Collins House
c. 1840
This home comes from Reach Township, just north of Chalk Lake. The house was built on Concession 5, Lot 5 by R. Jones. Likely, the building was oriented facing south on the 5th Concession. Vertical siding forms the structure, the walls are painted plaster, the space divided into rooms, and there is a cast-iron stove for heating and cooking. The house was donated to the museum in 1965 by the Collins family.
This home illustrates the second wave of home building of 1850s Pickering Township. It is typical of the second home that followed the log house. Like many rural homes of its time, it is 1½ storeys high. (A full second storey meant higher taxes.)
The main floor features rooms (unlike the single room of the early log cabin). The kitchen boasts a wood stove. It was the busiest room in the house. Without the modern conveniences of today, general household tasks such as meal preparation, food preservation, dish washing, laundry, caring for children, and sewing and mending for the household, would have taken place in the kitchen.
You will also see here equipment for chores that would have been done in an out building or the yard, e.g., butter churn and butter and candle moulds. The wife in this home might supplement the family income with butter and candle making. The parlour is a sparse but bright little room in which to formally entertain visitors. The walls are decorated with stencilling. The art of decorating walls with free hand and stencilled designs was popular in Upper Canada from 1800 to about 1850.
Did you know?
Collins House appeared in season 1, episode 5, of Dangerous Persuasions.
