The two-storey house located at 21 Simcoe Road was built by George Stoddart before World War I. Originally, it was clad in brick and there was a large barn at the rear across the full lot. There was also a 2’-square dumb waiter in the house. It was operated by a pulley system and used to move things from the basement to the upper floors. Mrs. Stoddart and her son (George) lived here for many years. Tom Bell retired from the Bank of Commerce in the 1930’s, and he and his wife and daughter (Dorothy) were next to live in this house. Dorothy lived here until her father died and she was too old to remain. (1, 2)
Alex Sutherland’s bakeshop was located at 27 Simcoe Road for many years. It was later sold to Howard Bowser. Howard converted it into a rental dwelling. The building was eventually owned by a market gardener who had a cement garage and storage building constructed by Len Saint on the property. Neil Lathangue and his wife lived here for a time years later. After they left, Tommy and Bill Whiteside moved in and remained here until they died. (1, 2)
The Wilkinson House is a mid-block building located at 31 Simcoe Road. It was built by Art Saint and/or George Stoddart around 1923 in the Arts and Crafts style. The house was sold to Chris Long, his daughter, and her husband Fred Wilkinson (a printer for the Bradford Witness) and daughter Marjorie. When they moved to Toronto to work at the DeHavill and Aircraft Company during WWII, the house was sold to a market gardener whose family lived here for many years. The 1½-storey, two-bay ‘bungalow’ has a simple form with an asymmetrical façade and a rectilinear plan. A broad, steeply-pitched, gable roof extends down to reduce the scale of the building from the street. It covers the open front porch and is supported on wood half columns on brick piers. There is an off-centre hall entrance from the porch. The porch (entered from the front) is raised and has a simple, wood handrail and baluster. There are wide window openings with low floor to ceiling heights. A wide band of windows across the front of the dormer emphasizes the horizontal lines and massing of this house. The wide windows are set into rectangular openings. Smaller, second-storey windows in the front dormer are offset from the ground-floor windows and have plain, wood sills and trim. The windows and the second entrance door are not original. A mix of exterior cladding materials is common to this style. The house has returned eaves at the dormer roof. Wood frame construction has brick, masonry cladding and vinyl siding on the dormer. The original cladding would have been wood. There is a painted, concrete foundation. According to the 2000 inventory, the house is in good condition with many original features that have been maintained well. (1, 2, 3)
The Dr. Clement House is located at 41 Simcoe Road (on the southeast corner of Simcoe Road and Centre Street). It was built around 1830-1860 (1840’s?) in the Classic Revival style. Dr. Clement lived and died here after practising in the 1870-80’s. He was buried in Clement Cemetery on the 2nd Line in Innisfil (east of Highway 11). His wife Rachel lived here until her death. The house was then rented to Walton, a railroad man for the C.N.R. The barn and garden behind the building ran to William St. (as did all the properties on the east side). Sam Catania and his wife Sarah lived here in later years. They converted the house into two apartments and had a dry cleaning business in the garage that was eventually destroyed by fire. Sam sold the house to Bruce and Barbara Verney. They were still living here when this photo was taken in 1995. Bruce was a chiropractor. A building used as a dry cleaner was constructed later on the property. Jack Pong (a restaurant owner on Holland St.) built a house on the back of this property that extended to Centre Street. The street level has apparently been raised considerably around this house as the current 1½-storey, two-bay house was originally 2½ storeys. It has an asymmetrical façade and entrance, a simplified ‘temple’ form, and a medium-pitched, gable roof. The pediment roof shape has return eaves facing the front. A hip roof on the raised entrance portico is supported on wood beams with decorative, wood dentils. The corner columns have wooden ‘flutes’ and are mounted on brick pedestals. A wood-panelled door is flanked by narrow sidelights and is topped by a transom light. The house has small window openings with low floor to ceiling heights. Small, upper-floor windows are set into rectangular openings with plain, wood frames and sills. A ground-floor, bay window is an angled projection with a hip roof. The brick masonry foundation appears to be a replacement. A horizontal belt line at the top of the foundation is expressed with wood trim. The structure has wood frame construction with stucco cladding and a cut-stone foundation. Bricks found at the bay window foundation and at the entrance porch are probably not original. According to the 2000 inventory, the house is in good condition with many original details. (1, 2, 3, 4)
This dairy farm ran for years by George and Sarah (Leopard) Peterman. George Walker Peterman was born on March 19th, 1870 to George and Charlotte of Tecumseth, and he decided to come to Bradford to clear land on Simcoe Road to build his dairy farm. With his wife Sarah Jane Leopard (born January 31st, 1869) of North York, and ten children, the Peterman Dairy farm came into being at 319 Simcoe Road. All the boys worked on the farm until they moved out to start families of their own. Out of the four girls, Vera Peterman (later Williams) was the first to drive the horse-drawn dairy wagon through town. She did it for seven of the 35 years the family farm ran. As the dairy farm died out, most of the Peterman family stayed in the Bradford area (Monty and Norma left for Detroit). George Peterman died on September 17th, 1950, and Sarah died soon after on April 15th, 1955, both in their 80s. Most of their children are buried with them in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Bradford.
The building located at 30 Simcoe Road was known as the Lathangue & Skwarchuk Funeral Home when this photo was taken in 1995. The Kilkenny family was the first to serve Bradford with a funeral home in 1836. Neil Lathangue owned the business from 1950-1963. Mac Lewis was the owner from 1963-1973. He brought Bill Skwarchuk into the business in 1968. Today (2017), the funeral home is owned by Bill Skwarchuk and his family. (1, Skwarchuk Funeral Home web site)
The house located at 64 Simcoe Road was built on what was originally a vacant lot to the west of the Aiken’s property. The lot was sold to Leonard Saint by the McDonald sisters in 1946. Len built a frame, stucco house on the property in the winter of 1946-47. That was the year of a huge snow storm. The structure had a cement foundation, a cellar, and a water heater. A garage was built later on the laneway. Nellie (Saint) James once lived here. Her husband Ernest began a liquor store with his brother and son Ronnie. Nellie remained here with Ronnie after Len died. Ronnie sold the house when Nellie died. (1, 2)
This two-storey structure is located at 218 Simcoe Road. It is the fourth house on the west side (south of the “Y” in Simcoe Road). Robert Stewart, his wife, and family lived here many years ago. His son George, who married Ethel Waldruff, played lacrosse and was a painter and paper hanger for Billie Sutton. Robert owned 75 acres of land and worked as the town clerk for 25 years. He also farmed (and later rented) his land. Ed Cave and his wife (Ida) and daughter (Violet) moved to this area from Newton Robinson and eventually bought and worked a farm. He delivered milk and had a dairy in town. Ed was a staunch Orangeman who played King Billie riding his white horse at the 12th of July parade. There was a gravel pit on the property. He eventually sold his farm to Mike Sklencar, John Kulha, Steve Brinkos and John Kashmere. They divided the remaining land and sold the lots along Simcoe Road. The large house was converted into four apartments that were used as their living quarters while they each built a house. The structure was still being used as an apartment building in 1995. (1, 2)
