Years ago Art’s Fruit and Variety was a popular go to place on Townline. Before there was no McNeely Bridge I used to wander down behind their property like others, and always marveled at the ruins of an old stone building. My mind is old now, but I do believe it is located on the other side of the bridge behind 53 Colours, but it is recorded as being on the extreme end of William Street. For years I have wondered what it was, and this week the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum shared an old newspaper clipping with me they had just received this week.
For anyone that wonders like I did: the old stone ruins used to be an old Methodist parsonage. There was once a floating sidewalk across the *swale to get to the parsonage. It was described as being built along the river bank to the old felt mill which would be Bates and Innes, and along a strip of land that belonged to Robert Bell. North of Town Line (notice how Townline is spelled) was something called The Kings Bush owned by James Morphy.
A swale is a low tract of land, especially one that is moist or marshy. The term can refer to a natural landscape feature or a human-created one.
With files from the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum
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