This ongoing series from Barrie Historical Archive curator Deb Exel shows old photos from the collection and one from the present day, as well as the story behind them.
60 Burton Ave.
Patrick Armstrong was a bit of a rolling stone. When he finally built his stately home in Allandale, he lived in it for only four years.
Patrick Carney Armstrong was born in Leitrim, Ireland, in 1832 to Ann Maley and Robert Armstrong. Robert was a cousin to Gen. Armstrong and the Hon. Simon Armstrong, of Hollymount House, near Manor Hamilton, County Leitrim, Ireland. It’s possible the Hollymount estate was leased to the Armstrongs in the early 19th century: Simon served as high sheriff of Leitrim in 1829 and Gen. James Armstrong as a member of the grand jury for Leitrim in 1851.
The Robert Armstrong family came to Canada in 1842, settling first in Essa Township before purchasing land in Innisfil Township in 1853. The Armstrongs raised a large family of eight sons and five daughters. Robert Armstrong died in 1857, a few years after they relocated to Innisfil.
Patrick attended the Barrie Grammar School, completing a four-year course, which qualified him to teach. Armstrong taught for a year-and-a-half in Painswick before moving on to Kilgour’s school, a log school house built about 1840 on the property of Robert Kilgour in Thornton.
Uninspired by teaching, Armstrong headed for the United States, enrolling in a western college and was later ordained as a Methodist minister. He had been preaching for about four years when the Civil War broke out in the U.S.
He enlisted with the Union army as a chaplain in the hospital corps, serving three years. He was diagnosed with a lung disease and discharged in 1863, receiving a pension for life. Despite his short military career, Armstrong was said to have had many exciting war experiences he was happy to recount.
Following his discharge, he spent a year or so in Ireland, apparently lecturing on the American war and serving as an evangelist as well.
Patrick Armstrong, now a clergyman, returned to the U.S., to Boston, where he married Mary Anderson, a wealthy widow, more than 20 years his senior, according to records. It was his first and only marriage, and her third. Soon after, Armstrong began pursuing a career in medicine, graduating from a medical college in Washington, D.C., in 1870.
Dr. Armstrong practised medicine briefly in Washington before moving to Louisville, Kan., in 1817, sharing a house with another physician, Francis Gross, of Pennsylvania, and a labourer, Erick Frost, from Sweden. He is said to have practised medicine in Omaha, Neb., as well, but by 1885, Dr. Armstrong was living alone in Leavenworth, Kan., and working as a physician.
Accounts vary, but Armstrong is said to have returned to Simcoe County, and the Painswick area, staying from 1879 to 1885. The Farmers and Business Directory of 1887 lists him as a practising physician in the village of Painswick, but he never abandoned his deep spiritual convictions and he continued to attend revival meetings and preach on occasion, according to family lore.
In 1891, Armstrong purchased land that was once part of lumberman James L. Burton’s farm, Springbank, and built his stylish home at 60 Burton Ave. Armstrong was listed as a widower by then, though we know little about Mrs. Armstrong beyond their March 1865 wedding. Patrick’s mother, who was more than 100 years old at the time, moved in with her son when the house was completed about 1892.
It is said doctors make the worst patients. Perhaps this was the case with Armstrong. In early January 1896, the doctor noticed what he believed to be a sliver in his right hand, close to his thumb. He attempted to get it out but otherwise ignored the situation for a few days.
With the help of a friend, Armstrong used a knife to cut into the infected area, but he could not find any foreign object or irritant. The state of his hand grew worse. It was clear blood poisoning was evident, and Dr. Ross was called to the Armstrong home to attend to the wound.
Patrick’s condition continued to deteriorate despite the medical attention he received. Things looked so dire, a lawyer was summoned to help Patrick make his will. Upon the arrival of the lawyer, Dr. Ross concluded his patient was not up to the task, given his serious illness.
Dr. Patrick Armstrong died of blood poisoning in January 1896, without a will. Letters of administration were reviewed in the spring of 1896 by law clerk Fred Waters, signed by lawyer George Radenhurst, who would be elected mayor of Barrie in 1900 and 1901, and Dr. Patrick C. Armstrong’s estate was settled and distributed.
Following Patrick’s death, Mrs. Armstrong moved into the Essa Road home of her son William, continuing to be active in the Burton Avenue Methodist Church and the community. She was well known around Barrie and Allandale and was considered particularly clever, most certainly bright and alert for her age.
With the help of glasses, she was still able to read even at more than 100 years of age and was reported to have read the entire Bible to her family — twice. Many believed her to be the oldest woman in Canada.
Though her age was recorded as 107 years and seven months at the time of her death in Angus in 1900, while living with her daughter, Susan, she was often known to say this was a mistake and that she was actually 110 years old.
The eccentric Queen Anne-style home built for Dr. Armstrong, while somewhat sombre and brooding in appearance, also has many unique and interesting features, such as the stained-glass borders in several of the front windows.
But to see the real attraction of this house, you need to look up to the turned, cross-shaped corner eaves brackets, and gables marked by stone mosaics containing crushed glass and, supposedly, beer bottle bottoms.
The protruding Tudor-esque third-floor dormer has stone inserts and panels of diagonal wood trim, and both gables are finished with ornate bargeboard. Definitely a fascinating home at 60 Burton Ave.
