A Cat Saves the Maid: The Fire at Woodside

I remember as a youngster visiting my grand-parents at their home in Rothesay, New Brunswick.  At tea time, my brothers and I would gallop down the hill to my great-grandparents’ house for cookies.  That house, like that of my grand-parents, had a beautiful view of the Kennebecasis River.  What I didn’t know is that this house was re-built after the original Allison family home, known as Woodside, burned down.

Walter Cushing Allison had two children, Joseph and Helen.  He had lost his first wife, Hattie, in 1911.  His cousin, Frances, moved in to help the widower cope with the loss of his beloved Hattie.  Walter, a successful merchant, later married Frances.  This was pretty common in the early part of the century, and would have been a very practical arrangement (or marriage of convenience) in order to run his household and ensure his children were well cared for. 

In 1921, Walter commissioned local architect Garnet W. Wilson to build a lavish home for himself and his family.  Walter positioned the home in Rothesay, along the highway from Saint John, set back 100 yards up the slope, well back from the road with terraces banked above, grand birch trees in front, and a view of the Kennebecasis stretching before them.  It was a serene location that was befitting a man of Walter’s stature and the grand home he was to build here.   

The house was built in the Surrey farmhouse style, and was twice featured in the Canadian Homes and Gardens magazine.  It had two stories, with 25 rooms, including a library housing 14,000 volumes, a billiard room, sewing room, sun room, seven bedrooms and a suite for staff.  Allison heirlooms adorned the house, including furnishings and paintings, as well as a grand piano.

When the Allison family moved into the home, it became renowned for entertaining guests in a lavish style, and notable dignitaries frequented the residence when they came to Saint John on business.  The family lived in the house for 16 years, during which time Walter’s father Joseph died (1924), and Walter’s business prospered.  Walter, Frances, Joseph, and Helen, lived in relatively grand style at Woodside.  The family also enjoyed the presence of a clever yellow Persian cat named Skippy.

Walter and Frances went to Montreal in 1937 on one of Walter’s many business excursions.  Left behind was the maid, Rebecca Lounsbury.  Late Saturday night, April 17, 1937, while Rebecca was sleeping in the staff suite, Skippy scratched insistently at Rebecca’s door.  Rebecca woke, opened the door and found the hallway filled with smoke.  Rebecca let Skippy out of the house and then returned to call the fire department.  It took only a couple of minutes, but in that short time the smoke was suffocating and Rebecca, panicked, escaped in her pyjamas, slippers and housecoat.

The fire-fighters from Rothesay arrived within five minutes and the larger pump trucks arrived within a half an hour. 

Men and boys who had noticed the ruckus arrived and started to pull some of the valuables out of the house.  The grand piano was placed in the nearby field and managed to escape the billowing flames and falling embers.  Some oriental rugs, silverware and furniture were put in the in the garage where they were sufficiently far away from the flames to avoid being engulfed.

The house, full of beautiful furnishings, with mahogany and oak floors and balustrades, and thousands of books, fed a blaze that bested the fire-fighters, who could only focus on keeping the flames from spreading to neighbouring homes.  In no time, the fire engulfed the structure and everything left in it.

The inferno created quite a spectacle for the neighbours, hundreds of whom arrived both to help, and to watch the tragedy unfold.  Nearby, a party of high class was taking place, and, upon seeing the blaze, the top hat wearing gentleman and gowned women put on their wraps to watch the fire fighters do their work.  Sadly, by 4:30 Sunday morning there was not much left of Woodside other than the two chimneys and the remnants of walls.

Rebecca made her way to Helen’s (Walter’s daughter) home for the night, no doubt in a state of shock at the loss of all of her possessions and the grand home of the Allisons. 

Skippy had hidden herself away in the garage, and when the crowds dissipated demanded a bowl of milk from the caretaker, Mr. Ross.

The Allisons returned from Montreal to the charred remnants of their luxurious home and soon set to work building a new Woodside.  Decades later, Walter Allison’s great-grand-daughter would munch on cookies in the new Woodside kitchen, never knowing she was surrounded by the memories of grand parties of ages past.

Sources:

Census – various

Newspaper clippings

Bulletin of the National Research Council, Volume 106

Canadian Homes and Gardens magazine (1927, 1930)