History written in stone of 300-year-old Beaconsfield home

In the midst of a discussion about the long history of her eighteenth-century home, Barbara Barclay gave an unexpected response to the notion that a local rumor had spread about her house being haunted. She did not claim that she was unaware of the rumors, nor did she quickly dismiss them as a myth. “Come and I’ll show you the basement,” she said, and immediately walked towards a door on the side of the garage.

Barclay’s house at 13 Thompson Point in Beaconsfield, Quebec, has a rich history that mirrors the history of the area just west of Montreal. To the local historical society, it is known as the “Maison Amable Curot ou Beaurepaire”. To the younger people who live in the area, it is known as the haunted house on Thompson Point.

Aware of this myth and excited to explain its origin, Barclay walked slowly down a staircase along dusty cement and stone walls into a cellar which could not simply be described as “unfinished”. The cellar was nothing but ancient crumbling grey stone walls which Barclay claimed dated back to 1701, 70 years before the house was built above it. The roof of the cellar was made of large wooden beams covered by a layer of spider webs, and some rooms had piles of stones where walls had seemingly collapsed or archeological excavations had been done, and not necessarily by archeologists. “So you want to know about the ghost,” said Barclay. “Look down this way.” She pointed to a dark unlit corner which looked to have an old water heater in it. She went on to describe how a previous owner had found a skeleton in the corner as well as prisoner’s shackles. She claimed that a previous owner had also claimed to see a ghost, which is where the myth must have started. Barclay was skeptical, though, and harbored no fears of paranormal activity in her house. Perhaps the more relevant facts and observations Barclay described while in her basement were those that gave real historical context to the house. The basement had a few ground-level windows only large enough to fit an arm through. According to Barclay, it is possible that they were firing ports for muskets used to defend the site against native attacks. These attacks could have occurred when it was a fur trading post run by hat maker Jean Guenet during the early 18th-century. Contractors recently dug a hole in the basement floor to install a sump pump. The digging came to a halt half way because the diggers hit a layer of copper. Although no one has determined its purpose, Barclay thinks it could possibly indicate an escape tunnel built for conflicts with the natives. Little is known about any conflicts that took place at the trading post that Amable Curot and contractor Basile Proux built a hand-hewn stone house over in 1770. The 65’ by 38’ stone outer structure of the house is still intact today, although the rest of the house has undergone many changes over two centuries of owners. Built on a point called “Naouy” by the Amerindians, now called Thompson Point, the original property had four structures after 1770. It was all built overlooking beautiful Lac St-Louis, which Barclay believes had its own significance. “One of the things I…am constantly aware of…is how the early explorers must have felt as they sailed up the St. Lawrence and saw for the first time this great waterway; it is so much larger and grander than the little rivers in Europe,” she said. “Two years ago I was in the garden one Sunday afternoon and this enormous great canoe filled with nine or ten men in 17th costume sailed by - just an overwhelming reaction to what was a CBC re-enactment of early exploration called ‘Expedition Nord-Ouest.’” The house, or the site itself, was not finished being involved in the fur trade. In 1790, well-known fur trade mogul Simon McTavish of the North West Company purchased the house. It was later purchased by James Thomson in 1864, and then by Robert Reford in 1891. Reford took down the adjacent buildings and made the house itself into his own personal summer villa. The Amable Curot (or Beaurepaire) house went through several different owners and withstood several renovations during the 20th century before Barclay purchased it in 1997. “At the time it had been on sale for thirty years,” she mentioned. “It was owned by some less than friendly people.” As she gave a tour of the main floor, which included an original brick fireplace and a room with torn 1950s wallpaper, she explained how she developed a love for old historic houses. “I was a World War II evacuee child from England,” she recounted. “And when I arrived in Montreal, the Acorn club provided summer holidays for children. I remember enjoying my time at a big old house somewhere, but to this day I still don’t know where that house is.” Today, Barclay teaches English as a second language at Concordia, and is president of the Beaurepaire-Beaconsfield historical society. In 2004, she had major renovations done to the house which, according to the city of Montreal, “enhanced the building’s original architectural character.” For this work she was awarded a Heritage Emeritus Award from the city. The historical society plans to hold a one-day event in 2009, where the public will be able to come and tour the house, and learn a bit about local history. On July 1, 2010, Barclay wants to host a gathering of descendents of the previous owners of the house on Thompson Point, to celebrate Beaconsfield’s centennial. As she finished giving her tour, Barclay pulled out two pairs of century-old women’s gardening gloves she found recently tucked away in a closet. “At the time I thought it was just one of my friends playing a trick on me, because they know my love for history,” she said. After exchanging emails with several friends, she received a response from a descendant of Robert Reford, who explained that the gloves were likely those of Elsie Reford, who lived in the house a century ago. The smile on Barclay’s face showed exactly how much her love for history had been nurtured by the 250-year-old walls that surrounded her. When asked if she liked living there, she simply replied, “I would like to live here forever.”