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!