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"A Home for All" ~ Mid-Century: 1840s - 1850s Tennant House floor plan. The basement is mostly above ground with 8' ceilings so it makes sense that main living areas would be in the basement. These rooms were servants' quarters or informal family rooms, with formal "public" rooms on the main floor. Tennant's beliefs burnt into the wood over the fireplace suggest why he built an octagon: "Short on gladness -learn to fake it, Long on sadness -go and shake it, Life is only what you make it -Anyway." The building has been much altered over the years, adapted as a Legion Hall, restaurant, and presently a spa. From Building With Wood and Other Aspects of Nineteenth Century Building in Ontario. University of Toronto Press, 1967. With permission.