Dragging the house on to the basement
Tag: 1947
The Dowdall House – Fowler’s Corners
Digging the basement
The Dowdall House – Fowler’s Corners
Cynthia arrived in Halifax on June 14, 1946. She then travelled by train to Belleville, Ontario. John and his brother Gordon picked Cynthia up at the train station. After an overnight stop at Gordon and Thelma’s, they headed to Sudbury to visit with relatives. A party was thrown for the newlyweds that lasted until dawn.
Originally they were going to live in Sudbury, but Gordon convinced John and his other brother Marmaduke that they should come to Peterborough. He said there was good farmland, (Marmaduke wanted to farm), and there were jobs at the Canadian General Electric company.
John and Cynthia lived with Gordon and Thelma on Stormont Street. John got a job at the GE.
On August 7, 1946, they purchased an acre of land on the Peterborough-Lakefield Highway, 5 miles from Peterborough. The price was $250.00. Then they decided to sell it. At some point they moved in with “Duke†and Marie on the farm at Orange Corners.
They purchased the land at Fowler’s Corners from Bill Burgomaster (actually his mother owned the farm). John was able to get a loan from the VLA (Veterans Land Association), because he had served with the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps., and they began work on the house.
At first they built half of the house. Cynthia thought that the wind would knock it over, so John attached guy wires to hold it down.
