What do James Bond, black ravens, and chalkboards all have in common? The answer: They all have a dark and mysterious story to tell. And they all feature prominently in the upcoming tour of the old St. Mary School building.
The building is now the unique home of Cyntha and David Burgoyne, who are opening their doors for a home tour on Saturday, Oct. 24, as part of the Chelsea Chamber’s Hometown Halloween celebrations. The tour is a fundraiser for the Chelsea Parks & Pathways Sustainability Fund.
“Living across the street and seeing all the work and consideration that went into making the Holmes Family Park, it was hard not to be inspired to help in some way,” said Cyntha Burgoyne.
The Burgoynes bought the building in 2016. Before that, it served the community well for more than 90 years as the St. Mary School and then as the Chelsea Center for the Arts.
“We had our home on the historical society’s holiday home tour and it stirred up a lot of interest,” said Burgoyne. In fact, people stop by every day asking if they can come in and look around, she added.
Visitors to the home will be enchanted by Burgoyne’s style. She describes her decorating style as an eclectic mix of traditional, gothic, and primitive, always with a bit of quirkiness.
Most of the furniture in the house had a long and interesting life, from a Venetian wardrobe to twig display tables scored from the Garden Mill when it closed.
“I am a big reuse, repurpose decorator,” said Burgoyne, who has a fine arts background. “I’m lucky my husband David is very handy. Some of my pieces have been found for free on the side of the road in Chelsea.”
All rooms will be on display, including the state-of-the-art kitchen and bathrooms, a designer deck, and the classrooms, many of which serve as bedrooms that can host up to 27 family members. The old school locker rooms are there, too, as well as the nun’s office.
The old gymnasium, currently a holding room for collected artifacts and equipment needed for new transformations, will also be on the tour. Over the decades, the gym was home for St. Mary student basketball games and graduations, a scouting Pinewood Derby, Chelsea Center for the Arts fundraisers, and Purple Rose Theatre rehearsals.
For the October tour, Burgoyne is working with a theme she’s calling Dark Academia. “It’s a little bit Harry Potter, a little bit Edgar Allan Poe, and a little bit gothic … from hanging candles to ravens’ nests to skeleton stair minders. It’s going to be lovely, dark, and mysterious.”
All proceeds from the tour benefit the Chelsea Parks & Pathways Sustainability Fund, a new partnership between Chelsea Area Friends for Recreation and the Main Street Park Alliance to help support major projects that will keep Chelsea parks updated.
“I love that this event is happening around Halloween. Our first year here we went on the Chelsea Area Historical Society’s Haunted Chelsea walking tour and, much to our surprise, the old school was on it. It seems full circle,” said Burgoyne.
The tour runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Burgoyne home, 400 Congdon St. Tour tickets are $25; kids under 12 are free. To purchase, visit zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/old-st-marycca-building-home-tour. Tickets will also be available at the door on the day of the event.
For more information about Chelsea Area Friends for Recreation, visit chelseacafr.org. For more information about the Main Street Park Alliance, visit mainstreetpark.org.
Thanks to Shawn Personke for the information in this story.
