(EDITOR’S NOTE: It was a year ago this week that I joined several community members at a Planning Committee meeting at Ottawa City Hall to oppose Richcraft’s proposal to move the Bradley-Craig barn to Munster. Unfortunately we were not successful, and now Richcraft has until January 2018 to complete the move. Since last January, I’ve heard from a lot of people with stories, memories and questions about the farm. Here’s an interesting story about the tiny house that’s on the west side of the barn. I’m sharing this letter anonymously at the request of the writer, out of respect for her family’s privacy. -GG.)
I love that you invited photographers to the Bradley–Craig property to take pictures of the barn and farmhouse. The pictures are beautiful. I hate the idea of the barn moving away, and of the little house likely being torn down (I can’t see them moving it). It is outrageous that developers get way with so much. Just so that they can build other bunch of cookie-cutter houses, no doubt.
I grew up in the small hired hand’s house next to the farmhouse. At one point there were seven of us living in it: my grandfather, grandmother, mother, father and three kids. But this little house was not located on Hazeldean Road back then.
The house used to be on Perth St. in Richmond, built by my father and grandfather, and it was picked up and moved to Hazeldean Road when I was about 11 years old. My parents had constructed a new home next to it on the Richmond property. I can still remember seeing the old house being driven away on a flatbed or farm wagon. It was used to lodge hired farmhands. The house was moved to Hazledean in 1960.
I was – and still am – extremely curious to see what the inside looks like now and how it compares to my memories. I’m sentimental, I guess, and I know the house won’t be there forever.
