Places - Towns, Villages and Municipalities

Touring the Two Chelseas

By R.A.J. Phillips, 1991

Preface

This slim volume owes its existence to Patrick Evans, to his love of history and to his knowledge of the Gatineau.

These happy resources were brought together in his valuable book entitled “Tale of Two Chelseas”. He generously offered his research to the Historical Society of the Gatineau to produce its long-desired tour guide for the Chelseas.

Being nearest the urban centre of the National Capital Region and at the edge of a popular recreational area, Old Chelsea and Chelsea are the most visited of the Gatineau villages. But, alas, the least known. The loss of buildings over the years has robbed Old Chelsea of its character as a tightly knit community with its village green, pound, industry and commerce, very much on an English model. The highway through the newer Chelsea has tended to make the structures a blur, rather than a compact village huddled comfortably by its crossroads and stretching to the edge of the mysterious bush.

Within these two small places, and nearby, are absorbing stories of our past and an illumination of our society. These are villages remarkably close, not only to the capital of Canada, but to our frontier in place and time. Enough of a rich past survives to touch the imagination and curiosity of the most casual passer-by.

It was in the hope of enriching such visits that the Historical Society commissioned a tour guide from Bob Phillips, writer, historian, and Past President of the Society. We are indebted to him for giving his manuscript for this booklet to the Historical Society. We are grateful also to the Ministére des Affaires Culturelles of Québec whose generous grant greatly aided this publication. Finally we offer our thanks to Pamela Morse, Carolyn McGill, Ann Chudleigh, Beth Macfie, Eric and Katharine Fletcher, and other Society members who contributed their time and wisdom. All proceeds from sales of the book are devoted to the preservation of our history.

D. C. Rowland
President,
Historical Society of the Gatineau.

April 1991.

The Past

Beyond two iron gates in the centre of Old Chelsea is a graveyard called the Protestant Burying Ground. Near its centre is a mossy tombstone on which can still be read the words:

In Memory of THOMAS
the son of
THOMAS AND ELIZABETH WRIGHT
born June 13, 1759
deceased Sept. 18, 1801

It is a stone to move the imagination. When Thomas Wright was born in the British colony of Massachusetts, General Wolfe was preparing to spend the last, impatient summer of his life below the ramparts of Québec where the French royal ensign still flew confidently.

When Thomas Wright died, new flags were flying overall of North America. The frontier was pushed far beyond the doorsteps of New France and New England, almost to the place where the capital of Canada would finally settle 60 years later.

Thomas Wright lived just long enough to see the beginnings of Hull which he and his younger brother Philemon had come to found the year before. Their families were the first immigrants to settle in what is now the National Capital Region. At 42, he died: too soon to see its prospering.

Before 1800

On September 18, 1801, there was no Ottawa. Champlain in 1609 had paused to admire the Rideau Falls, but no recorded European ventured up the cliffs. The bush was so dense that, when Colonel By’s men arrived in 1826 to survey for the Rideau Canal, it took them more than a week to travel from Confederation Square to Dow’s Lake.

The Québec side of the Grand River — as the Ottawa was then called — was more inviting. Being lower and more accessible. It was better known by Europeans paddling westwards from Montréal towards the West. Travelling Indians often camped here and had occasional battles, after which, according to early journals, they would tend to have the defeated foe for dinner — roasted. The seething cauldron of the Chaudiére Falls and the Gatineau River both gave promise of water power for the mills on which the prospherity of any new town would depend. The lands by the river were promising for docking river boats and timber rafts which were to slide down from the Upper Ottawa to Québec just five years later.

“We are the pilgrims, master. We shall go Always a little farther...”

When the lure of virgin land drew the settlers, it was largely north and west they went — along the old portage route to Aylmer, or to Pointe Gatineau, and up the valley of the Gatineau. This was the river up which Nicolas Gatineau, Sieur de Plessis, had paddled 300 years before in his fatal escape from the pedestrian life of a notary in Trois Riviéres and Montréal. It was the river used by Radisson and Des Groseillers as they probed the continent.

The Era of the Wrights

The Wright settlers probably reached Chelsea by following the Gatineau River as far as the first dangerous rapids about five miles upstream from its mouth; then they decided that the path of discretion led up the shore on their left. Just over a mile to the west was a flat and apparently fertile valley cut by a stream which would sustain modest industry.

It was a place to stop, and a place to dream of a new outpost just beyond the known. world.

We can only guess when that happened. Not even that intriguing tombstone gives a safe clue. No marker in the whole of the National Capital Region bears an earlier date, but that in itself proves nothing. It may have been years before the family managed to leave a granite reminder of Thomas’ passing. If it was not in Chelsea that he died, why would the gravestone have been placed here rather than in Wright’s Town which was still the centre of settlement in the region?

These will remain puzzles. What we take as certain is the relatively earily civilizing influence of Chelsea when Ottawa was still nothing.

The hopes for Wright’s Town and for the country feeding into it were high, and periodically nourished. The Wrights may have considered only agriculture and then a town that would service it, but their vision soon widened. The Napoleonic Wars, cutting off Baltic supplies, created an enormously lucrative timber market for the Ottawa and Gatineau Valleys. Iron, mica, lead, tin and even marble were discovered nearby and were soon being exploited. Ironside on the west side of the Gatineau about half way to Chelsea could be reached by self-propelled river boats. It was both the shipping port for the nearby iron mines and a piling ground for logs floated down the Gatineau. Other cottage industries, such as potash production, sprang up in an era when innovators had no outside competition.

Such small enterprises, as well as farming itself, helped underwrite Chelsea’s future. It was not to be a spectacular future, nor did anyone expect that it would be so. It was comfortable, like the rural New England the settlers left behind. One of its villages — Chelsea, Vermont — gave its name to the new community.

Other Families

New England family names were becoming more familiar around Chelsea. The almost overpowering Wright family slid surprisingly from the scene despite the apparent makings of a dynasty. Philemon Wright died in 1839, ten years after his wife. Eldest son Philemon Junior had been killed in a coaching accident long before. Sons Tiberius and Christopher Columbus were dead within four years of their father. (The names gave an imperial ring to the Gatineau frontier.) Third son Ruggles lived till 1863. Alonzo, a son of Tiberius, made his home across the Gatineau River in Limbour, married Bytown heiress Mary Sparks, was given the honorary title “King of the Gatineau” and lived happily ever after.

The Chamberlins were four millwright brothers who set up the first mills in Wrightville. Josiah Chamberlin then became an early citizen of Kirk’s Ferry, a northern suburb of Chelsea. His brother John was an ancestor of Jean Pigott, notable Chairman of the National Capital Commission.

Thomas Brigham and Thomas Brigham Prentiss were an uncle-nephew team from Chelsea, Vermont. Prentiss ran a store and post office in Old Chelsea before moving to the newer Chelsea which took root before mid-century on the trail flanking the Gatineau River. The post office opened there just after 1850.

James and Allan Gilmour were founders of a lumbering empire whose capital was in the newer Chelsea. This enterprise, and the highway flanking the Gatineau River, made Chelsea a well-known stopping place for those heading up and down the valley.

The Twentieth Century

Typical of such frontier villages, the two Chelsea dwindled, not through depression but because of prosperity. The growth of the nearby cities, improved roads and the new railway gradually withered almost every nearby enterprise. Lumbering did not die out, but moved farther into the hinterland.

The Chelseas might have been left stranded with their few nearby farms, but around the turn of the century something unexpected happened. The Gatineau became popular for those escaping the city, first in summer, then in all seasons. The Victorian cult of the pastoral came into its own.

The Chelseas might never have noticed before, but their greatest continuing asset was the glorious country nearby. Chelsea became one of the centres around which the relatively affluent repaired, not to cottages, but to sprawling summer homes with two-storey boathouses and immaculate croquet lawns. The roll-call of the great and near great who treasured the peace and fulfilment of the Gatineau is impressive.

A sort of godfather of them all was Prime Minister King who not only left his estate to the people of Canada but who was largely responsible for the creation of the Gatineau Park just beyond Chelsea’s window.

In the first half of the twentieth century the move to Chelsea country was slow and confined largely to the well-to-do. During the Great Depression, the destitute came by to cut wood to keep their families warm, or to sell to dealers for a dollar acord — an industry extensive enough to threaten the future park.

Late in the thirties, winter sports began to take hold. Skiing was within financial reach of those who could not afford a summer home. One did not néed even to own a car, for the reliable steam train stopped at the Chelsea station on Mill Road morning and late afternoon.

From mid-century

After World War II, both winter and summer recreation took off, and every spare lot within smell of water was pressed into cottage service. For much of that era, the Chelseas were the hub. It was only a matter of time until the Chelseas would themselves become a suburb of the cities to the south. By the late 1980s the rolling fields to the south, which the Wright family had known, were gradually sinking under the weight of brick and outdoor swimming pools.

The Municipality

In an election of 1855, Hull Township chose its first mayor: Christopher Brigham, son of Thomas Brigham who had built the mills on Chelsea Creek. The seven man council met in Old Chelsea until 1866 when it moved to Chelsea for four years, then shifted to Wright’s Town.

In 1875, Hull Township was divided into three parts. Wright’s Town became Hull with its own municipal government. South Hull comprised areas to the south, on both sides of the Gatineau River, which were not in Hull itself. West Hull included Cantley on the east side of the Gatineau River, Chelsea, and everything from Ironside to Farm Point.

In 1875, the year when the Wright’s settlement was incorporated as Hull, the Chelseas were made the centre of the newly incorporated Township of Hull West Part, commonly known as West Hull. This infelicitous and confusing regional name came to embrace also Cascades, Tenaga and Chelsea, Farm Point, Kingsmere, Burnett, Larrimac and Gleneagle. The agglomeration inspired two new suggested names in the 1970s; Castenchel and the unforgettable Farking Blarkirgle. In 1988, the name was almost changed to Larrimac, but the municipal council decided a little more time was still needed for consideration. Finally, early in 1990 the name Chelsea was finally approved.

That 1875 date of incorporation is important for historians. From the records of that year we learn much about who lived where, but for the earlier period surviving records are sparse.

In the 1986 census, all of West Hull had a population of 3,900, with a few more anglophones than francophones. Except in the proliferating southern suburbs, its numbers grow slowly.

Touring the Chelseas

Most visitors will wish to tour Old Chelsea on foot, for the distances are short and the few relics of the past are close to one another.

The more ambitious may hike the 1.5 km to the newer Chelsea and see all the rest by walking. Their whole tour may then stretch about 10 km and make the theme of a leisurely day.

Most visitors, however, will bring a car to the centre of Old Chelsea, walk through that community, and drive to the other Chelsea. There they may walk, drive slowly, or drive with pauses on Route 105, 2.5 km south, back tothe road junction, then 1 km to the north, with an excursion down Mill Road to the east.

Old Chelsea

It is usually easy to park in Old Chelsea, and walk.

The Protestant Burying Ground (#1)

On the south side of the main road is a short lane, ending with iron gates bearing the words:

"CHELSEA 1891 CEMETERY 1891".

A century ago in Old Chelsea, the piety surpassed the spelling. The words were written to commemorate the new gates when the burial ground itself was well over half a century old.

As you walk the few paces towards those gates, you pass the place where a frame schoolhouse stood from some unknown date until it was burned down early in this century. This was the very centre of the village, with the town hall on the far side of the road. In the minds of New Englanders, it was in the village centre that schoolhouse, townhall and cemetery should be placed.

The ground you walk on is hallowed by the memory of Chelsea’s most illustrious early resident. The Reverend Asa Meech (1774-1849), Congregational Minister, teacher, doctor, and community leader, was buried in this cemetery. A century and a quarter after his death, his name was attached to the Meech Lake Accord. Asa Meech, who came from New England in the first dozen years of the nineteenth century, was the godfather of that school which long served also as church. He spent many of his days there, no doubt gazing across the cemetery which he also created.

There are two things you may want to know about this cemetery. One is its age: it is one of the most venerable graveyards in the National Capital Region. The other is the ethos of this melancholy and dreary place.

It is dreary less through neglect than conviction. Other cemeteries, like St. Stephen’s just up the road, celebrated mortal passing by tombstones placed for veneration and respect, often as ornate as the family could afford. Typically the grounds are tended like parks attractive to visitors who come there bearing flowers to seek serenity and perhaps communication.

Not so the burial grounds of New England, or here in Old Chelsea. This was a place of torment put in the centre of the village to remind pious citizens of their mortality and the terrors that may attend the after life. The grounds are little tended. The gravestones, or at least the earliest of them, are stark and business like. So little attention, in fact, was paid to them, that many of the markers, probably of wood, have long since disintegrated into nothing, leaving humps and hollows in the ground as the only clues to the presence of the departed. It was not uncommon for a body to be given its final resting place on top of another unmarked grave. There were no family plots. Graveyards typically being placed in the most infertile soil around, there was relatively little growth, no planting, no disciplining of nature. It was a dismal, somewhat terrifying wilderness set beside the life of a bustling village.

The Protestant Burying Ground, then, is a rare local example of the eighteenth century New England cemetery: especially rare because so many of the original burying grounds of this time were gussied up, if not in the wave of nineteenth century romanticism, then in the twentieth century fashion of manicuring heritage for the tourists. Compare it to the other two cemeteries you will see on this tour.

Thomas Wright’s 1801 gravestone is not hard to find. If you walk straight through the gates almost half way down the cemetery, you should spot it just on the right.

Nathaniel Chamberlin also died in 1801, but his marker was presumably among, the many that have never been found. The 50 known graves form a roll-call of the pioneers of the Lower Gatineau.

The main part of the cemetery is rectangular, 50 metres from the gates to the end, 40 metres wide. At the far left end is a projection 25 metres long and 14 metres wide with some relatively recent graves. That is a story in itself.

For many years the Historical Society of the Gatineau, the National Capital Commission and municipal leaders have been trying to give this cemetery its historic due: not fancying it up, but stabilizing decaying stones, making it accessible and as close as possible to its original appearance. Two problems have stood in the way.

This was a privately owned burial ground, but it is 50 years since there has been any trace of the descendants of the last owners. It took the lawyers a decade to arrange its simple takeover by the municipality in 1989, as provided by Québec law. Secondly, this graveyard could qualify for help, both voluntary and government, only if it were an historic cemetery, and that means not currently open to interments. It seems that, just on the eve of every proposed declaration as an historic site, there was a burial without permission. The long state of limbo, however, has ended at last, and there is promise of appropriate perpetual care for this precious place.

The Dunn Hotel (#2)

A few paces west of the cemetery entrance is the Dunn Hotel, probably made with planks from the Chelsea sawmill around the middle of the nineteenth century. That mill and the gristmill, also on Brooks’ Creek, had been built by Josiah Chamberlin for Thomas Brigham; Josiah also built the Dunn Hotel as a private house. With an addition in 1875, it became the Dunn House or Dunn Hotel, named for its new owner, John Dunn, a former log driver on the Gatineau River. Dunn was in charge of the drive between Eaton Chute, upriver from Tenaga, and Ironside.

The Dunn Hotel was one of four hostelries in the village. All were run by Irishmen. During the next 25 years it was enlarged and modified. In December 1900 it burned down, to be replaced within months by an almost identical structure which is, more or less, what survives today as the Dawn Hotel.

This version was built by Henry and Billy Fleury a little to the east of the original. The walls are entirely covered by green painted tin. There was a full-length veranda across the front, with an extension around the corner on the west side in the 1901 model.

The large wing at the back originally had two large dormitories used mostly by lumbermen. Their teams of horses were kept in a stable (now gone) to the west of the inn. At the back was a large dining room. The bar did a roaring trade until 1907 when all licensed premises in the municipality were closed. Then Mrs. Dunn and her son Michael ran a store and post office in the building. They closed in 1920. The building was then used for private apartments, until it was refurbished as a bed and breakfast in 1989.

In 1962 the Dunn Hotel had to be moved a few metres back to accommodate a change in road alignment. The picket fence was added then to enclose the garden.

Blacksmith Shop (#3)* (disappeared)

A few metres east on the main road, not quite as far as the St. Stephen’s parking lot, stood Philip Leppard’s blacksmith shop. Born in England in 1832, he came to Canada as a young man and built the shop to ply the trade he had learned in his homeland. When he died at the age of 76 his youngest son took over. The blacksmith shop did not long survive his death in 1925.

The Tannery (#4)* (disappeared)

The Tannery was at the end of a road which started opposite Dean’s Hotel (now Chelsea’s Restaurant) and ended where it met Brooks’ Creek.

When it started in the middle of the nineteenth century it was a promising venture, with a good water suppy and lots of hemlock bark for tanning, but it was never a particular success.

St. Stephen’s Church (#5)

We now cross the main street to St. Stephen’s Church and cemetery before returning to the centre of Old Chelsea.

Chelsea’s first Church was built of wood between 1838 and 1840 when Old Chelsea was a mission served from Aylmer. In 1845 St. Etienne-de-Chelsea became a separate parish in the care of Father James Hughes who served it for his last 14 years. He is buried directly under the altar.

In 1879, work was begun on a larger stone church, slightly to the south of its predecessor. It was made of Corkstown stone from quarries used for the Parliament Buildings. Male parishioners would leave Chelsea at 3 a.m. with a load of logs or hay for delivery in the city, returning with a load of stone about 9 or 10 o’clock in the evening. Construction was finished in 1882.

The ceiling mural, depicting the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was executed by an Italian artist. The steeple was constructed in 1894, about the same time as the Presbytery.

One of the most striking views of St. Stephen’s is the night floodlighting on the spire, installed in the early 1980s. It is a beacon amongst the hills formiles around, and on a misty evening it is a thing of compelling beauty. In 1988 the church was given an architectural conservation award by the Historical Society of the Gatineau.

St. Stephen’s Cemetery (#6)

The Roman Catholic Cemetery is much larger than the Protestant, and includes people of both French and English ancestry. Tombstones date back as far back as the middle of the nineteenth century. The cemetery is still functioning. Though to people today the age of the two cemeteries in the village may seem not greatly different, there is an enormous difference in their nature. First, St. Stephen’s Cemetery adjoins the parish church. More striking, it is not “a place of torment” in the New England tradition, but a reflection of the Victorian taste for cemeteries in a park like setting: an attractive place for visitors to wander in search of genealogy or in private communion with relatives and friends departed. The graves, both simple and ornate, are not a dread warning of divine retribution in a possibly terrifying after-life, but a source of gentleness and love and inspiration.

Because so many of the pioneer families of the Chelsea area were Irish Catholic, the St. Stephen’s Cemetery is a book of local history.

Dean’s Hotel (#7)

Just west of the Church is the West Hull Community Centre, a former school now used for all kinds of community activities. This is the site of the famous Annual Auction of the Historical Society of the Gatineau, the oldest such charitable auction in the National Capital Region. Adjoining it is a another former school which has also been used by the community in recent years. There Padden Road (formerly known as North Street) meets the Chelsea Road. At this corner stands Chelsea’s Restaurant, formerly Dean’s Hotel.

Letters patent for the land were issued to Thomas Brigham in 1824. The first structure there, built at an unknown date, was a 5x6 metre log structure to which a much larger front portion was added in the 1870s. The log part eventually was taken down, and front and side verandas were built. A brick veneer was added, painted white, and in the latest restoration, scrubbed clean.

In 1875 Ed Dean (1840-1898) ran the place as a hotel. The West Hull Council held many meetings here, paying 75 cents in rental on each occasion. In 1875, Dean offered adjoining land to build a municipal hall. In the speed that characterized government in those days, the offer was accepted immediately and by June of the following year Council was sitting in its new hall. The hall remained until 1983 when it was moved to the east of the Chelsea exit on the autoroute for use as a barn on the Hendrick farm. Its cornerstone is preserved in the grounds of the restaurant. The municipal offices are now divided between the firehall and a former house, both on the road to Chelsea.

In 1893 a bylaw limited the number of taverns to one, and Dunn’s Hotel across the street got the licence. That moved the Dean’s Hotel business from the front door to the back, where on Sunday mornings the lines were longer than they were up the hill at St. Stephen’s. Urged on by Father Carriére and Father McNally, the municipality voted down all liquor in a referendum in 1907.

With prohibition, Dean’s Hotel was a hotel no more. John Grimes, who owned it for a dozen years, rented it for family accommodation. In 1920 Bill Trudeau bought it from him and ran a store for ten years; then one of his sons took over. It was run as a restaurant or snackbar by several owners until it was acquired by John Gordon in 1986. He completely remodelled it to restore some of its earlier flavour, and sold it two years later to interests operating restaurants in Ottawa.

Sweeney’s Hotel (#8)

This could be the most often changed building in the village. Now the Parkway general store, next door to Chelsea’s Restaurant, it may be where Thomas Brigham Prentiss operated his store and post office from 1830 to 1843. That is not certain, and even vaguer is its history for the next 32 years. In 1875 there was a tavern here, operated by John Sweeney. His beer was five cents a glass.

Besides being a tavern keeper, Sweeney was a coachman for Gilmour’s Mills in the newer Chelsea. He drove the manager, John Mather on his visits to the logging shanties. He also brought the mail from the train station in the newer Chelsea. John and his wife Helen were long remembered for their habit of relaxing on the veranda on summer evenings, smoking their pipes.

Sweeney ran a store for a while. It passed through several hands, with alterations from time to time. For many years it has been owned by Bob and June Dompierre. June was the last postmaster in Old Chelsea, for in 1986 all operations were transferred to the Post Office in the newer Chelsea.

Whitaker's Hotel & The Allen Home (#9 and 10)* (disappeared)

At the eastern corner of the Chelsea Road and Scott Road, before 1875, stood a squared log building called Whittaker’s Hotel, next door to the wooden house built by the Allen family which came from New England with Philemon Wright. These buildings disappeared before the turn of the century, leaving the corner vacant until 1926.

The Gatehouse (#11)

Now L’Agaric Restaurant, in the late nineteenth century this structure was the gatehouse at the Gilmours’ mill operations in new Chelsea. It was intended for use by a tollkeeper, but it is doubtful if tolls were ever collected; he accounted for loads of lumber passing through the gate. When the mills closed in the 1890s the house was rented to summer tenants. In 1926, just before the Gatineau Power Company flooded the area with its new dam, Tom Padden, the power company watchman, moved the Gatehouse to its present site in Old Chelsea. Here it has been enlarged and rented for various commercial enterprises.

Hanratty-Reynolds House (#12)

Now we have turned the corner from the Chelsea Road onto the Scott Road. We shall continue on it only one block to the north before circling on Padden Road back to the centre of the village.

Half way up the block is the Hanratty-Reynolds House. John Hanratty (1820-1874) was a shoemaker. He and his wife Sarah (1832-1897) were both buried in St. Stephen’s Cemetery. Hanratty built the house, partly of log, sometime before 1875. In 1890 it came into the possession of Jack Reynolds who made major renovations, including the addition of a cellar in place of the old log foundations and the back section. Joe Reynolds, the youngest of Jack’s five children, had it from 1940 to 1971. That was when the present white clapboard was put over the former plaster. In 1973, Joe’s widow sold it to Del and Patricia Trudeau who rented it out.

Chamberlin Big House & Chamberlin Little House (#13 and 14)

The Big House was built first, next door to the north of the Hanratty-Reynolds House. The Chamberlin Little House is just beyond, on the southeast corner of Padden Road. Both are frame structures, alike in design, and were built as cottages sometime before 1875, for rental to summer visitors.

John Chamberlin was married to Angela Wyatt Allen whose family lived almost next door, at the comer of Chelsea Road. After the death of John Chamberlin and, later, of his wife, the two houses were bought by the Murphy boys whose family ran a well-known boarding house at Kingsmere. Paddy, who was noted for his fine stonework on the King estate, lived in the Little House. Johnny, his wife and nine children had the Big House. Behind the two properties was immaculate grass used for lawn bowling.

The smaller cottage was remodelled and winterized in the 1960s. The Big House remains in the Murphy family.

O’Meara House (#15)

On Scott Road, just across Padden Road, stands the O’Meara House, a squared log structure probably erected just after the middle of the nineteenth century. The first name associated with the building was John O’Meara (c1835-1892), a labourer who was married to Mary Quinn (1840-1910).

A succession of families owned it until it became the Post Office in 1928, with Grace Welsh as postmaster. She also ran a tearoom and served dinners by reservation. After 1971 it was owned by Dieter Maynecht and his wife Sheila Dwyer. The owner of L’Agaric Restaurant, Jeanne Dessurault, now lives here.

Sully Home (#16)

We now turn eastward off the Scott Road to follow Padden Road back to the centre of Old Chelsea. Just after the road takes a right-hand 45-degree turn (southeastwards), we see the Sully Home on the left.

The main part of the building was in place before 1875, The veranda and upper balcony were later additions. It has had five owners since the Sully family.

Brigham-Chamberlin House (#17)

As we go down the Padden Road towards the centre of Old Chelsea, the Brigham-Chamberlin House is on the right, midway along the last straight stretch.

This is the oldest house in the village, though it has been on its present site only since 1962. For 140 years before that it was the original homestead on the nearby Chamberlin farm. Though rerouting the Meech Lake Road caused its move, the original building has remained structurally unchanged throughout its history, except for the removal of a summer kitchen.

The Brighams and Chamberlins were related by business and by marriage. It is speculated that Josiah Chamberlin built his house near the Brigham mills so that he could more conveniently supervise their construction.

Brigham’s son, Charles Lennox, was listed in the 1861 census as a 42-year-old miller. It also reported $800 invested in a sawmill with one employee, who earned $20 a month. Charles Waters Chamberlin, a son of Josiah, married the widow of Charles Lennox. The two families owned most of the land along Brooks’ Creek. Charles lived over 100 years, 75 of which he spent in this house.

Brigham’s Mills (#18 and 19)* (disappeared)

To recall the earliest days of Old Chelsea, it is worth the walk of a few metres west of Dunn’s Hotel to stand by the creek. This is apparently where Thomas Brigham built his saw and grist mills, probably about 1822. They have long since been demolished without trace.

Chelsea

On the right-hand side of the road from Old Chelsea to Chelsea, most of the land now developed for suburban housing belonged to the Link-Hendrick farm. The two-storey brick farmhouse and outbuildings, just west of the Autoroute, were built by George Link, probably in the 1880s. The property came into the possession of Jack Hendrick in 1905. His brother Martin bought farm from George Link’s brother to the east, nearer Route 105, and eventually the small amount of land adjoining them was also bought by Jack Hendrick. The two brothers between them had 22 children including two who were active in local politics.

On the left (north) side of the road, about 100 metres east of the overpass is the administrative headquarters of West Hull. This is the third municipal office, the first having been erected in 1875 and abandoned in 1950 and replaced in the same year by the brick building with adjoining fire station opposite St. Stephen’s Cemetery. The present quarters, with offices only for the mayor and part of the administration, was a temporary 1988 solution when a planned new Municipal Hall was found to cost far more than estimated.

Just east is the English-language elementary school operated by the Protestant School Board. It runs from a four-year-old kindergarten to Grade 6.

The land on the south side of the road, opposite the school, was originally granted to Caleb Brooks who, early in the nineteenth century, moved to Low where his homestead is well preserved. The two-storey brick house now on the land was built in 1924 by Charles Howard Reid.

The Post Office on the north side was opened in 1978. The Post Office in Old Chelsea was closed down in 1986, a year after the community celebrated a century of postal service.

At the southwest comer of the Chelsea Road and Route 105, early in the century, stood the house and forge of Brian Kenny, a profane Irishman who specialized in shoeing horses — unlike his contemporary across the highway who crafted household articles and other finer things in life.

We now turn right (south) onto Route 105 and seek the beginnings of Chelsea.

Wright House (#1)

The road on which we drive owes its existence to Philemon Wright who used his influence as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada to have a toll road built northwards from Wright’s Town to the west of the Gatineau River. There were toll gates on the outskirts of Wright’s Town and at Chelsea.

The road was important to the Wright family. Philemon’s youngest son, Christopher Columbus Wright, in 1830-31 — at the age of 32 — had acquired a farm on top of the long hill just north of the present Alonzo Wright Bridge. It was then known as Christy Wright's Hill, and then as Mile Hill. Here he built his house, which passed eventually to his son and grandson, before being bought by the Hendricks family.

The original home of Christopher Wright Senior was replaced by a white house with green trim which is still in use. It is clearly visible on the east side of Route 105, the first old house at the very top of Mile Hill. Just to the south and slightly back of this farmhouse is a garage. This is the original home of Christopher Wright Senior.

After pausing to admire the extraordinary view from Mile Hill, we turn around and drive north on Route 105. As we pass under the high Hydro Québec transmission lines, we see Garryhinch to the right, perched on the high bank of the Gatineau River.

Garryhinch (#2)

Built in 1850, Garryhinch belonged to the Gilmour family. Originally there was an elaborate veranda across the front, with scalloped trim matching the bargeboard in the front gable. There was also a heavy four-panelled front door with fanlight and sidelights. The large 30-paned window in the tower and the shifting of the entrance door to the north side were later renovations. Deep-silled windows extend almost from floor to ceiling and there are still pine floors throughout. The main rooms have hand-hewn beams.

Hudson rouse (#3)* (disappeared)

On the west side of Route 105, just north of the railway crossing, is a forlorn treelined drive, a reminder of how easily heritage is lost to public indifference.

This was site of the Hudson House. Early in the nineteenth century Josephus Hudson had built a log house here. Just in front of it, about 1860, John Hudson constructed a fine Victorian house in red brick trimmed with Marl brick. With the traditional centre hall plan, the large livingroom had a handsome bay window.

In anticipation of a new highway expected to be built in the twenty-first century, the Government of Québec acquired the land in the late 1970s. Although the house was apparently offered to any interested party for one dollar, it was demolished for lack of interest.

The Prentiss Property (#4)

We now approach the group of houses just south of the road to Old Chelsea. On the left (west) is one of the oldest and best preserved buildings in the area.

After running a store and post office in Old Chelsea for several years, Thomas Brigham Prentiss undertook extensive new construction in Chelsea about 1843. “The Homestead” has three storeys, with front verandas across the two lower levels. In the back, outbuildings include woodshed, stable, carriage house, hen house and double privies.

The store, adjoining it on the north, was probably added about 1860. It has deeply set windows, with rounded ornamental glass panes. Inside, the beautifully preserved old drawers and cabinets have painted scrolls and names like “Ladies’ Balmorals”, “Men’s Gaiters” and “Prunella Booties”.

About the time the store was constructed, adjoining “Yarrow Cottage” was added.

The property was occupied by the Prentiss family until 1945. After a year of occupancy by the Yuells, it was acquired by the MacDougall family. Mrs. MacDougall continued to live there for many years after her husband’s death. She and her daughter Pamela, carefully preserved the building and grounds, as well as a fine collection of period furniture. The original Prentiss piano, as well as a fine testimonial to Prentiss from his colleagues in Aylmer, is in the Museum of the Historical Society of the Gatineau in Wakefield.

A fourth building on the property, separated from the others by a laneway, but probably contemporary with the store, was in the Prentiss family until the 1950s.

King’s Hotel (#5)

Also known as Laurentian Lodge, this was built as a hotel early in this century. It is now the last building before the corner ofthe Chelsea Road, the old McCluskey House on the corner having been demolished in the early 1980s to provide better access to Route 105: the house has gone but the access has not come.

Shalimar Hotel (#6)* (disappeared)

On the east side of Route 105, opposite the Prentiss House, stood a hotel owned by Tom Burns. Built about 1850, it had a front veranda and side veranda with two curiously adjacent front doors. After Burns died in the 1960s it remained vacant until it burned down in 1972.

Gardner Church Junior House (#7)

On the east side of Route 105, immediately opposite the Chelsea Road, is one of the handsomest houses in Chelsea. Gardner Church senior had put up a house here early in the nineteenth century, probably behind the surviving one that his son erected in 1870. Behind the green and white frame house is a red carriage shed. Gardner junior was a master craftsman, as the details of the structure bear out. The striking wooden fanlight over the upstairs centre window is a Gatineau specialty. The deep return eaves, pillared porch, sidelights and vintage hardware of the main doorway, as well as the intricately finished interior, demonstrate the maker’s skills.

Horace Church House (#8)

Horace Church owned the house next door to his brother, to the north. In his time it had an extensive veranda and conservatory.

Charles A. Dewar Store (#9)* (disappeared)

Next to the Horace Church House was a general store owned by Charles A. Dewar (1850-1908). It ran from about the turn of the century to World War I when it burned down.

Trowse Building (#10)* (disappeared)

Harry Trowse was one of two blacksmiths in Chelsea. His forge was at the southeast corner of Mill Road and Route 105 and did business there well into this century. He had a strong reputation as a craftsman of household articles.

Sheldon Church House (#11)

Across the street, just north of the gas station is the house built by the third Church brother, Sheldon (1834-1911). The house dates from about 1860. Next to it on the north was another hostelry, Tom Moore’s hotel and tavern dating from the late nineteenth century and eventually lost to fire.

Davies House (#12)

The Davies family was a dynasty of fine physicians in the Chelsea area. This house, in the same row as the Sheldon Church House, was built by Dr. Andrew Pritchard Davies inthe 1850s, After his death, it was a post office. In more recent years it has been simply a private home.

Just to the north of the Davies House were two stores, Grannie McAdam’s and the Flynn-Clegg store, both now gone.

The Railway Station (#13)* (disappeared)

Now we turn down Mill Road running off the other side of Route 105, and go as far as the railway tracks. Just beyond them on the left is the former Chelsea Public School, now used as apartments.

This was the road to the Gilmour Mills. The toll house (later moved to the comer of Scott Road and the Main Street in Old Chelsea) stood just inside the gates. Some of the main operations were on an island, reached by a bridge. All this disappeared under water when the Gatineau Power Company brought the Chelsea Dam into operation in 1926 and changed the river torrent into a peaceful lake. A vigorous imagination is therefore needed to picture the height of the lumber business here which lasted for more than 60 years, beginning in 1832.

The land beyond the fence on Mill Road is owned by Hydro Québec which took in 1963.

The Ottawa and Gatineau Valley Railway was incorporated in 1871, with the names of many leading Ottawa citizens on the charter. Later it became, in turn, the Ottawa & Gatineau, the Ottawa Northern and Western, and the Canadian Pacific. The first train rolled through to Farrelton in 1892 and to Gracefield in 1895. Regular passenger trains gave an excellent commuter service until the early 1960s. Long after passenger service ceased, the freight cars continued to rumble along the old route, mainly carrying wood from Maniwaki. In 1967 twice-weekly steam train excursions from the Museum of Science and Technology in east-end Ottawa to Wakefield were run every summer until 1985. Canadian Pacific, long anxious to abandon the whole line, got permission to tear up the tracks north of Wakefield in 1986. The tracks through Chelsea remain, in hopes of revived steam excursions run by private enterprise with local government support.

The railway station was built in 1892. Like the Wakefield station, it was particularly picturesque, for what it lacked in Wakefield’s dramatic river setting, it made up in splendid gardens kept by the stationmaster. After all, there were important customers here, including the Prime Minister and his guests en route to Kingsmere. For no very good reason, the fine old station was demolished in 1970.

Chelsea United Church (#14)

The United Church is on the south side of Mill Road about 100 metres east of Route 105.

The first Protestant preacher in Chelsea was the famous Asa Meech, a Congregational Minister with many other accomplishments. A few years after his ministry, in 1846 Chelsea had an organized Methodist congregation. Twelve years later the Presbyterians had not only a congregation, but a small church to which the dwindling Methodists came: it was at the riverend of Mill Road. Then came a Methodist revival. Gardner Church gave land for a church which was first used in 1875. It survived until 1955 when it burned down.

Meanwhile the Presbyterians dwindled. In 1914 they joined the Methodists. Eleven years later, the new United Church brought together Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists across Canada. The Presbyterian Church and Manse were demolished not long afterwards.

In 1938 the United Church was extensively altered to bring it to its present appearance. It was raised on cement blocks to permit construction of a basement hall, and was given a new kitchen and furnace. Pews from the closed Ironsides Church were installed. Those pews were replaced in 1962 by pews from Glebe United Church in Ottawa.

Church of St. Mary Magdalene (#15)

When we return to Route 105, we are at the foot of what used to be called Gospel Hill because of all the churches and church residents here. It terminated in Church Street on the right (named after the man, not the institution) and the Chelsea Pioneer Cemetery on the left.

All those religious buildings have disappeared. The Anglican Church and rectory used to be on the right (east) just below Church Street. The Methodist parsonage, built on the site of Asa Meech’s Chelsea school, was just to the south. Then came the United Church manse. The Presbyterian manse was on the left (west), just above the present Anglican Church of St. Mary Magdalene.

The Anglicans got their first church in 1877. The difficulties of recruiting a permanent resident priest did not contribute to the strength of the congregation; in 1943 the church was demolished and the property sold. The Anglican families, who were invited to worship in the United Church building, gradually grew from their core of twelve. In 1956, the Bishop of Montréal bought from Cecil Meredith a lot (which, alas, tends to swamp) and presented it for the new church which was built the next year.

O'Neill House (#16)

As we go up Gospel Hill towards the cemetery, near the top on the left (west), the O'Neill House is not immediately recognizable as one of the area’s more famous hotels, for a bad fire in 1963 reduced it to one storey. Inside there are still charred beams.

The Letters Patent to the land date from 1827. The house was built in the 1850s by Paddy O’Neill as a stage stop between Ottawa and North Wakefield (Alcove); the whole trip from Ottawa to Maniwaki took four days. The first General Session of the West Hull Municipal Council was held here on March 1, 1875.

Arthur O’Neill had the place painted red, with a sign indicating that it was a temperance hotel with stabling for horses. Ten diners could be accommodated at the long table. The beds upstairs were brass. At some periods, the basement was equipped to hold distinctly non-temperance supplies.

The Chelsea Pioneer Cemetery (#17)

Just at the brow of Gospel Hill on the left (west) is a sign indicating the entrance to the Chelsea Pioneer Cemetery, at the end of a white-stoned driveway. This famous place is owned and maintained by the Historical Society of the Gatineau.

It is interesting simply as a type of cemetery very different from the two in Old Chelsea: neither a place of torment by the town square, nor parkland by a church, it was a privately owned burial ground with the graves of sixteen pioneer families who had lived near here in the nineteenth century.

It might have remained overgrown and forgotten had it not been for the rediscovery of its most famous grave after a world-wide search in the early 1960s. This belonged to Private Richard Rowland Thompson (1877-1908), the only Canadian to win the Queen’s Scarf. The Queen’s Scarf was a particularly high and personal order of bravery created by Queen Victoria who herself crocheted the seven scarves awarded across the Empire. Thompson won it for extraordinary bravery while serving as a medical orderly in the South African War.

The long search revealed both the Thompson grave and the scarf he had won. The latter was in the hands of his nephew in Eire who, in 1965, generously gave it on permanent loan to the people of Canada in a great ceremony on Parliament Hill attended by 5,000 people. Three years later the cairn was placed in the cemetery and duly unveiled. The Thompson family presented the stone gates at the entrance. Annual services are now held on November 11 to commemorate Private Thompson and the other pioneers of his time.

Among those who, with their families, have graves here are Gardner Church (1799-1882); Christopher Columbus Wright (1834-1906); John Chamberlin (1793-1837); John Meech (1825-1901); and James Hudson (1870-1891).

A leaflet with more information about the cemetery is available free from the Historical Society at Box 485, Chelsea, Qué., JOX 1NO, For a small fee, a record of the gravestones (#82-13) and the Thompson story is available from the Ontario Genealogical Society, Box 8346, Ottawa K1G 3H8.

Note that this publication is no longer available. Contact the Gatineau Valley Historical Society for more information).