24 Pine Street East – Wood-McLay-Minielly-Wright House 

Property Description: ALL AND SINGULAR that certain parcel or tract of land and premises situate, lying and being in the Town of Aylmer, in the County of Elgin, and Province of Ontario, and being composed of and containing by admeasurement 0.341 of an acre, more or less, being composed of part of Block K, Plan Number 164, of the said Town of Aylmer, designated as Part 1 on Plan 11R-3699.

Designation: Designated by By-Law No. 13-89 on February 13, 1989.

Reason for Designation: 

History 

Three families have enjoyed the subject property prior to the present owners. Nathan L. Wood built the home, lived and died there. The Hambridges lived there about 11 years. It has been home to the McLay family since 1935. Nathon Wood, J.B. and Harold Hambidge and Dr. and Mrs. Homer McLay made a great contribution to the Aylmer district.

The subject building was erected for Nathan Loring Wood in 1853, on a 20 acre farm which he purchased in 1839.

Mr. Wood was a commercial traveler and about 1835 was passing along the Talbot Trail, likely on horseback. He stopped at Hodgkinson’s Corners, sometimes known as Troy and now called Aylmer. He decided to spend the night here and attend a meeting to be held in a wagon shop. The purpose of the meeting was to select a new name for the community. Troy was the name of town in New York State and that was not popular with the settlers. Mr. Wood suggested the name “Aylmer” in recognition of Lord Aylmer, the Governor General. The name was voted on, accepted and recommended to the Post Office. Mr. Wood made his mark here, on his first visit. Two years later, the only area post office was relocated from Temperanceville, now Orwell, to Aylmer. Phillip Hodgkinson was appointed the first Postmaster. From 1820 to 1840 Temperanceville and Richmond were larger than Aylmer.

Nathan Wood purchased the southeast corner of Talbot Road and Gravel Road (now Talbot and John) and had the North American Hotel built. Our first hotel. Up to this time travelers were taken in by the settlers.

The hotel was a fine frame facility with a barroom, 4 fireplaces and a stable. It burned in 1874. At this time the hotel was owned by Hiram J. Brown, who then built the Brown House, of brick. The Brown House burned out in the early 1930s, was rebuilt to retail use and demolished in the 1970s to be replaced by the present Lover building (Big V).

Mr. Wood ran his hotel at intervals; he preferred storekeeping. Along with Phillip Hodgkinson and Hiram J. Brown he purchased lands from Ebenezer Wilcox; the northeast corner of Talbot and John. Wood built himself a store on the north side of Talbot Road about where Steen’s Cigar Store now is. It appears that Mr. Wood used good planning. His store was across the road from his 20 acre farm on which he eventually built his home. There was no King, Sydenham, Pine or South Streets at that time. Mr. Wood and partners in the land mad a free gift of a building site to the original English Church on the north side of Water Street, at the north end of Queen. A small cemetery remains there today.

The Historical Atlas of the County of Elgin, 1877, describes the earliest merchants as including Wood and Waring and Wood and Kirkland. Interesting anecdotes of Nathan Wood are found on pages 28 & 30 of Aldrich’s Pocket Directory of Aylmer, 1888. They describe his part in the draft of soldiers during the Rebellion of 1837 and years later his famous tamed black bass. These fish were in a pond about where the Gunstone home is at 24 South Street East. Mr. Wood died at home at the age of 85 in 1889. He and Mrs. Wood are buried in the Aylmer Cemetery.

The Woods had a son, George Rodney Wood and three daughters; Evangeline, who died in 1892 and was the wife of J. H. Arkell. Arkell was a very well known Aylmer name. Olive Wood Sturges died in 1908. Amy Hoag died about 1924 and was the last family member to own the subject property and call it home. Her husband Walter died in 1910 and their son Don visited Aylmer and his boyhood home in the early 1980s.

An interesting and no doubt disturbing flurry of events came to light during a thorough title search at the Elgin County Registry Office. In 1864 Nathan Wood deeded, for $1.00, fourteen acres of the home property to his son George. Two years later George mortgaged the property to Adolphus Williams. Another two years and George defaulted on the mortgage. Dr. Williams sold the property, under Power of Sale, for $2,025 to Thomas M. Nairn. The same day, Mr. Nairn sold the property back to George Wood for $2,030. Thomas Nairn did the family a great favour. About this time he became the first Reeve of the Village of Aylmer and his many accomplishments are well known to those familiar with local history. Of course, he was a Scotsman and a Liberal.

In 1873 the Corporation of the Village of Aylmer registered Plan 74. This permitted the orderly development of property; streets were laid out and lots were sold. This enabled the subdivision of the northerly part of the Wood property, in the area of Sydenham, Pine, King and South Streets. Plan 164 was put on in 1890. By 1924 the subject Homestead was whittled down to what is covered in this report.

Eliza Hambidge (Mrs. J.B.) purchased the subject property in 1924, lived there and in 1931 deeded it to her son, Harold Miles Hambidge. During the 1870s J.B. Hambidge built a brick family home at the northwest corner of Sydenham and King (remembered by many as the Harry Durkee home). It has been removed for the municipal parking lot. Mr. Hambidge also built a store as bake shop and confectionary shop, which is now Clarke’s Restaurant at 22 Talbot Street East. Next, he built a frame warehouse and ice house, for refrigeration, which was at the present site of the Aylmer Hotel.

By this time J.B. Hambidge was a dealer in eggs, buying them from local farmers, storing them until sold to large distributors. Apples were a part of this business and were shipped to Glasgow and Liverpool from Aylmer. In 1902 a large brick ice house was built by Joe Davis for the expanding business, capacity 300 tons of ice. J.B. Hambidge died in 1914 and his son Harold carried on the business. During this time the Hambidges were handling up to 200,000 dozen eggs annually. This before modern refrigeration. Harold married Aileen Kennedy of Wingham and they made their home at 24 Pine Street East until 1935.

The Hambidges were very much a part of the business, social and musical life of Aylmer. Harold was a fine, trained Irish tenor and loved to sing. He took a leading part in most of the old Aylmer Minstrel Shows. After moving from they established a model apple orchard on Rogers Road South; a delightful old home was restored and the property was a local showplace featured in the recent Du Maurier Collection by Peter Robson. Upon retirement the Hambidges moved to 27 South Street East. Both passed away in the late 1970s.

The next family to call 24 Pine Street East home were the McLays; Dr. Homer, wife Kathleen and sons Peter and Ian. Dr. McLay was the son of Dr. Peter McLay and was born, raised and started to practice medicine in the family home at the northeast corner of John and Pine, now the Baptist parsonage. From 1908 to 1935 the McLay home was at 89-91 Talbot Street East and the office remained there until 1946 when it was moved to 113 Sydenham Street East.

Dr. McLay described himself as a country doctor, which was correct. After graduation from medical school in London he spent 2 years as a house surgeon at the London Asylum. His professional life in Aylmer

started at the period in medicine when control of infection required very sterile conditions. There were no wonder drugs and no anti-biotics. Care was mostly in the home; emergency surgery on the kitchen table; chloroform for anesthetic; babies delivered at home; horse and buggy or cutter travel; Model T Fords; poor roads; house calls night and day; no hospitalization. The patients who could, paid.

Dr. McLay’s nephew, Dr. McLay Miller joined the practice in 1935 and an X-Ray machine was added. Up to this time the local doctor took care of home, farm accidents and highway crashes in the patient’s home, barn roadside or in his office. It was a busy life – full of dedication.

Patients came to Homer McLay from far and wide and he enjoyed a large practice. We say enjoyed because he loved people and his work. He delivered many babies, all in the home in the early days and was the family doctor to generations. His reputation as a diagnostician survives to this day. The great grandson of Deacon William Davis, one of Malahide’s first settlers and descended from a long line of Liberals, Dr. McLay had a life long love of politics. Illness forced him to retire about 1948. He died in 1958.

Mrs. McLay was the right person at the right time. A country doctor’s wife had to be a special person. This lady was a graduate of St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing and often assisted those patients who could not get help in the home, when it was needed. Particularly at the time of injury, accident or confinement. Her help was required in the office as well. Even to scrubbing the place out at the end of the day.

Kathleen McLay was a skilled home maker and an outstanding house keeper. She didn’t get the free time some others did and made her home and family her life. She loved to entertain and 24 Pine Street East was the scene of countless tea parties. The ladies of the community loved tea parties. They laughed and talked and raised money for various groups including the Red Cross during wartime and the Hospital and Church. It was almost one big open house. In fact, people didn’t lock their doors years ago and patients often walked in during the nigh and called up the stairs for “Doc”. Homer would sometimes get home in the evening at what he though was an early hour; Kathleen would have to round up some partners for a game of bridge. A few of the friends have told of getting out of bed and coming to Pine Street to play cards, at midnight. Homer and Kathleen McLay’s presence at 24 Pine Street East made it an outstanding family home.

Kathleen McLay died in 1982. Peter and Carol McLay live in the home at this time. Ian McLay, his wife Bonnie, their children Tom, David and Kathleen McLay and Kristen and Donald Webber live in London.

Architecture 

The home is describes as a very pure example of Classical Neo-Grecian architecture and demonstrates the “Golden Proportions”; the exquisite and pleasing proportioning typical of the early Greek builders.

These proportions are evident in the basic outline of the house; the roof line; centre doorways at the front; the equal number of windows on each side of centre; even the double hung sash with six panes each and each pane with a well proportioned 9” by 14”. Incidentally, much old “Bubble” glass is found.

Another dramatic feature of this home is the entablature high on the walls. Consisting of dentils, bands of moulding, frieze and architrave, you have a rare and beautiful example of pioneer workmanship and attention to detail.

The house is of frame construction, typical of the period. Squared, hand hewn timbers with wooden pegs form the frame and the original 1” x 8” clear pine tongue and groove siding is in excellent condition. A lap siding was used on the rear and that on the main building is original. Nathan Wood’s hay barn and stable was torn down about 1938 to make way for the Assumption School.

It is interesting that a village merchant and tool man in the semi-wilderness of 1853 Aylmer would attempt such a structure. Designers must have been brought in from the United States, where the Classical design was popular. This was 20 years before rail travel to Elgin County.

The interior of the house presents the well proportioned features as on the exterior. Centre hall, on 3 levels; pleasingly proportioned rooms on each side – all with lovely windows. An open stairway serves the three levels and a simple walnut banister is original to the second floor and has been reproduced to the third. The stairs to the second floor is exceptional. Width is four feet. The important feature is a rise of 7” and a tread of 12”. Another example of beautiful proportions. It’s a perfect stairway.

Ceiling height of 8’8” is ideal; much less in the later Victorian period. The original flooring is a tongue and groove 1 1/8” x 7” and has been covered by a typical oak hardwood, likely laid early in this century.

In 1935, the McLays found the home quite similar to most older homes at that time. No insulation in the ten inch thick walls; only a semblance of heating system; little unvented gas heaters in several rooms; outdated kitchen, bath and wiring. These things were taken care of. A one storey kitchen-wood shed was removed and replaced with a two storey addition consisting of family kitchen below and sitting room above. This unit was

designed by Mr. Bridgeman of London and ties into the original structure well. Wood lap siding was used to match the rear of the original.

While recovering from illness in the late 1940s the McLays traveled the Southern States. There Homer realized that the homes with columns were the style of their own. On his return he made a study of Classical architecture. Architect J. Fred Green of St. Thomas, was consulted.

During 1948 George Craik, builder and mill man of Springfield, with the help of Milt Craik, Lefty Burgess and Frank Wiltsie and the detailed building plans of Fred Green, built the portico and pediment presently gracing the front of the home. Clear native white pine from Fred and Gord White of Springwater was used to construct the columns. These were built in the Green Lumber mill at the corner of Talbot and White Streets in St. Thomas by Col. W.J. Green, Fred’s father. Of course, Norm Brooks placed the columns on the newly built deck.

This addition was well planned and executed by those concerned. Ornamentation was reproduced by the Craiks and carried through to the new portion, as on the original. Several architects and students of architecture have praised the result.

An early photograph, used by the Aylmer Express in the past, shows a structure situated on the flat part of the roof. Improperly called a “cupola”, it was removed many years ago. The “Bird’s eye” sketches of Aylmer, 1881 and 1887, show the subject property on the outskirts of the Village, with the “cupola” in place.

Specific Items on Which Designation was Recommended: 

Subject Lot: existing dimension, 110.7’ by 132.46’

Exterior of Dwelling:

• The entire exterior. Walls, siding, painted wood.

• Windows, doors, portico, pediment, columns.

• Front deck of stone and marble.

• Southeast deck of granite and marble

• Dinner Bell.

• Front walk of Credit Valley sandstone

• Copper eavestroughs

• Approximately 150 linear feet of wooden fence, painted white

 Interior of Dwelling

• Existing floor plan – centre hall

• Open stairs to third floor

• Newel posts, banister and spindles of walnut

• Original wood trim, baseboards in living room, first and second floor hallway, bedrooms

• Wood panel under living room windows

• Original flooring of 1 1/8” by 7” tongue and groove.

• Fireplace of walnut and marble

• Bay window

• See through cupboard between butler pantry and kitchen

• Ceiling light fixtures in dining room, den, lower hall, upper hall, sunroom; numerous wall fixtures and exterior light fixtures.

Short Notes: Built in 1853 by hotelier Nathan L. Wood, this Georgian neo-classical has original 1”x8” clear pine tongue and groove siding cut to resemble an ashlar, stone fabric. The size of the windows and the classical style of the entrance create a most dignified look. The lowering Doric pillars, pediment, and frieze were added in 1950.