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.
Woodlands — 2981 Ridge Rd. W.
A large but humble log building was the first dwelling built on the magnificent estate now known as Woodlands.
William Davenport, an African-American, owned the property initially, while Capt. Robert Oliver, a half-pay officer, his family and a servant made their home there as the first occupants.
A fellow Scot, John McWatt, arriving on the new steamer, the John Colborne, in 1832, resided with the Olivers, farming in Oro until he moved to Barrie about 1940, becoming the first postmaster, among other notable accomplishments.
It was Richard Power, a timber baron and the second owner of the property, who built the grandiose Victorian house, Woodlands, in 1869, reportedly reminiscent of his ancestral home in Ireland. That same year, Power joined with William D. Ardagh and two Orillia businessmen to establish Kean, Fowlie & Co., building a large saw mill in Victoria Harbour, which operated until 1876.
Power, along with about 50 other prominent Barrie citizens, organized the Christ Church Reformed Episcopal Church in 1876. George Ball built the congregation its church on Collier Street in 1886.
Power sold Woodlands in 1889 to Dugald Crawford, of St. Louis, Mo., who used the Lake Simcoe mansion as his summer home.
Woodlands would become a summer home again, this time to a wealthy Toronto businessman, Lt.-Col. Arthur Peuchen. Peuchen was born in 1859 in Montreal to German immigrants and attended private schools growing up. His father had been a railroad contractor in South America and his grandfather had managed the London, Brighton and Midland Railway in the United Kingdom.
Peuchen moved to Toronto in 1871 and by 1888 had pursued military interests, becoming a lieutenant of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. Later, he was the marshalling officer at the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911.
But, in 1897, Peuchen had developed processes for extracting useful chemicals from wood. This led him to the Standard Chemical, Iron & Lumber Company of Canada Ltd. The company had plants across Canada as well as refineries in Europe. As president of the company, Peuchen frequently travelled abroad, crossing the Atlantic an estimated 40 times.
In 1912, his return ticket to North America was aboard the Titanic. Much has been written about the story of his survival. When the First World War began, Peuchen retired from Standard Chemical to command the Home Battalion of the Queen’s Own Rifles. Listen to our Mary Harris’s interview about Peuchen’s life and his Titanic experience.
Although he had been practically a millionaire, after the war, Peuchen’s wealth was dwindling and, in 1928, Woodlands was sold.
Harold F. Ritchie and his wife, Alice Alberta (Berta) Brydon, purchased Woodlands from Peuchen. Both Berta and Harold had remarkable lives.
Berta was born in 1882 in Gravenhurst, to Rebecca Pannebecker, of Muskoka, and Archibald Brydon, of Dumfriesshire, Scotland. When she was 20 years old, Berta embarked on an incredible journey and mission, at the request of the Hon. Joseph Chamberlain. As one of 40 Canadians chosen, Berta would be teaching Boer women and children in British concentration camps in South Africa.
Following this important international assignment, Berta graduated as a nurse, becoming the superintendent of the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1907.
Harold’s story is no less impressive — maybe even more impressive since he was considered the “world’s greatest salesman.”
Born in Bobcaygeon and raised in Little Current on Manitoulin Island, Ritchie, whose father operated a general store, was a keen observer of the travelling salesmen who passed through.
Once he became a salesman himself, he left his successful employment to go independent, rising from a savvy one-man operation to an international network of sales agencies located in practically every country, with the exception of Russia. Some of the products his company managed were Rubberset brushes, Fralinger’s Salt Water Taffy, Glover’s Mange Cure, Bovril, and Tanglefoot fly paper.
Ritchie took over British Eno’s Fruit Salt as the Canadian distributor, and then bought it in 1928 for $10 million. He purchased the Pompeian beauty cream business from Colgate-Palmolive-Peet in 1930, in partnership with Shoemakers of Elmira, N.Y. Again with Shoemakers as partners, Ritchie bought Scott’s Emulsion from Scott & Brown, reportedly for several million dollars.
Although Ritchie was deeply devoted to his family, he was also a workaholic, spending long hours at the task he loved most: selling. He travelled extensively for business, by plane, but often by car, visiting wholesalers and selling products out of the back of his vehicle, earning himself the nickname “Carload Ritchie.”
One of Canada’s richest men, yet warm and generous to his friends and workers, Ritchie’s visionary enterprise was tragically cut short when he died on the operating table, in Toronto, of appendicitis at the age of 52. His story was later captured in a book, Carload Ritchie: The Life and Times of Harold F. Ritchie, World’s Greatest Salesman.
When Ritchie died in 1933, his widow inherited the business, and Woodlands, along with her daughters, Dorothy, Kathleen, Pauline and Antoinette.
In 1950, Pauline’s husband, Bev Matthews, became the owner of Woodlands, after financial and property severance arrangements had been made with Pauline’s sisters. Frederick Beverly Matthews, born in Toronto in 1905, married Pauline Ritchie in 1938, later serving as a Brigadier in the Second World War. He was educated at the University of Toronto, Osgoode Hall, and joined the firm of McCarthy and McCarthy.
In 2000, Canadian Lawyer listed Matthews as one of the 10 greatest Canadian lawyers ever, a distinction he shared with other legal titans such as J.J. Robinette, John A. Macdonald and Pierre Trudeau. His skill and expertise were in firm building, an approach that integrated lawyers with various specialities to better serve all the needs of their clients.
Woodlands remained in the Matthews family until 1997.
It was an enormous mansion by any description. The lavish, pillared entrance hall, a three-storey reception area, a grand winding staircase beneath a skylight and a chandelier were just a few of the spectacular features of this splendid home.
At one time, the home was described as having a separate wing for a nursery, equipped with three children’s bedrooms, a nanny’s bedroom, two more bedrooms, two bathrooms, a playroom and a sitting area, with access to the staff quarters as well. The staff wing was equipped with a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a bathroom, three bedrooms and a screened porch.
Yet another wing contained a greenhouse, a workshop and a sunroom. The garages in the courtyard could house four vehicles and had five summer box stalls for horses. Beyond the courtyard was a stable with a tack room, a feed room, six box stalls and a loft.
Mark and Cathy Porter purchased Woodlands from the Matthews family and have returned the estate to a new level of breathtaking glory. Porter, who has owned and refurbished some of Barrie’s most cherished heritage properties, such as Maplehurst, the Morton-Turnbull home, The Oaks, Simcoe Hotel, and Railway YMCA (Farmhouse), has meticulously restored the historic Woodlands, overlooking no detail.
To highlight the home’s connection to one of the world’s most well-known but tragic events, the Porters have added Titanic memorabilia and renderings to their impressive heritage home.
