Page 3 - How did Kathleen come to live at Point Ellice House?

The drawing room of Point Ellice House.

Soon enough, Caroline was pregnant with Kathleen. However, as you are sure to know, looking after babies and young children is a lot of work. Caroline wanted to stop traveling between towns, and settle down in Victoria so her mother, who lived at the Trutch's Fairfield House, could help with the young family.

So in 1867, they moved into a small house that had been built six years earlier as part of a huge farm that stretched from the Gorge waterway to the Hillside area. This house was the start of what Point Ellice House is today, but new pieces were added as the family grew so that it began to look like the houses that Peter O'Reilly was used to in Ireland.

If you visit it today, you will notice such things as the grand big bay windows, detailed wallpapers, and a fireplace in every room. You might walk onto the porch and start using your imagination: You could close your eyes and instead of the crashing and banging of the local scrap yards and trucks, you could try to imagine a peaceful little road named Pleasant Street, for this is what it was, with several beautiful homes along the Selkirk waterway. Wildlife and children would be slipping in and out of the water, and playing on the muddy banks. Today, the Bay Street Bridge, which overlooks the Point Ellice property, creates the dull background roar of busy traffic and heavy dump trucks. But if you could imagine yourself into the 1870's you might be lucky to hear the odd streetcar on the bridge or the rattle and clop of a horse drawn carriage.

Perhaps you could also hear a baby crying. Could it be Kathleen?