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Front view of the Williams farm house.

"Farm home owned by Frank and Mima Ritchie. This picture was taken during the 1930's by their son-in-law, Reginald Coker. The farm was owned by the Ritchie family and was worked and operated as a dairy farm first by father Frank Ritchie, and then by his son Milton Ritchie. The farm consisited of 188 acres of land and during the Ritchie era was worked mainly with horses. In 1954, the farm was sold by Milton Ritchie to Elmer Stong. The house was built by Davis Stoddart in 1879. Off the main hall there was an oak circular staircase with an oak banister, which was fun to slide down on in the morning for us kids. There were approximately twenty-five rooms in the home with twelve foot ceilings. It was heated with wood and at time coal, but needless to say, in the real winter of yester year, one always wore sweaters indoors. Window shutters kept it cool in the hot summer months. Inside plumbing was not part of the home during the Ritchie era. The floors of the home were maple. The parlour hosted many events from Saturday night dances to weddings, wakes and funerals. Located off the main upstairs hall, stained glass double doors opened to a balcony overlooking the flower gardens adorning the front exposure. Many garden parties were held in the gardens during June, July and August. Sadly, the buildings fell into disarray after Mr. Stong sold the farmland to developers in 1971. The dairy barn built by Frank Ritchie in 1918 burned in the early 1980's and the house was allowed to deteriorate until it became only the shadow of what it had once been, which is now portrayed in some paintings. Mercifully, it was finally put to rest a few short years ago and another chapter of Bradford West Gwillimbury history became a distant memory." Written by their grandson, Alan Ritchie.

Description : See "Davis Stoddart / Frank Ritchie farm house" for more information on the home.

Contains articles and clippings related to the buildings and architecture of Bradford West Gwillimbury, from F-L

When this photo was first printed, the negative was flipped (so the fence would be on the right side of the photograph). We have corrected the photograph here to show how the house was meant to look.
Dorothy (Reeves) Marks is in front of the house, located at 89 Holland Street East. Additions have since been added on to the house, and the trees no longer exist.

Dan MacDonald's log house on the Scotch Settlement.

"The first year-round residents of the Marsh arrived in the late autumn of 1934 and took up residence in the row of houses shown in the above picture. They were families from Holland and they named their village Ansnorveld.
Members of the Christian Reformed Church, after selling their first crops, built the first church on the Marsh, also shown above, in the spring of 1936. Today there are two beautiful Christian Reformed churches on the Holland Marsh."

This portrait is of Samuel Lukes, businessman and mill owner of Bradford. At the time of this edition, he was a successful owner of the Bradford Flouring Mills and lived on Holland Street. Later, he would own the Algonquin Lodge (now known as the Convent).

This portrait is of Egerton R. Young, minister of the Methodist Church, missionary, and author. He lived in the Algonquin Lodge, later known as the Convent.