Company description
A very Historic House Circa 1818/1819 built for Margaret Stephenson of the 1818 settlers(widow of John) on the original basement footprint of the log cabin that should not be ignored by anyone and should mean a lot historically as it was the first house (other than Adam Scott house in Cavan on Sherbrooke St. west of Park St.) to be built at the same time as Adam Scott's Mill as any housing on the swampy flood plain were tents(no houses) according to Rev. Ansell Greene in 1823 but was built in Smith Town, Smith Township, before PTBO, one block south of Smith/Parkhill Street(annexed by Peterborough), 1818, 1819 or the 1820 build year according to Municipal Property Assessment Corp. Log house in accompanying picture resembles it before the lightning-caused fire(speculated due to our 8 strikes in 13 years) and definitely just outside the future site of Peterborough and probably the first building to be made of brick(homemade by professionals) before 1840 as we had brick makers in the area in 1834, 1836 by the surname of Walsh. Brae_top Cot_age has been on the Trent Valley Archives Tour, plus in April 2016 on a Peterborough Examiner History Hunt and we have also received Trent University students sent to check out our Cot_age and Smith Town Hill House by a Trent Professor before the start of the year 2000. This could be the communal spot? The 1st owner was Margaret Stephenson of ALSTON MOOR, Cumberland(Cumbria), England from reference pamphlet, "Dedication of 2 Stone Slabs in Smith Town Hill-Mossom Boyd Parkette(Chemong Road)" built in Smith Town & which has part of it still standing. Chemong Road was built on Birdsall Land Survey and The Communication Road was just to the east of there by following the10,000 PLUS Year ingigenous Trail.A picture and description were placed in the Peterborough Examiner by A. G. Elliott in an article featuring the Smith Town Hill neighbourhood, a well-known Historian who was from the University Of Toronto, but now works in the history part of the Canadian Government, who has released a book called the Glory Days on Historic Peterborough after the period that the Cot_age was built for Christmas of 1819/1820. Recorded in 1823 by a travelling horseback riding Methodist Preacher, Rev. Ansell Greene whose Journals are kept at the University Of Toronto as the only place he could hold a meeting close to or in the soon to be Peterborough, so he rode along the First Nations Trail (Samuel de Champlain Portage Route) in order to find it just north of the tiny settlement of Adam Scott. It was a log cabin described with logs split in half and hollowed out for a roof, much like they do with clay tiles for a roof, with the front-facing east which was the First Nations Portage Route and not Edinburgh Street which did not exist at that time. The dimensions of the original basement are a very close match to his description and would set back far enough from the First Nations Trail which was, marked by a blazed tree right on the lot lines of 270/274 Edinburgh Street taken down by City Workers and a boulder about ten tons in weight also removed in the late 1980s on the corner of the property to be a friendly stop marker in the 1800s if Margaret Stephenson, the owner, wanted to chit-chat but not intruding. Later on, a great majority of the richest people in Peterborough, first built around it on Smith Town Hill before relocating to other sections of the town such as The Avenues. A private home that is being changed as much as possible on the outside to take it back in time but needs government funds to do any major changes. The Cot_age was changed from oil heat to baseboard electric in 1987, lighting was changed slowly to LED starting in the year 1998, F.C.I. as it is known helped replace all the windows by the year 2013 to double-paned, low e, with two being triple-paned. He was fast, very careful of the plants, very clean inside and outside the house and very good labourers. The outer walls are hand made brick as they are frogless (Time Team Source on Channel 4 England or TVO) covered by fence type wire reinforced stucco. All the plumbing was upgraded in year 2000 when the bathroom was modernized with low-flow toilet and showerhead plus kitchen sink and cupboards. The spirit seems to be making himself very scarce now the modernization has taken place as the dogs do not stare at any chairs as they used to do on a regular basis. An outside entrance that goes into the kitchen area has the three remaining front porch pillars from around 1835 and would have been on the back of the old log cabin as the front of the old log cabin faced the First Nations Portage Route, not the street as there weren't any streets then. The kitchen has exposed beams with insulated attic, the beams right now holding two signs, a straw broom, chicken fence egg basket and baskets of various sizes and make. The living room has a fieldstone (rubble) fireplace which is directly above where the original log cabin fireplace used to be which you can tell by the smaller stones in the basement walls. The basement floor is still dirt as was the original log cabin floor built by the Cumberland Group(c.1818) for Margaret Stephenson (widow of John) who could not claim a farm due to the settlers act for this area, which said that only fit men could homestead, with maybe a plank floor but not as elaborately done as the plank floor as Smith Town Hill House directly across the road where the plank floor was built on square beams and those square beams rested on stone bases. We still have no clue where the well sat on the property as it was so well filled in, but we do know that the First Nation Trail-10,000+years(Samuel de Champlain Portage Route) did cross the property at the exact point due to a blazed tree as the First Nations people would do plus stay on the highest ground to protect themselves when we moved in the year 1984 and it was there until the City removed it about 1889. The map which accompanies this description includes Peterborough, the largest lot was marked for a graveyard at the S/E intersection of Park and Parkhill(Smith), along with Ashburnham and Smith Town Hill(north road Smith St., now known as Parkhill, west road Park, east roads Harvey & Water Sts. incl. Armour, & south road Townsend incl. Maria. which was lithographed by Sir Sandford Fleming in 1846, in Toronto where he finally placed the houses on it having only done the roads in Peterborough, relying on his memory of where the houses were, so Braetop Cotage plus Smith Town Hill House were placed wrongly between Bethune St. and Aylmer St. on Edinburgh, when they were really on the very top of the hill. I wonder if S. Fleming even knew Braetop Cot_age was the 1st established house above the swamp and tents which was founded as Peterborough. If you want a very good view of the map the Peterborough citizens refused to buy, go to Hutchison House where it is displayed on the wall of one room in its' very large size. Fits into Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act by its' background in Peterborough History before S. Fleming arrived from Scotland. Present 1/2 owner/male since 1984 has a connection to previous owners since male owner came back from the WW2 about 1945 with a bullet in his head that could not be removed thus causing him continual headache(I have a continual headache due to removal of brain tumour) and another male owner was Trent Univ. Prof.(I was clerk/ typist of Const. Co. (which built CN Tower a few years later) but my job was at the Main Campus Of Trent Univ. before there were any buildings out on the main campus, at age 18 in 1965). Owners at the present time have acquired a rare genetic disease that took over fifteen years to diagnose. Our apologies for information lacking on other map sites which seem to have lost a lot of information that we placed there for your perusal. More of our Fyple sites of Peterborough such as Kirkview, Smith Town Hill House, Boyd Parkette, (Smith Town Hill Parkette), Cenotaph 1929 and Wall Of Honour 2010 with information and we welcome your reviews. In the Birds Eye View Braetop Cot_age is the house with the curved walkway, royal blue vehicle and in the lowest part of the picture, all by itself. Right across the road from a house that recently in the 21st century is on Pokemon Historic. Braetop Cot_age
CONSTANTLY ignored over all the years by a large number of historians is my main complaint in the 37plus years since I have lived here!
More details
- On Road
- Yes, only 20 feet from the sidewalk before overcrowded building filled up their parking spaces of 269/265.
- Yes
