The Goderich Signal-Star, 1974-04-25, Page 156w
Comni;issione.
JIM
once
s mansion
centre of society
The Canada, Company, house
on West Street, where
Elizabeth Mary (Strachan)
Jones entertained in the 1840s
such of the Goderich set-
tlement's society as were wor-
thy, is today on the, market.
Through 1'44 years it has
been a Commissioner's
residence, a bank, riotel,
restaurant and rooming -house.'
Its sole resident now is the
proprietor, Dmytri Pvsaniuk.
Ccs
He occupies, appropriately,
Room No. 1 on the second
floor, where the ancient
fireplace has been closed off in,
favor of oil heat.
There is no longer any,
revenuem to speak of, and as
real estate and business tax
amount to about $1,400, Mt,
Pysan`iuk listens with satisfac-
tion to news of soaring prices
for housing. ' He- bought the
property from the town in 1951,
Original. fireplace (1840) an main floor of Park House.
(
Fireplace and mantel in former dining -room of Park House.
Closed -off fireplace in Room No. 1,,Mr. Pusani'uk's private
q.perters•
ou
M
coming from Manitoulin, where
his hotel burned.
For most of its history, the,,
building has been known as the
Park House. Mr. Pysaniuk calls
it the oldest house in town, and
so it is, as the slightly older log
Ouse at Ridgewood Park,is in
Colborne township..
The concensus is that, the
Park House was_built in 1840,
or completed inrthat year, when
Commissioner., Thomas Mercer
Jories, successor to John Galt,
moved up from •Toronto .and
made_ the office here the corn-
pany's headquarters. At ,the
end of 1952 the head office was
moved back to Toronto.
Jones brought'a wagon -train
of furniture over' the .Huron
'toad, also a number of ser-
vants. His, wife, one of four
daughters of Bishop John
Strachan, of Toronto, enter-
tained lavishly in her new
home, giving; numerous dinners
and balls, and offending many
by her aristocratic ways.
History attributes to• Jones
similarly poor public relations.
NOTE: NOT AN OFFICE
This story of the .Park House
must begin with an asertiou-
that the building never It any
time. was the compo ny' S1 office,
That is contrary to general
belief, butconsider' the facts:
(1) The term "Goderich Office
Reserve" was used long efore
the house was built, an ap-
plied to the whole area: from
Wellington_ Street to, the west
"end. of harbor park: (2) The
original office was a log
building of several. section., the
first erected by Dr. Wil' iam
Dunlop's workmen. He stayed
`there for some time and called
it "The Castle:" .He as
followed by ';`Pryor, Wid er
and Strachan," in other wo ds
the company staff. (3) There is'
no evidence that the• staff left
the, log office. for the Jones
residence in t.840.
The w'Commissioner's wife
would never have allowed Sur-
'veyor John/Macdonald and his
chainmen,' or even Charles
Widder and his clerks: to gallop
through her parlor and dining-
-
U
-
Pub .Uc Library
Montreal Street.
derich On art .
51 D p.
room. And remember, the
building was- of two storeys
only when the Joneses,were in
residence: The third storey
dates from 1\946. -
The original log ,office
building stood until the 1870s,
hence must . have been ' i n good
shape up to 1853, when no
longer needed. It ought, of
course, to have been preserved
for historical reasons.
• As related upon'another oc-
casion, Charles Widder rejected
instructions to join. the Toronto
staff. He had purchased from
the Canada' Company, in 1851,
Lot 16 and parts of Lots 13, 14,.
-15 4 and' 17, in the Office
Reserve. _Thereafter he built,
though not all at -once, the big
house he had promised Lucy.
Bennett Rich before their
marriage, and which now
belongs to Cayley Hill.
Goderich owed its existence
to its location, as a potential
port; and Mr. Widder doubtless-
for'es'aw the . coming of ' the
railway (1858), and ..perhaps
even a grain elevator, but not
-such a tall one as now shuts off
the view from the house, facing
north.
TWO• MA'ITL'ANDS
Having established, some
months ago,". that the hotel
which years ago stood opposite
the Grand Trunk station was
the Maitland Hotel, it becomes
necessary now to' report that
there were twc of the name,
though not at one 'time.
The Goderich Star in 1874
noted the closing of the,
Maitland "Hensel, after many
changes, "the Canada ..Com-
pany, Bank of Upper Canada
t
and lastly hotelkeepers having
been its Occupants." This
shows that the. Bank of Upper,
Canada was a tenant of the
Canada Company's house after
it was vacated in 1853, and un-
til the Bank built across the
street, in 1859, the 'big brick
house known .later as..Rev. Dr.
Ure's, now Bruce Sully's.
The Office, Reserve, from
Wellington Street to the end of
harbor park, was' divided into
sever} lots of very narrow fron-
s tage on West Street; the Park
House, (Lots fi and 7) probably
has only about 50 feat, but has
always had a right-of-way over
Lot 5, next east.
• The property "known as the
Maitland' Hotel property and
being part of the Canada Com-
•-panv Goderich Office Reserve"
was sold Nov. 18; 1865, to the
Goderich Summer: Hotel Com-
pany. •
The vendors were A.M. Ross,
banker: John Davison,
barrister, and Francis Jordan,
druggist, but the deed fails to
name any .official of the Sum-
mer HF,tel Company.- The. set-
up rna.v or may not be better
understood upon reading a.
published recollection-,. of
'/Arilllam Campbell, g:N, an, the
Godefic;h,Star•in 1927, when he
was 93 years of age:
"The GTR used to own the
harbor park and Park House,
but Alex. Kirkpatrick bought
this for $7,000 and was going to
build a ..residence there, and
even •had bricks on the ground;
but parties wishing to build a
summer hotel paid $10,000 fctr
the "pr.op'er.ty and Francis
Smeeth built the" hotel: Instead
of a req..uested bonus, the town
pied $6,000 for half the land
Historical feature
by W.E:Elliott
.s>
e mar
now harbor park. The hotel
was built and afterward sold to
Edward Marlton, uncle of
William, the boat builder.
Later, the hotel burned.",.
(If the Marlton summer hotel
was built as an addition or ap-"'.
pendage to the Park House,
that would ,Fhelp explain ' the
various titles used from time to
time to describe the property. )
The Ross -Davison -Jordan
group paid Kirkpatrick (John
C. in the documents) $2,000
cash, $1,000 in summer hotel
stock, and a mortgage for
$9,000. When Marlton bought
the hotel, 'he gave a $3,000 mor-
tgage to Ross, who at the time
was West Huron member in the
Legislature, having defeated
John Davison..,Conservative
(the man' associated with him
in ,lthe summer hotel transac-
s
EdwardMarlton is on record
in
187!3 as master of the
steamer William Seymour, of
the Goderich Lake Shore Line.
Presumably the summeotel
was in charge of a man ger.
PLANNED THIRD HOTEL.
In 1875, with, Point 'Farm
Hotel in operation for a year
and iil,wise the Marlton sum-
mer hotel, some Goderich
businessmen proposed a third,
The. Signal reported that on
Marchl2 a coinmittee composed
of W.M. Savage, George. B.
Johnston, George .t 14., Parsons
and ;Alex. McD• Allan was ap-
pointed to interview ."the chief
'men" for the purpose . of ob-
,.taining subscriptions toward
erection". of a summer hotel,
They had obtaif ed $4,000 up to
Wednesday of that week.
Nothing more has been found
regarding this project, and 'the
Marlton hotel continued 'to
operate until February, 1881,
when the Park ' !•Louse was
seized by., Sheriff Gibbons by
virtue of a writ of• attachment
under the Absconding Debtors
Act. It is difficult"to reconcile
tis with a news item on .July
29, 1881: "The; Park House
summer hotel is doing,a good
'business under management of
G.W. McGregor, being close to
the steamboat landing as well,"
as the • business part of the
town."
Anyway,. the writ against
"the lands' "and,, tenements:' of
Edward Marlton, "owner of the
property known as the Park
House," brought about a sale
,at which there WAS ,n9 bidder.
On Mav 13 oft 'e next year, the
property, was• hi in for $.1,425
by Francis S eeth, Nelson
Street planing ill owner, who
had occasioned the' writ. He
sold to John Ambrose Doyle,
Goderich hotelkeeper, arid the
property remained in the Doyle"
family for the next 46 years.
Among those who as lessees
operated the hotel in those
years was J.J. Wright; from
1902 to" 1914, after. ,he had
given up 'lie Point Farm. Last
of the Doyle family to own th''e
..property wars ,.Bernard L.,,
county judge' from 1906 to''
1916. He died in 1927 in Seat-
tle, where- he had resided for
some time. His executors were
.J.L, Killoran, Goderich, and
two sons-in-law,- Frank S.
Bowers, physician, and William
B. Power, dentist; both of Seat-
tle. They sold the Park House
property to the town for $3,000,
which seems low, but relevant
documents searched provide no
explanation.
r K
LOCUST TREE AS MARK.
• 'Judge Doyle pwned Lots 5, 6,
7; parts of 8, 9• and 10, all of 11'
and -12 of the Office Survey;
which, is to say, the West street
frontage up to the west. of the
Park House and a wide area to
the north. One of the definitive
lines in thea description is said
to run "parallel to the westerly
boundary of 'the - Widder
property '176 feet to the centt~e
of a locust 'tree `on top of the
bank." (Still there?)
Town council ,minutes of
1928 add nothing to ou,r
knowledge of the Doyle -to -town<
transaction. Clerk Lin Knox's
entries are brief. On May . 18,
1928, he recorded ."a letter
from the executors of the B.L.
Doyle estate accepting the' -
• town's, offer of $3;000 cash for
the Park House property." Thp
communication was "received
and filed,".
The Park House had been
under management of Mr,.,,,,and
Mrs. J.A. Wilson for a couple of
years when fire, started on the
second floor, caused' damage
exceeding the $3,000 in'iurance.
•
The firemen were called early
on, December 9, 1945, and had
five hours' ' work. Twelve boar-
ders escaped with only the
clothing the"y were' wearing.
The blaze was attributed to
children placing hot coals in a
cardboard box;
Council decided to have the
hotel rebuilt to' three storeys
with a flat roof. The work, done
by Earl Westbrook, included a
stuco job. Some chimneys were
replaced. The original windows
remain. The hotel contains a
number of ' interesting
fireplaces.
0
Mrr Pvsaniuk acquired the
.property in 1951. He was never
'Drnytri Pusaniuk', proprietor of
Park' ,house ince - 1951' ' is
tselling his historical home:
able to, get a, liquor license, and
a .few Years ago the trailer
camp in rear .was terminated.
The' Park House proprietor
likes Goderich very much, and-
plans to remain here, but uses
somewhat different terms in
reference to the townspeople.':
Meanwhile, the onetime
;anada Company house is of-
fered 'as "income property"
with "great possibilities.'
Local'. girl-
out -dances
'competition
a 4„
A Goderich girl overcame an.
age difference, :winning two
prizes Saturda• r during the
Western Ontario" Highland
Dancing Association com-
petition- in London., ^
:Seven-year..ol'd Kim Fritzley,
daughter of . Mr.' and Mrs.,
William Fritzley; 96 Comox
Cr., was supposed to compete in
,the eight -year-old and under
class...
Because of too few dancers
entered. in tlt class, Kim had
m
to compete with the 10 -year-old
and `under dancers.
Despite this disadvantage,
she took - first prize in Sword
and third in Seann Trubbais.
In ' addition to these ,two '
prize, , Kim won t e trophy for '""^°'""''
th-'roost promisi g dancer at
the competiti
She is a studeni''at" the Mary
,,Lvnne Scho_ojlof Dancing in
Goderich. ,. `
The Park House is here shown as built, two `storeys only, with dormers and a porch. Thepic-
ture was probably taken in the early 1880s. The photographer evidently used a tripod, attrac-
ting several citizens who wanted 'to get in the picture.
n 4\'
This picture show's the Park House as in recent years, with restaurant addition and a third
storey added following a fire in December, 1945,
r,