwiches, with fillings of chicken, egg, apple and cheese. Next level there were four plain scones and two cheese scones, with these was jam, butter and whipped cream. The top level was lemon squares, chocolate chip cookies. To be more authentic the tea could have been in proper tea pots (which are sold in the shop), and the whipped cream could have been clotted cream. The service was good, there were refills on the tea (two cups per pot) The price for the Afternoon tea was $39.95 per person which is a bit pricey and not something to do everything, but compared to the Prince of Wales at $55.00 to start per person it is not bad. I would recommend the McFarland house and tearoom, and would certainly go to the tearoom again but may just have the cream tea. I would recommend making a reservation for the tearoom, we went mid-week so not sure how busy it gets on weekends as there is...

First the positives. Lovely setting, dining room was quaint and atmosphere appeared to be exactly what I was looking for. I had brought 2 of my daughters here to celebrate their birthday and had planned the entire day to be a lovely experience for all 3 of us. Unfortunately all that changed. We were shown into the dining room with menu's and our waiter arrived shortly after. The tea menu was huge but our waiter did not appear to have much knowledge about the tea to help with our selections. There are 2 selections for lunch and we opted for the selection with the sparkling wine or mimosa choice. The food was OK but certainly not the quality I expected for the price. The tuna was not white, but the regular type which I would never purchase, the bread was a bit stale and the scones and desserts were obviously not homemade, which is what I expected. The waiter never returned to our table. Not to ask if everything was OK, not to ask if we wanted anything else (I had to get up and find someone else to order more sparking wines). This girl seemed to be more concerned that this would cost me extra which I knew. We also never had a bill delivered to our table even though we sat for a long time after we were finished eating. When we got to the front counter they could not find a bill for us. At $45.00 per person plus extra for the wine I really expected more. This restaurant is under the Niagara Parks umbrella which from all appearances is struggling. We did get a 15% discount on our bill for our disappearing waiter but none of us would...