The Dunlop House — Saturday is the End of an Era in Carleton Place

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Tomorrow, Saturday, September 26th one of the Dunlop homes on Townline will be sold at auction. I am in tears writing this because I too live in an older Carleton Place home and cannot imagine if something happened to it. Older larger homes are money pits no one can afford, but some one has to take care of them. The Findlay home on High Street has been on the market for over a year and the price has been drastically reduced. It’s a real shame, as we need to preserve history.

As I walked through the Dunlop house yesterday I saw the remnants of a family. A family that has lived in Carleton Place for more years that a lot of us put together. The stork paid a visit to the original Dunlop house next door in 1855 to James and and his wife leaving a baby boy who became christened Adam. That young child grew up to be a mighty fine millright, and also a respected builder of boats in Carleton Place. Adam lived to a grand old age, but in his later years he was constantly annoyed at his son Percy. You see, the family had a herd of prize winning Jersey cows that lived on that property and he wouldn’t let his elderly father go down and feed them. Adam Dunlop died at the age of 98 in 1955.

There is no doubt in my mind after walking through that home yesterday that the future owner of this home needs to cherish it. Samples of the woodwork alone should be in a museum. Adam Dunlop not only visited The Fountain of Youth to become one of Carleton Place’s oldest citizens, he was a master at his craft.

Many years ago the land in the back of their home was sold to the town of Carleton Place for the industrial park. It was sold on a promise and legal agreement that the area be called the Dunlop Industrial Park. There is a street named Dunlop Cres. in the area, but the family’s agreement with the town of Carleton Place was never honoured. The family has brought it the attention of the town recently, and I only hope the powers to be honour its once legal promise.

This is not just not about honouring an event. It is about allowing us to come together and celebrating who the Dunlops are, and who they once were. We want our future citizens of Carleton Place to know who this family is and was, and how they spent their life supporting the town of Carleton Place. We speak of virtue, and honour and by naming that area The Dunlop Industrial Park, it is an agreement for the ages, and should be rectified.

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Photos from Linda Seccaspina and the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum