320 - 1st Street - F. H. Brady House

320 - 1st Street - F. H. Brady House

Google Street View Image from July 2014

The previous blog about the W.A. Brady home at First Street mentioned the neighbouring house and here is the rest of the story, as I know it. Please contact me with any errors or further details.  

Manitoba Morning Free Press - Thursday, August 15, 1918

Bert and Ida Brady had one son, Frank Hacking who was born in 1898.  He and his four sisters grew up in what is now the Milliken house and along with so many other Reston boys, he enlisted in WW1.  This clipping was found online as Frank came home for a 3 week leave before being sent overseas.  The Air Corps in WW1 was not something I had run across in my researching before and flight was in its very beginnings at this time.  Canada did not have its own air force until the last month of the war, but 22,000 Canadians served in the British flying services, as did Frank for 217 days.  After Frank's return from overseas. he married Ida McCulloch from Hartney in 1922 and this house was built for them.  Frank Brady died in 1952 and Ida and her son Bert ran the Brady Hardware until they sold it in 1955.  This son Albert David "Bert" (1927-2015) went on to be a high school Science teacher at Gordon Bell in Winnipeg from 1960 - 1981.  

Thanks to Ken and Eileen Milliken and Veda Robinson for this picture of the
Homes of WA Brady & son   Reston, Man

Almost Same View of the Brady homes - Google Street View from July 2014

The next owners that I am aware of are Bert and Alice Pierce and their son Garth (1948-1979).  They married in 1938 and Bert operated the Solo Store with John Pearson for many years.  Bert died in 2003 and his wife Alice followed him in 2014 after many years living at the Willowview Personal Care home in Reston.  

John and Verna Olenick were the next residents and they kept the house and grounds well maintained from their purchase in 1988 until 2016 when Christy Caldwell and Doug Fridd and their family took on the house and made it their home.  It seems to have some design elements of the Craftsman Bungalow style that are shown off with contrasting white and red paint. It is jewel of a house on the corner to the new Reston Lake and Splashpark .  I imagine the Brady family would approve of the progress their town has made in the past 100 years.  

Google Street View Image from July 2014

** Update September 2020 Verna shared more details about this historic home.  It was a prefab Aladdin Home that was shipped by rail from Canoe , B.C. in a boxcar ready to be assembled. It resembles The Merrill from an online catalogue but since the Brady men were lumber dealers, they would no doubt change the plan to suit them. Thank you Verna!

325 First Street - W.A. Brady House

325 1st St., W. A. Brady House

Just south from the hospital in Reston on the west side of First Street sits this grand four square home with a dormer window peeking out of the attic above.  The  house is wrapped with a wide veranda and chunky posts which the current owners decorate with bright garland at Christmas and beautiful plants in the summer.  Ken and Eileen Milliken have done an amazing job updating and renovating the house since taking it over in 1979.  Two Milliken children were raised here and now four grandchildren create special memories here as well.  
  
The home was built in 1907 for William Albert (known as Bert) Brady.  I found him on the Manitoba census of 1891 as a 32-year-old farmer living on his homestead in the Pipestone district. In December of 1892 he married Ida Helen Hacking at Winnipeg. Ida had been born in the US in 1869. Bert was born in Ontario in 1860 and would have headed west in the later days of the 1800's to make a life on the prairies. He moved from farming to the lumber business at some point.  In 1916 Bert Brady built the Brady Block (now known as the Martin block) in downtown Reston following a disastrous fire where he lost his business on the same spot. It had sold farm implements, buggies, hardware, housewares, furniture, and china. He continued with Brady Hardware for many years. 

Brady Block on the left side of this postcard from Prairie Towns website

Bert and Ida has a family of 4 girls and a boy - Helen May, Frank Hacking, Marjorie Edith, Emma Evelyn, and Dorothy Mary.  Ida died in 1911 and Bert’s sister Georgina lived with the family and helped out for a few years.  When Frank married, they built their home just south of this one. Frank  joined his father in the hardware business in 1921. Eileen and Ken gave me the copy below of the picture of these two houses, likely taken in the 20's.   

Bert died in 1930 and his son took over the Brady Hardware business until they sold out in November 1955 to W.J. (Bill) Champion.  While the Millikens have been doing renovations, they found "W.A. Brady" written on the back of several pieces of the woodwork.  The postcard shown below found here on Peel's Prairie Provinces website shows the house (I think) in the distance on the left side.  The picture is dated circa 1910.

The next resident may have been a dentist as Ken has been told of a memory of a dental chair in one of the rooms.  Does anyone recall?  Please let me know at ssimms@escape.ca 

**Update September 2020 Verna Olenick pointed me to the 1981 history book Trails Along the Pipestone to page 481-2.  It says a Dr Haughton was town dentist in 1935  but that he practiced out of Berry Barber Shop.  During the 40's, a Dr Thompson of Carnduff had a dental office in the same shop as well as in the basement of the Masonic Hall and the hotel for a time. The chair may well have been in the Brady house for some unknown reason and stuck in someone's memory! **

 
Next owners that I know were Reg and Gwen Berry. Reginald was the son of Edward and Bertha Berry born in 1906 in Reston. They built the Berry Block across from the post office as a residence and jewelry store in 1906 and lived there with their 10 children. Reginald was born in 1911 and he went on to go to Normal School in Brandon. Reg taught school in Reston for eight years and later farmed as well as sold insurance. His wife Gwen was the daughter of James I. and Nellie Bulloch, farmers on SW 16-7-27. Reg and Gwen raised three daughters in the house: Gail, Sharon and Valerie. They built a new house to the north (now Tina and Scott Stanley's home) and moved to it in 1974.

Tom and Olive Tesarski were the next owners in August 1974. He was principal at Reston Collegiate and she was a business education teacher there. Their family was Curt, Shelly, Bradley, Garry and Charlotte. They left Reston in 1979 when they retired to Brandon.

Next owners Ken and Eileen Milliken continue to live in the old house and were keen to help tell its story. 

202 1st Avenue - Haidish House

The next house featured on this blog is the one and a half story house facing First Avenue at #202.  It would have seen and heard trains passing by at the rate of several a day for many years and faced the Lake of the Woods elevator until it burned in 1950.

  

Polish immigrants Bill and Nettie Haidish first arrived in Reston with his work on the C.P.R. in 1934.  They must have liked what they saw because they returned in 1935 and stayed until 1941.  After a few years elsewhere, they returned to raise their family from 1950 - 1965 in this house on First Avenue also known as Railway Avenue.  Their two sons Albert and Stanley Haidish and daughter Julie called Reston home for many years.  Bill died while at work in 1965 and Nettie passed away in 1980. 

Page 641 Trails Along the Pipestone -The Sequel 

Reston pharmacist Grant Schiltroth and his wife Nancy moved to Reston in 1976.  They moved from living above the old drugstore to this house in October of 1980 when son Kent was just an infant and Kurt was a toddler. Their youngest son  Kyle was born in September of 1981 and the family of 5 would have spent some busy years in the house. They moved to their new home on Lucy Street south of the railway tracks at the end of January of 1984. 

Jim and Dawn Paul moved into the house in 1985 for a few years.

Next resident was hydro man Darcy Decock who then sold to Brad and Donna Rozak.  They raised two daughters here. The Rozaks have renovated and updated the interior and exterior over the years as the picture below is from likely over 50 years ago.  

Found on page 334 of Trails Along the Pipestone - The Sequel 2009

I am unsure when this home was built but will hopefully be able to find out with a trip to the Manitoba Archives in Winnipeg when they reopen.