(1911 the wane

In earlier times it wasn’t uncommon to move houses and other buildings to a new location. One such house, previously owned by Brendan and Louise Reid and now by Dawson and Christine Paynter, endured two great treks before coming to its present site on the Lower Hope River Road.

Around 1892, this house, situated on the west side of Stanley Bridge near the Campbellton Road entrance, belonged to Samuel and Alexander Brown. The Browns were very successful business partners as importers of dry goods and exporters of farm animals and produce. This family moved to Vancouver, BC.

The house was then bought by John C. Clark of BayView and moved up the ice via Stanley River, New London Bay and around Pickering’s Point to the end of BayView Bridge below Clifford Simpson’s. A Mr. Fyfe was in charge of the move with about 50 teams doing the haul— ing. Unfortunately, the house broke through the ice and sank to the second level. Matthew Callbeck of Desable was brought in to raise the house from the water. It is said that he used flotation devices called Samson posts to raise the house. According to Mr. Ray Clark, the posts were borrowed in Charlottetown. The house was then winched to shore as the tides rose.

At BayView, the house was used as a store and hotel. Penzie (Reid) McAleer recalls walking through the fields to the store with her grandmother, Teresa Reid. She remembers the house as being rather elaborate with verandahs around the front and side.

The next owner was a Mr. James Blacquiere and the last owner of the house in BayView was a Mr. Weir.

In 1923 the house was bought by Walter Reid and moved again - this time to Hope River. The supervisor of the hauling operation was Louis Fitzsimmons of Long River. 88 horses (4 strings of 22 each) hauled the home in two parts up Hope River to the nearest point of land where they entered the fields. A kitchen, dining area and two upstairs bedrooms were added to the hauled house. Another portion called the Corbett House (named for a man who lived and died at the BayView location) was hauled and used as a wood house. Walter used some portion of the hauled house to build a makeshift barn. It blew down shortly after it was hauled.

The Brown Bros. house moved to BayView - by J. C. Clark (later owned by Walter Reid)

“Raising to move ”

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