Long known as one of the finer homes of old east-end Barrie, Boulderfel was once described — along with Glenholme, Sans Souci, Blythe and Roxborough — as being one of “those with poetic names.”
Built before 1870, Boulderfel rested on the northeast corner of Blake and St. Vincent streets. Its history is intertwined with the equally interconnected Ardagh, Gowan and Strathy families of early Barrie.
Susan Gowan, sister to Judge James Robert Gowan, married barrister John Strathy in 1843. The judge’s wife was the former Anna Ardagh. In the 1890s, the Gowans occupied Ardraven, Judge Ardagh resided in Blythe Cottage, J.A. Strathy lived at Ovenden, and his brother, H.H. Strathy, was at Boulderfel.
In February 1896, these living arrangements were suddenly altered by the shocking death of J.A. Strathy, after which his wife and children could no longer bear to dwell at Ovenden. H.H. Strathy moved his own family to Ovenden and began leasing out Boulderfel.
“That desirable dwelling ‘Boulderfel’ with two acres of land, opposite St. Vincent Square, the residence of Mr. H.H. Strathy. The house contains 12 rooms including five bedrooms and bathroom, and is fitted up with a furnace and all modern conveniences. Possession early May.”
Northern Advance, April 2, 1896
By the 1920s, Boulderfel had another notable family under its roof, one that would change the purpose of the estate.
Harry Morrison Lay was born in London, England, in 1866, to the former British Ambassador to China and his wife, Eliza Legge, daughter of a missionary, who was reportedly the first white woman born in Malacca, Malaysia. Harry came to Canada in 1888 and worked in banking. His posts with the Commerce Bank included Walkerton, Goderich (where he married), London, Kitchener, and the Yukon during the Gold Rush.
When his first wife died, Harry Lay married Janet Lindsay King, sister to Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King. The King siblings had strong and happy memories of Woodside, their childhood home in Kitchener, now a National Historic Site. Both sought to re-create the warmth of that place in the estates of their adulthoods.
Prime Minister King transplanted trees from Woodside to Kingsmere, his Ottawa country house, and placed stones from ruined Scottish castles and other buildings throughout the property.
Janet had Boulderfel. In 1935, she wrote: “It is in memory of our house there that makes me strive to keep this place one the children will remember and appreciate when they have grown up and left it. They have had singularly happy lives here and I hope that when their time comes for them to make homes of their own, they will remember Boulderfel as we remember Woodside.”
The prime minister made a few trips to his sister’s home in Barrie and it was on one such visit that he suggested to her husband, Harry, that he might consider starting a greenhouse business at Boulderfel, since he had a fondness for horticulture already.
Harry Lay took the advice and built up his greenhouses so that when he retired from banking in 1930, Boulderfel Greenhouse was ready to go.
Harry Lay successfully ran the greenhouse for the next decade until poor health forced him to give up the business in 1940. From that time, Earl Cox ran the business as the Lays remained in the house.
Harry Lay died in 1945. Earl Cox gave up Boulderfel Greenhouse in 1947, at which time C.R. Fendley took over and created a long association between that name and floral creations in this community.
Bob Mason started working with Mr. Fendley in 1957 and worked his way up until he managed to buy the Blake Street shop in 1968. In 1973, he opened a second location in Alliston.
In 1979, the Fendley name left Blake Street and relocated to a large showroom on Bell Farm Road at Alliance Boulevard and to a florist shop in the Duckworth Plaza.
A large auction was held on Oct. 6 at 74 Blake St., and it offered for sale thousands of tropical plants at reduced prices, two oil-fired boilers, three pumps, three greenhouses, a glass display case, a compressor, and countless lengths of steel piping.
Today, no trace of either mansion house or greenhouse nursery can be found on the old Boulderfel property. They were replaced decades ago by apartment blocks and townhouses.
Each week, the Barrie Historical Archive provides BarrieToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past. This unique column features photos and stories from years gone by and is sure to appeal to the historian in each of us.
