Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 21.
Colonel D.E. Macintyre (1885-1974)
Ermnie Mahoney
Gatineau Real Estate Pioneer
The author is indebted to Frank Macintyre for the time he took in revising the original text and providing many colourful anecdotes that add greatly to this tale of a true business pioneer.
Back not so many years ago, the real estate industry in the Gatineau hills was pretty primitive, at least by today’s standards. In fact, there was no such thing as the highly trained, sophisticated broker that we now find working in real estate.
There were no such things as the sales tools they now use either, such as computerized data on homes, videos of property for sale, multiple listings, the modern real estate advertisement, or the latest in international/ national referrals that link up buyers with sellers from across the country or around the world. As it happened, there wasn't even a requirement that a broker be licensed to sell property in the late 1940s and early '50s. But then, there were no real estate offices up the Gatineau Valley either.
Certainly, the odd Ottawa company did handle transactions in the Valley but they really didn't know the territory, and besides, it was “just cottage country.” And to boot, the average place sold for around $4000, without _ water or electricity. Hardly worthwhile for the big time city firms to even bother.
Enter Colonel Duncan Eberts Macintyre. In 1945, he had a very difficult time getting anyone to help him buy a parcel of property at Larrimac that he wanted for a retirement home. When he bought it, he had to do all the legwork himself. But then this augured well for his idea: "Go into the real estate business and help people purchase Gatineau property.”
No Licence 'til '62
According to Frank Macintyre, considered dean of Gatineau real estate and the son of the late Colonel, all his father did upon his retirement in 1953 was hand-paint a sign “Macintyre Realties”, hang it on a 22x22 foot garage beside the road at Larrimac and he was in business. The Colonel was a mere 68 at the timel!
“He was totally untouched by any government agency and it worked well,” said Frank, who went on to note that his father would accept listings for property or cottages anywhere, even the remote lakes that could only be reached at certain times of the year due to the almost impassable roads that were the norm back then in the Gatineau wilderness. Frank said that his father would check the property out, especially by talking to “locals” and in general, try to be an informed real estate broker. (It was not until some nine years later that brokers were required to be licensed through the Quebec Real Estate Brokers Act). Incidentally, the “Colonel”, who was always addressed as such, came by the urge to sell real estate rather honestly. When the Colonel left Montreal High School in about 1890 he worked briefly as a real estate office clerk in Montreal before being hired as a clerk on railway construction crews in northern Quebec and Ontario. In his early twenties he was chief rail clerk of the CPR at Fort William, shipping the new heavy rails west to accommodate the big, heavier engines and rolling stock.
He didn't see a great future for himself in railroading, so he built with his own hands, a general store beside the railway in Tuxford, Saskatchewan. His only clerk was a doctor who had a small office on the main floor. The arrangement was that patients took priority, and the rest of the time the doctor took care of customers. The Colonel was fond of saying that the population of Tuxford was three people and that they took turns being mayor. He established his first real estate company in 1910, in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, during the boom days of the wild and woolly west.
In 1913 he married Marjorie Scott from Galt, who was visiting in the area. It was at this time that his military career began. He joined the local militia as a 2nd lieutenant. His real estate business was interrupted by the First World War as his regiment was mobilized as the 28th Saskatchewan Rifles and fought in the battles at Passchendaele, the Somme, Ypres, and of course, Vimy Ridge. During the war, he gained great distinction1 as a field officer who planned the Canadian attack on Vimy Ridge. His diaries are preserved in the Canadian War Archives and were consulted extensively by Pierre Berton in the writing of his book Vimy.
For the years between the wars, the Colonel was the general manager of the North American Furniture Company in Owen Sound, Ontario. It was a city of 15,000 people, and he was the only person in town with skis until he coaxed friends to join him. In fact, he founded the Owen Sound Ski Club which soon numbered 250 members. His love of skiing was long-standing, with an interest dating to the 1890s when a friend’s father had brought home a pair of skis from Finland. He and his chum were the first to ski on Mount Royal in Montreal. The Colonel was very proud of a long, stiff pair of skies that he bought at a Toronto sports store. The skis had three grooves in the bottom and were awfully hard to turn. A knowledgeable skiing friend visiting from Montreal had a laughing fit when saw the skis and pointed out that they were jumping skis!
While in Owen Sound, the Colonel started the first golf club in the area to make sure that he had a summer sport as well as his winter skiing. He also was District Commissioner of the Boy Scouts and President of the Canadian Furniture Manufacturers’ Association. According to son Frank, “He was a man of tremendous energy and forethought and great good humour.”
Perhaps he inherited these qualities from his Scottish grandfather. John Macintyre was serving as a crew member on the ship Caledonia, when he met Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Simpson persuaded him to leave that career to be a clerk in Canada for the Hudson’s Bay Company. On this fortuitous voyage, John also met Jane Stone, Sir George’s ward; he later married her. But before the two were married, John accompanied Simpson on a tour of Hudson's Bay posts across Canada. When they got to Alaska, they took a shortcut home by crossing to Russia, buying horses and riding across Europe to the Baltic, where the party caught a ship for England. John then caught a ship for Canada having gone around the world mostly on horseback. The trip took 20 months and is detailed in a two-volume journal. Frank has one copy and the other is in the National Archives. The Colonel, who was born and raised in Montreal, remembered well the visits that the old factor, his grandfather, made to Montreal.
The Colonel was recalled to the service of his country in 1940 to run the Royal Canadian Legion Educational Services. This was a little-known organization that gave the opportunity to service personnel to obtain a senior matriculation through correspondence while in the armed forces distinction!
Cottage Country
But getting back to Valley real estate, it should be recalled that the Gatineau Valley, north of Chelsea, along old Highway 11, had very few permanent homes until after 1960. Frank said that many people would come looking for old homes, preferably of stone, “Of course, there were only Arthur Brown’s farm and two others, none of which were stone, nor for sale,” he noted.
There were, however, any number of cottages built from the late 1800s, especially around Tenaga, Summerlea (later Gleneagle) and Larrimac, that were built by Jason or Carson Cross on half-acre lots or less. By the time the Colonel got into business, these were prime for conversion to year-round homes; “winterized” was the operative phrase. Although it should be noted that Carson Cross sold many cottages privately, it was the Colonel’s market, the second time around.
Of course, there were no zoning or building by-laws to worry about in those days either. If the farmer wanted to sell off part of the back forty to some damn fool city slicker, it was none of anyone’s business. The local councils in those days were farmer-dominated too and there were no plans afoot to bring in any rules that would prevent them from doing what they wanted with their own property.
Apparently, the Colonel was a stickler for having surveys done of the property he sold, rather than accepting the usual land deed that had the property described as “from the rock in the creek to that tree over there to the left of the barn.” Building regulations requiring minimum acre lots and tight rules for separation of wells and septic systems came in only about thirty years ago in what was then the municipality of West Hull.
Swiss Money
Back in the 1950s there were no large-scale land developments as we know them today, though the Colonel did pioneer at least two that are worthy of mention.
The first was at the request of Swiss interests who wanted a large acreage with mountains and lakes that would have potential as a year-round resort. The Colonel found just the property at Lake Pemichangan, with a mile of sandy shoreline and 400 acres to back it up, all for the sum of $25,000.
The Swiss later became involved at Lac Ste. Marie so nothing came of this land as a resort development. It has recently been sold for considerably more money.
The second land assembly project was completed during 1957. In partnership with the late Bill Lewis, the Colonel established Wakefield Heights on the east side of the Gatineau River across from Wakefield. He was also involved with some developments at MacGregor Highlands at Scattergood Lake.
During the years his father ran the business, Frank was away at university, but he did help out during the summer months. He remembers the only phone was a crank model on the wall connected to a local exchange that was located in the general store and functioned at the whim of its operator. Water to the office was from a hose run up the hill from his house. All the same, there were a number of well-known Ottawa senior mandarins and politicians who visited the office and bought property or cottages from the Colonel. After all, it was the only game in town, so to speak!
Artist and Writer
Frank said that when he took over the business from his father in 1961, the Colonel was 76 and still going strong to the point where he worked for another year as his salesman. His retirement was not to a life of leisure because he wrote four books, three of which were successfully published. The Prairie Storekeeper and The End of Steel were works based on his life experiences, somewhat fictionalized.
His book Canada at Vimy was drawn directly from his war diaries, mentioned earlier. He was also an accomplished artist and delighted in painting Gatineau scenes. The Colonel died in 1974 at the age of 89. He had chopped a cord of wood earlier in the day.
His son Frank is the president of Century 21 Macintrye Inc. and is still carrying on the tradition of “the cottage and country property specialist in the Gatineau.” The old Colonel would be proud if he saw the current operation: it probably sells more real estate in a month than he did in a lifetime. The Colonel remains part of the legend and history of Gatineau Valley real estate.
Footnote
- He received the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross.