My Name is Belle Vue

My name is Belle Vue, but you more likely know me as the Gananoque Town Hall. I stand at 30 King Street East, in the middle of a delightful park. My younger sibling, the bandstand, is close by.

I was built by John McDonald after his marriage to Joel Stone's step-granddaughter, Henrietta, in 1831. Gananoque grew from Joel’s vision of an industrial town powered by the Gananoque River and its falls. John and his brother Charles, Joel’s son in-law, supported Joel in his vision for the town. Charles had his own wonderful house, Blinkbonnie, who I am sure will need to write its own story, once it sees mine.

John McDonald

As a house, my interests lie not in the careers and achievements of my people, but who they were at home. Although he was driven and ambitious, family was important to John. It was a comfort and source of strength, but also brought on many of his darker moments behind closed doors. In the seven years before he married, built me, and started his own family, his father died, his brother Charles and sister Catherine, both of whom both lived in Gananoque, died, and his brother Duncan died in New York. Then in September of 1832, his first child, Henrietta Eveleen, lived only two days. His mentor, Joel Stone, died the next year, leaving John the full responsibility for the Stone/McDonald families and their holdings in Gananoque. A new house, I didn’t realize how sad, and overwhelmed he was by business and family demands until his nephew William came of age, taking on the responsibilities of head of the family left by Charles. John was without a doubt a successful man. Should you wish, you can find details here: Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

Henrietta McDonald

I saw much more of Henrietta than I did of John. What an interesting person she was. Such a challenging life she had before and after marrying John. She ran her household effectively, with a firm but fair hand. Lessons learned, I suspect from her Grandmother, the second wife of Joel Stone.

Henrietta had a brain and used it to support John in his search to define himself. He struggled to get out of the shadow of the strong men around him. Joel Stone, his brother Charles, and the man whose house I share a name with – Sir John A. Neither business nor politics really fulfilled him. I think he had a secret hankering to be a tavern keeper or run a brewery. It was the one thing that really interested him about his wife’s father, who had owned such an establishment in Burford. I think that property may have passed into John’s name for a while as part of Henrietta’s dowry.

Henrietta oversaw the education of her own two children and others in my third floor school room. It was educational for me, too. There were other houses in town with a children’s space on the third floor, but mine was, I think, unique in also being a planned school room. Henrietta also took on most of the care of her sister in-law Mary when she was home in Gananoque. Mary was a strange person, childlike at times, but at other times just unlike anyone I’ve ever met.

It saddened me to see Henrietta pull into herself after John’s death, and not follow her Grandmother in really developing her unique skills. It was not a time that encouraged such things, though. Those who didn’t have a man – father, brother, or husband encouraging them to show their intelligence and ability to contribute to things that were the man’s realm were often stifled, except perhaps behind the closed doors of home. She watched with interest the local women who were boldly working to change the world. She always noted when Agnes Maule Machar, an activist for social change and Eliza Maria Harvey Jones, a pioneer in dairying were resident in Gananoque.

As children do, the McDonald children grew up and moved away, for except Frances Georgianna. She quietly took on the role of spinster daughter and companion to her mother. When Georgianna died just over a year before Henrietta, she was missed very much. The other children came home, often bringing grandchildren after they married. Visits tapered off as the grandchildren got older, which didn’t bother Henrietta as much as one might have expected. She had built a life with Georgianna and I.

Belle Vue and the Town Hall

For a decade after Henrietta died, I hibernated, seeing people only rarely. Then in 1911, the McDonald family heirs granted me to the town to be used for public purposes and my proper name Belle Vue fell out of use. My life as a public building has seen me used as a jail, a court, a library, a town council chamber and town offices, but I enjoy it. I am proud to say that my formal rooms like the main floor dining room and the second floor ballroom still suggest their former luxury.

My grounds are kept well groomed and pleasant, enjoyed by town residents and visitors alike. I enjoy the seasonal events that interrupt the peace of the park. Some of my favourites are Candy Cane Lane, Remembrance Day, Pump-Gan-Fest. There are many more you can find listed on the Town’s website.

History or Heritage

This piece of heritage fiction grew out of realizing that we in Gan are a lot less familiar with John McDonald and his family than we are with his brother, Charles McDonald and his family. We are about equally knowledgeable about their houses, the Blinkbonnie and Town Hall. It probably helps that both are rumoured to be quite haunted!

By Sherry L.B. Johnson

Sherry Johnson lives in Gananoque and is a writer and researcher, for GanWalking, which is focused on heritage storytelling, research and building a strong accessible research and genealogy community. Sherry has provided over half-dozen articles for TI Life. Each one provides a window of research on this small and proud Ontario Town.

Be sure to visit Gananoque this summer and check out the many activities planned in the Park.