1
Martha Hutchison19th Century, Circa 1850
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Hutchison House Museum, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
2
At the age of 41 Martha Holland Hutchison was widowed with eight surviving children between the ages of 3 and 20. Their eldest son, William, had stayed behind in Scotland to learn the whaling business with his uncle. So, at the age of 18 James became the head of the family.The Doctor had used the house as collateral on a loan and after his death and in 1848 the house was under threat of sheriff sale. Martha was forced to move into a small house on Aylmer St. that belonged to the Hall family. In a letter written to her daughters in September of 1847 Mrs. Hall of Peterborough writes:
"Mrs Hutchison has moved to the cottage on Tuesday last I find it very pleasant them being so near we often see each other their whole family drank tea with us that evening."
Despite having to move, the home remained in the Hutchison estate until April 1851 when it was finally put up for sale. Shortly after Martha and the family moved near her half-brother George on Church St. in Toronto the family relationships grew very strong and friendly. Sandford Fleming's diaries state that Martha's friends from Peterborough often went to visit the Hutchison family in Toronto.
3
Dr. John Hutchison19th Century, Circa 1846
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Hutchison House Museum, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
4
Letter to Ellen Dunlop June 20, 1854 from Catharine Parr Traill"….I want much to go up to Toronto this next month but I have not the means either for supplying myself with decent outer clothes- such as I could present myself in at the houses of the gentry who are desirous of seeing me- or pay for a weeks board and lodging at some decent house.
However in the event of its being indispensable I dare say I can get over the difficulty through a kind friend but now can you tell me my dear if our old friend Mrs Hutchinson takes boarders and at what rate per week for if I go I would rather put the money in her pocket than with a total stranger. Do you know anything about her or if she keeps a lodging house- I heard that she did."
Martha died of heart disease on October 23, 1871 in Toronto. She was not buried until November 24 when the bodies of her husband and their three daughters were brought from Peterborough and all were buried together in Necropolis Cemetery.
5
Agnes, Margaret and Elizabeth Harvey19th Century, 1860
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Hutchison House Museum, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
6
In 1851, local merchant and former patient of Dr. Hutchison, James Harvey purchased the house on Brock St. Harvey and Hutchison had been friends and had served on the first board of St. Andrew's Church together. Two years later Harvey married his third wife, Sarah, who would have two children. James Harvey had five children with his first two wives. In 1866, his second eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband Peter Connal, moved into Hutchison House to care for her ailing father. In 1867 James Harvey died and the house passed on to the young Connal family.At some point before 1875 the Harvey-Connals would renovate the home, adding a brick addition at the back, creating three bedrooms, a front dormer window and a staircase leading up to the top floor.
Hutchison House would remain in the Connal family for another 100 years until Jeanette Connal Brown bequeathed the house to the Peterborough Historical Society when she was killed in a car accident in 1969.
7
Elizabeth Harvey19th Century, Circa 1860
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Hutchison House Museum, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
8
Hutchison House19th Century, Circa 1870
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Hutchison House Museum, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
9
Hutchison House19th Century, Circa 1890
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Hutchison House Museum, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
10
Hutchison House19th Century, Circa 1910
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Hutchison House Museum, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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Hutchison House19th Century, Circa 1967
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Hutchison House Museum, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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Jeanette Connal Brown20th Century, Circa 1927
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Hutchison House Museum, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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Restoration Campaign Flyer for Hutchison House Museum20th Century, Circa 1970
Hutchison House Museum, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Credits:Hutchison House Museum, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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It was soon decided by the Society to open this home to the public as a museum. They hired restoration architect Peter Stokes to make plans to bring the house back to its original condition in the days of its first owners, the Hutchisons. In 1975 a fundraising campaign launched with the slogan "Built by the Citizens, Restored by the Citizens" met with a generous response, including, as in its building, donations of materials and labour.During the restoration process various papers were found that had been shoved into the back of the knee wall cupboards under the eaves. These papers included records of the Newcastle District court dating from 1827-28 when Dr. Hutchison was one of its officers, fragments of medical texts and more. An assortment of shoes, slippers, gloves and what may have been the family ragbag with scraps of materials and bits of clothing- a child's bodice, a man's shirt and two lady's caps- were used as templates for docent costumes.
The Peterborough Historical Society Hutchison House Museum was opened to the public May 24, 1978, by the Lieutenant Governor Pauline McGibbon.
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