134 and 144 5th Street - Two Grand Houses

Image from Google Street View 2014

Two Grand Houses written by Dolores Caldwell September 3, 2010

Anyone who has ever lived here knows of the two grand old houses that once belong to Reston‘s prominent country doctors, Dr. Chapman and Dr. Clark on 5th Street in Reston.

In 2008, Dana and Victoria Ross purchased a house at 144 5th St. from Alvin and Sheila Dodds. The house first belonged to Dr. Chapman then eventually Alvin and his mother, Irvine Dodds lived there.

The stately home next door belonged to Irvine’s sister Jennie Dempsey at 134 5th Street and was sold to Dana and Victoria by Jenny‘s niece, Margaret Caldwell in 2009. It once housed Dr. Clark’s office.

Once again the houses that sit side by side are lived in by two sisters.

Dana and Victoria purchased Echo Books on 7th Avenue in Virden, across from the Bread basket in 2007. The Ontario born sisters were living in Elgin at the time and found the drive to Virden tiring. They started looking for accommodations closer and fell in love with these historic homes. Echo Books is filled with new and used books, knickknacks, antiques and furniture.

In Reston, they are currently living at 134 5th Street (Jennie‘s house) while the first house is being refurbished. “We are stripping down everything: there were eight layers of wallpaper, starting with a blue willow design that went through most of the house,” stated Dana.

“Eventually we would love to fix up the old garage.  The architecture in that building is beautiful,” said Victoria. “It is probably one of the oldest buildings in Reston.”

The first house had tree damage so new posts had to be put in making it and the front porch structurally sound.  Weeping tile was added to both houses but luckily there wasn’t a lot of water in the basements.

In what was known as Jennie's house, the back kitchen has been modernized with new cupboards and countertops. Windows were replaced and the flooring was torn up to discover two hardwood floors placed on top of each other. The rest of the main floor has remained the same, except for new wiring and light fixtures. They tore up the carpet in the living and dining room and washed the hardwood floors and stained them with boiled linseed oil and sealed them with a hardwood wax.

“I’m grateful that the woodworking was never touched,” said Victoria. “We don’t plan on changing it, we love it just the way it is.”

The attic was leaking, they hired a carpenter from B.C. and he brought the house up to code.  They transformed a room that was going to be used just for storage into a computer room/studio/spare bedroom with a new floor, tongue and groove walls and wall to wall carpeting. “The whole room just snowballed,” said Dana.

They only took out one wall in the house. Upstairs, they made one bedroom out of the two.

While renovating, they found an old newspaper from 1905 and a picture of a young girl from the flapper era. Out in the garden, they discovered a toy train that they believe could have been from the 1800’s.

Outside they have added a nice deck for stargazing and have three garden plots of 40 x 15ft. They use Jennie’s old garden on the south side of the property for growing squash and other vegetables that don’t require a lot of light. All their produce is grown without the use of pesticides, fertilizers or herbicides and they use Heritage Seeds.

“It’s like a magical garden, everything just grows: the beets were the size of turnips, the corn was 10 feet tall and the chard never stops growing,” said Victoria.

They produced so much on their new plots that they decided to get a table at the Virden Farmers’ Market. “The chard was a big seller, it would be gone in minutes,” said Dana. “We always try to save some for the Evergreen Place in Virden, the seniors really enjoy it.”

The ladies are very keen on learning as much about the houses as they can. They have visited the local museum and would love to see anyone’s old pictures of the two houses.

“This house is very sound now, it should be here for another hundred years,” said Victoria.

January 2020 update 
The huge twisty-trunked tree pictured below lives in the yard just north of the Dodds home along Second Avenue.  I wonder how many decades it has been there and what stories it could tell.  Sharon 

July 2021 update: 

A summer storm proved to be too much for the proud old tree and it came part way down over the sidewalk.  It took a lot of labour to get it down completely and pieces of it were offered to passerbys to keep their own part of Reston's history.  I'm not much for identifying trees but the leaf reminds me of a willow.  I would love to hear any more to this story!  ssimms@escape.ca

128 2nd Avenue - Bulloch House

128 2nd Ave written by Fletch Manning in 2002

The photo shows this stately brick home that was built in 1890. This house is owned by Jack and Margaret Smith who live there with their family, Tyler, Chad and Amy on 128-2nd Ave.

I have been unable to locate records to prove its builders nor first owners. In the late 1800s in Reston there were; builder and contractor James Staliwood,  Arthur and Walter Bushby,  Moses and Robert Paul and a bricklayer named George Corbin.

One of my sources of information indicated to me that the C.P.R. did own this house at one time.

In February 1906, the Angus Estate, who were renting from the C.P.R.,  released the sale to Robert Robertson Paul.  In 1909, Mr. Robert Bulloch(Sr.) bought the house and property. In approx.  1920 a portion of the land was sold to Mr. Alfred Archer, who built his home. This is the house currently owned by Dave Braddell.  Mr. and Mrs. Bulloch were blessed with nine children and many of the men were known just by their first initials. There were; T.A. (Thomas), J.D. (John - who died early in life ) , R.C. (Robert), W.H. (William), Sandy, Aggie, J.D. (named after his older deceased brother) , J.I.( Jim) and Dee.

In 1933 Robert’ son R.C. and his wife Ina moved into the house. They had been living in the house now owned by Ken and  Marj Jago. When Mr. and Mrs. R. C.  Died, their house was inherited by their daughter Marion and in 1969 owned by Juliette Tinant. Neuf and Noreen Olenick  bought the house from Julie and lived there until they sold it to Jack and Margaret in 1991.

The Smiths are enjoying this wonderful old house and are renovating bit by bit as time allows.

2nd Avenue - McMurchy-Curtis-Winch House

The McMurchy/Curtis/Winch House in Reston written by Lucille (Paul) Curtis wife of Leo Curtis in the 1980’s

When we bought the Massey business in 1948 from Jack McMurchy, we became the owners of their house on the corner of 5th Street and 2nd Ave. in Reston. I was told that it was the former form of W.A. Brady family before their house was built on 1st Street.

The kitchen was unique in that it featured one window and seven doors – one leading to the basement, pantry, bathroom, upstairs, dining room which had an archway to the living room and two doors to the front and back porches. A verandah surrounded the south and east side of the house.

The upstairs consisted of three bedrooms. A door at the top of the stairs opened on to a balcony.

My brother Irving told me that the McMurchy yard has been featured in the garden magazine. At one time there was an arbor covered with Virginia creepers which ran from the front street back to the edge of the back yard. There was a summer house (Delle McMurchy’s description to me) in a hedge which ran west of the house to the arbor. It had two benches facing each other and an open roof. In front of the hedge were irises, oriental poppies and peonies.

On the east side, opposite the kitchen, was another flower garden of peonies and delphiniums.

An outside entrance at the back of the house led down to the cellar door. This was used mostly for drinking water delivery to a tank in the basement.

The back yard had posts made from rocks held together by cement. Cement dividers outlined paths around a rock garden.

A cement pond at one time held goldfish, had a bench along one side among a rosebush and trees and a small bridge over a small stream out of the pond. A couple of times, the pond was filled with water from the town well and became a swimming pool for our children. They charged one boy 25 cents to join the fun.

Daughter Delle McMurchy had a small playhouse but this went to her sister Pearl McGaffin in Virden in the early years.

A rock fence divided the lot between the Debbie’s in the early years and Edison and Loretta Berry in the later years.

The verandah and balcony were in bad condition so we had the Toews brothers repair the balcony and rebuild and close in the verandah.

The house was sold to Wattie and Mary Winch when we moved to Winnipeg in February, 1960.



Update - April 2020 by Sharon

From the Olenick photos

Janis Lobreau has been in touch with an update to Mrs. Curtis's memories above.  She and her husband Gilbert bought the house from the Winch family in 1975.  They lived there until 1986 when they sold the lots to Jack and Muriel Mayberry.  The house was demolished and they had a new one built on the spot.  Vince Moore and Melanie Vinck and their family own the house now.  

154 9th Street - Smith House

Image from Google Street View 2014

The Smith house (former Scotty Mennie house) by Fletch Manning in 2004

Mr. A. E. Smith (Ab)* came with his family to the Elm Valley district in 1888 to farm. As a young man, he butchered and provided met to neighbours and friends.  In 1899 he opened a small shop in the small settlement of Reston. Later on, he built a fine two-storey store butcher shop.

In 1905, Mr. Smith bought some land on the east side of Reston, the south half of 9. He lived above the meat shop before his marriage and in 1927 had a fine new home built for he and his wife, Ellie. Mr. Bushby was the carpenter. It was built on the land he had previously purchased and where it still stands today.

Mr. Smith was noted for his original advertising in the Reston Recorder. He had a special spot in the paper for his ad, and each week had a “catchy comment”. During World War II, the Recorder was passed around overseas to the service men and many comments of “Let’s see what Mr. Smith has to say this week” were expressed.

In 1951, after 51 years in the butcher shop business, Mr. Smith sold his home to Alexander (Scotty) Mennie. The D.V.A. (Department of Veterans Affairs ) assisted returned veterans with property. Scotty and Shirley and their two sons lived there until 1972. They sold the home to Ms. Carrie McAdoo who in 1995 sold it to Mr. Conrad Karpinski. Connie sold the house to Mr. Cory Martin, the present owner.

*More on A. E. Smith can be found online at this Heritage Manitoba link on page 40
 http://heritagemanitoba.ca/images/pdfs/featuredProjects/We_Made_Pipestone_Heritage_MB_complete.pdf