The House That Time Forgot

From Google Maps

I saw this online yesterday and am so intrigued by it that I had to share with my readers. This is a story of "The House That Time Forgot"

It's a home that two brothers lived in with their parents and when their dad died in 1932 nothing was ever changed or disturbed or rearranged after that date. It was frozen in time. The brothers remained bachelors and stayed in the home until death or old age forced removal. With no heirs, the last surviving brother left the house and it's contents to The National Trust. It is now preserved as a museum

When I say they left it as it was in 1932, this includes food in the kitchen pantry, original appliances from the 1920s, all their dad's coats and hats still hung on pegs in the hall, and so on. So a little piece of a historical era has been frozen.

As intriguing and interesting as it is, I find it a tad creepy. Don't get me wrong! I love antiques, in fact our home is filled with them and visitors often remark that it is like entering a museum with so much to look at in our home. And of course I am all for preserving family memories (which these brothers did - perhaps too well?) For me it seems as if the boys (and their mother) were unable to move on after the dad's death. So they too were stuck in time, perhaps never fully grieving his passing. And I think that's very sad.

What do you think? Amazing and a wonderful tribute or just a wee bit disturbing?

3rd Great Grandpa's House Built 1860 For Sale

Rear of the House

The house that my husband's 3rd great-grandfather William Massey built in 1860 is up for sale.

I talked about this house in a previous blog post at History of the Massey Home 1860 to Present

It's been completely renovated inside and out and is vastly different but the original home is the base. Someone at some point in time did an amazing job at renovating and decorating it.

See the photos of this beautiful home as it stands now.

Massey House Front View 1908

Massey House Front View 2012

Historic Homes - the Sandercock House

Sam Sandercock Home, St. Mary's Ontario Canada

This home was purchased in 1919 by my husband's 2nd great-grandparents, J. Samuel (Sam) Sandercock (Sandercott) and his wife Ann Theresa Jackson.

The Sandercock family lived there until 1974 when their bachelor son Wilbur aka Tiny died.

Recently the St. Mary's Museum in St. Mary's Ontario did a write-up in the St. Mary's Journal Argus about the Sandercock family and this house. Much of their genealogical family information came from my husband,

As the published article states, Sam and Ann lost two of their sons in WW1. I've written about the Sandercock family and those boys previously on the Olive Tree Genealogy blog, and featured a postcard sent by one of them (Cecil) to his only sister Myrtle (my husband's great-grandmother) during the war.

Postcard from Cecil Sandercok 1918

Hubs' family believes in preserving and passing on family treasures, and hubs is lucky enough to own the postcard sent by Cecil two months before he was killed in 1918 as well as Cecil's war medals.

We also have a photo of the Sandercock family with Sam and his boys in full uniform, taken shortly before they were all sent overseas.

Cecil Sandercock WW1 Medals

In a serendiptitious twist,  last year hubs was given Sam Sandercock's mustache cup to add to his collection of antique mustache cups.

Sam Sandercock's Mustache Cup

The photo behind Sam's mustache cup is of Sam and his son Bill who was killed one year before his brother Cecil during WW1.

Journal Argus story of the Sandercock House

One of My Former Homes is Now a Historic Home

House present day

This is one of the homes I used to live in. We bought it in 1974 and lived there for three years. It was built in 1902 and has recently been classified as a historic home.

I wish the cute little barn/garage at the end of the driveway was visible. I'm not sure when it was built.

The home, when I lived there, had a front and back staircase. The back one went from the kitchen to an upstairs bedroom and I assume it was originally for the servants.

House in early 1900s

 Here is a photo showing part of the house in the early 1900s. It is the house just left of the tall pole. You can see that it once had an upper story balcony.

The second story window on the right was my young son's bedroom (ours was at the rear of the house).  We believed the house was haunted.

Many strange things occurred in that house and were centered around the rear bedroom and my son's bedroom. When he was 4 years old he insisted that a man came into his room and woke him up every night to talk to him.

House 1974-1977

The couple who bought the house after we left set it up as a Bed & Breakfast and promoted it as haunted. They too experienced unusual events, most centered in the front bedroom.

In this photo taken during the years we lived in the house, you can see that it had a different facade on the front of the attic.

It's kind of neat that it's been declared a historic home.

The Massey Home History 1860-present

Massey House 1908

William Massey, my husband's 3rd great grandfather, left Quebec and settled in St. Mary's Ontario in 1859.  In October 1860 William began buying land in the small community. His wife and six children needed a home, and William built a frame house on one of the lots.

Massey House ca 1920s Notice the cow!

William eventually sold all but the lot where the Massey house stood. Some of the lots went to family members and to individuals who were related by marriage.





Before William left Ontario to fight in the American Civil War in 1864, [UPDATE: William did NOT fight in the Civil War! I have found records that he was actually in jail during this time] he transferred ownership of the lot and the house to his wife Ellen (for $1.00).


He died in November 1865 shortly after returning home to St. Mary's, and his widow remained in the house.

Eventually the land and house was transferred to their son Thomas Massey, my husband's 2nd great-grandfather. 

Thomas and his family lived in the home until Thomas' death in 1912.

Massey House 1942

 His widow Harriet continued to live in the house until her death in 1945.

The next family member to own the house was their son John Massey, my husband's great-grandfather. John's brothers lived in the house with him at various times. When John died in 1976 the home finally left Massey ownership. So this home had a 126 year history of Massey individuals living in it.

Recently my husband visited relatives in St. Mary's and while there, made a side trip to the Massey house. He wanted to take more photos to go with the photos you see here.  At my suggestion he took copies of his early photos of the house in hopes of  interesting the new owners with the house history. When he explained who he was and his reason for being there, the current owner of the house was fascinated and took him inside for a tour! She showed him around both inside and out and together they hunted for original foundations and parts of out buildings.

Hubs many years ago cleaning William's Grave

To my husband's delight they found the original outhouse which is now a garden shed, and some foundations which would have been an outdoor shed (now a toolshed). Hubs also noted interior parts of the original house and was there for over an hour. Of course he left copies of the house photos he brought with him and promised to send the owner copies of the Abstract Indexes to Deeds and ownership papers that pertain to the property and the house.  She was so interested that she phoned her place of work and told them she'd be late returning from her lunch break!

Hubs was so excited about being allowed inside that he forgot to ask permission to take a photo of the exterior of the house as it stands today. Hmm... or was it deliberate so he could visit again soon?

Whatever the cause, hubs had a huge serendipity moment and was able to go back to his 91 year old grandmother's home to share the story with her. She was in the Massey house as a young bride, sitting in the kitchen talking to her husband's grandmother Harriet, the widow of Thomas Massey.


It was wonderful for hubs to share details of the house as it stands today. When he mentioned certain details it triggered memories for her which she then shared with him. All in all a wonderful genealogical day.

Help Save Gordon House in Penetanguishene

Pam Tessier sent the following urgent message regarding preservation of a historical house in Penetanguishene, Simcoe County Ontario

A bit of historical background.........

 Located at 12 Water Street in Penetanguishene is the building commonly referred to as "The George Gordon House". A plain, white stuccoed, one and a half storied, cedar log house, it is said to be the first home built in the town.

George Gordon was a fur trader and in the west prior to the War of 1812. He was a witness to the seige of Michilimackinac and was in Sault Ste. Marie when it was burnt by the Americans. The house Gordon built shortly after he arrived in Penetanguishene in 1825 still stands and is lived in today. The age of the house may make it one of the oldest in Simcoe County, perhaps even Ontario. The fact that it is still lived in certainly makes it unique. It is local lore that the first Roman Catholic mass was said in this house, shortly after the arrival of the Drummond Islanders in 1828/29.

But we have a problem. The owner is an elderly lady who has had to vacate the house and is presently in hospital. Where ownership goes from here is difficult to determine, but if the house is to be saved, not just for her descendants but all the townspeople and their descendants, action has to be taken now. Heritage Penetanguishene, a council appointed committee, has not designated it as a "property of interest" and they are reluctant to designate the house a historical property because it has had stucco applied to the exterior.

We would like to work with them to have this historically valuable house declared not just a place of interest but eventually an official historical property. Here it sits, part of our history and totally unprotected from bulldozers or neglect.

We need your help! A few years ago when we hosted the Simcoe Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, I was approached about the preservation of this house by a number of people who were Gordon descendants . If there is enough interest shown by the public, we may be able to persuade Heritage Penetanguishene to move quickly on the designation.

If you are interested in seeing this landmark preserved, please join the Committee to Save the Gordon House by contacting Pam Tessier at: savethegordonhouse@gmail.com. Numbers matter and we do have a voice!