Built Heritage in Pugwash

The Clark House

70 Water Street

The Clarke House is on lot 103 of the original Black plan of Pugwash. A deed, signed by John and Sarah Black, shows that the land was purchased on January 19th, 1847 for 30 pounds by Dr. Joseph Clarke, a physician. The lot was on Water Street starting at Victoria Street and running east 85 feet and south 85 feet. Joseph built a house on this lot that served also as his office and dispensary. In 1854, he bought nearby lot 106 on the corners of Water and Durham Street for 80 pounds. This land was sold in 1873 to William Henry Brown for $364 and would later become the location of the village's war memorial.

Dr. Joseph Clarke was born in Kilkenny, Ireland. He emigrated as a young physician and dentist to Nova Scotia. This was unusual as many Irish immigrants were coming to the area, but few were educated. He married Olivia King (Mar. 30, 1827 – Feb. 28, 1910), daughter of Lavina Pineo and Oliver King in about 1850. In 1853, their first child, Cyrilla Clarke (1853 – 1938) was born. She was followed three years later by brother William (1856 – 1882). Child 3, Joseph Holmes Clarke (1860 – 1938) followed soon after being born in 1860. Their newly built house was on Water Street, and Joseph was a successful physician with three children. He practiced out of his house, and it served also as his dispensary.

In the 1861 census, he was in a household of 8 in Pugwash, 5 males and 3 females. That same year, Dr. Joseph had a schooner built in Wallace, the Janet. Unfortunately, it sank in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1862. In the 1864 Hutchinson’s Directory, Joseph is listed as a physician and dentist. In the 1871 census, the family of 5 are in Pugwash and living with them are Hiram and Clara Huston. Hiram was an engineer at a steam mill. Servant Maggie Satoris is with them as was a sailor, Joseph Akerly.

Daughter Cyrilla married Edgar Augustus Elliott in 1874 in Amherst. Dr. Joseph Clarke was obviously a man of some influence and service to the village. On August 27, 1857, he was appointed coroner for Cumberland County. He held other offices for the village. In 1858, he was an assessor. In 1858 - 60, he served as commissioner of streets. In 1870 and 1875, he was one of three school trustees. In 1871, he was an overseer of the poor. In 1872, he and Dr. Creed participated in the examination of Mr. Macaulay’s 103 students. In 1877, he had a meeting with the premier to change the route of the Northern Light which went to PEI through Pictou and was successful in adding Pugwash to its itinerary.

Then in 1880, disaster struck. The January 25th, 1880 issue of the Christian Messenger reported that Dr. Clarke, not feeling well, went to his dispensary for medicine before retiring for the night and made the terrible mistake of taking carbolic acid. Before even finishing the dose, he realized his mistake and called to his wife that he was poisoned and had only a few minutes to live. She called for Dr. Dakin, who lived just across the street, immediately and despite using all possible remedies, Clarke died in half an hour. Local doctors Creed and Mackintosh also arrived but Dr. Clarke was speechless by that point and could only wave his hand to indicate that nothing could be done. Reports of his death noted that he had been particularly successful in the treatment of diphtheria. He was buried in Palmerston Cemetery.

An appraisal of Dr. Clark's estate listed 3 pieces of real estate – 17 acres of land on Irishtown Road, 1 lot in Pugwash of 80 feet x 80 feet with a house and a barn, and a farm of 150 acres where Thomas Sarson was residing at the time. The lot in Pugwash and the furniture was deeded to daughter Cyrilla, including the portion owned by his son, Joseph Holmes. Joseph Holmes relinquished his portion of that land and deeded it to his sister and mother, Olivia. By the 1881 census, Olivia was living in the house with her sons William and Joseph Clarke and daughter Cyrilla (who had also become a widow by that point), as well as Cyrilla’s children, Daisy and Pearl. By 1891, she remained in the house with Cyrilla, Daisy and Edmund, as well as lodgers John Seaman and William Morgan. Olivia was burned out twice. On July 25, 1898, a raging fire struck Durham Street. Winds fanned the flames and without a fire department, eighteen families were rendered homeless. Olivia’s house was completely lost along with 17 other properties, including the house and barn of her son, Joseph Holmes Clarke. In 1899, Olivia was reportedly rebuilding her former residence at 70 Water Street. In 1899, Joseph’s daughter Cyrilla married again, this time to Clarence Edward Reed who was a sea captain in Pictou. That same year, Cyrilla’s son, Edmund Pearl, married Hattie M. Hay in Truro and daughter Daisy married Stephen Percival Wilson. Joseph’s brother William had died without having children. In the 1901 census, Olivia is reported as living alone. On Sept. 10, 1901, fire once again struck and the Clark house was damaged when thieves blew up a safe in the adjacent W. H. Brown store. The town had no fire department at that time and as a result, little defense when fires started. The house was reported by local newspapers to have caught on fire several times, but was ultimately saved by the local bucket brigade. Finally, on November 11th, 1901, a large fire that wiped out most of the town of Pugwash also took the Clark home. Olivia's loss was recorded at $1,500 for the house and furniture. Coal and vegetables had already been stored for the winter by that point, so the impact of the fire was long-lasting.

The indominable Olivia decided to build again. By January of 1902, the Clark family had decided to also build a meat market on the property. This structure was erected next to a house in the process of being rebuilt. This house is the one you see today at 70 Water Street. Olivia died February 28th, 1910, of softening of the brain and exhaustion. She was a follower of the Church of England and buried in Willow Grove Cemetery, now known as Palmerston Cemetery. The 1911 census reports Cyrilla and her husband, Edward Reed as living alone in the house.

Cyrilla’s brother, Joseph Holmes Clarke (April 8, 1860 – Jan. 13, 1938) was initially employed as a bookkeeper and auctioneer. In 1879, Joseph was a general merchant and surveyor of lumber. He married Agustia (Gussie) Adilea Walsh (Mar. 17, 1866 - ) on July 16, 1886 in Pugwash under the Roman Catholic faith. In 1898, when he was a general merchant, they lived in Pugwash. Their house was burned in 1898, with the loss assessed at $800 and insurance reimbursed at $300. In 1901, they remained in Pugwash with children Adilea, Joseph, and Alexander. In 1915, a poem of his was published in Moncton called “Home is home where ere it be”. In 1920, he was appointed to the municipal position of Fence Viewer. He became very active in municipal government, receiving appointment as stipendiary magistrate at Pugwash, acting periodically as returning officer for municipal elections and even running as an unsuccessful Liberal candidate for a seat on County Council in 1922. In 1927, he was appointed as a Customs Collector. He also worked for a time as a conductor for the railway out west and as the station agent and telegrapher in Pugwash Junction.

In 1911, Joseph, Gussie and the children are all in Pugwash. In 1916, Joseph Holmes is living in a hotel in Cochrane, Ontario working for the railway according to his son’s attestation papers. In 1921, Joseph and Gussie are in Pugwash with son Joseph V. In 1931, they are in Pugwash with Daisy Wilson who is listed as their boarder. She was Joseph’s niece. Joseph was a judge by then. When Joseph and Chrissie became older, they moved to a smaller house down Water Street. Joseph Holmes and Gussie’s eldest daughter, Adilea Mary Clarke (May 6, 1888 - ) became a teacher and moved into the Clarke house after retiring. After she passed, the house sat empty for some time.

JH’s second child, Joseph Valentine Clarke (Feb. 14, 1890 [1901 Census] - ) joined up for WWI in March 1916 from Winnipeg where he was a switchman. He was hit by a bullet on Vimy Ridge, and his right arm was amputated. After his return to Canada, he married Jean Elizabeth Thompson on Sept. 14, 1921. She died, and he married Christina Williams in May of 1928. Chrissy renovated the family house and she and Joseph moved in. He was an insurance agent for 40 years and sold his business in 1969. Another child was Marion Clarke who won a beauty contest and from that was offered a contract by the CBC in 1953 to work in television. She gave up her career as host of The Saturday Show in 1957 to marry Darroch MacGillivray. Their third child, Alexander Bernard Clarke (Jan. 31, 1892 – June 13, 1953) also enlisted in 1914. At Ypres, he was wounded and taken prisoner. His leg was amputated. He was returned to Canada in 1917. He married Marie Clarisse Cantin in Calgary and moved to BC. Joseph and Chrissy’s fourth child was James David Clarke. Darren Clarke was a grandson of Joseph and Gussy and son of James David Clarke. He shared some memories of summers in Pugwash and the Clark House in a 2018 post on his blog “The Left Field Lark."

"Pugwash is a tiny little town of 784 that sits on the Northumberland Strait at the mouth of the Pugwash River. My grandparents’ house sat on the corner of the town’s main streets, Water Street and Victoria Street. The sunporch overlooked Water Street and wrapped around half of the length of the house that ran parallel to Victoria. The windows were weathered, vaguely distorting the outside world. If you were sitting in the front of the house, you could look across Water Street and see Pugwash bay, its clay-coloured beach just steps away."

Of visiting his Grandfather - ". . . lounging in lawn chairs beneath the tree in my grandparents’ back yard listening to my grandfather regale me, indeed educate me, with war stories and tales of his time as a magistrate – good decisions, bad decisions, funny decisions, in his endeavour to provide justice, the people he met, the ones that surprised him, the ones he respected, the ones that let him down and beyond that his stories of long lost World War I battlefields, former boxing champions (Tommy Burns) and so much more."

Of his grandfather’s pipes – "My dad’s dad had tons of smoking pipes varying from simple corn cob pipes to straightforward wood pipes with plastic ends to crazy cool wood ones, some with improbably intricate metal ends. We loved them. He had an entire room dedicated to his pipes."

Of the sunporch – "The guns I remember really, rifles which appeared to be circa World War One. There was tons of random stuff there: almanacs, nicnacks, magazines, pins, old metal lighters that didn’t work."

Of the village – "Memories of collecting bottle caps out front of the same corner store in Pugwash where you bought the little packages of seaweed to eat."

In 1996, 70 Water Street went up for sale and John Caraberis and Bonnie Wood purchased it. They rented it to Dale O’Hara and Erin Horton who turned it into a restaurant known as Walden Pond, named after the book that Dale had been reading at the time. It was a successful business. The kitchen became the restaurant's kitchen and the dining and living rooms were renovated for seating, with the additional of an outdoor deck on the Victoria Street side. The front entrance was from Water Street with Dale and Erin living upstairs. It was then sold to Peter Seitl who operated an antique shop out of the location for many years with curios lining the sunporch that caught the eye of many who walked by. In 2025, it purchased once again by John Caraberis and Bonnie Wood and they renovated. Municipal water was connected, the foundation was fixed, there was some new wiring and plastering, new heat pumps and a new roof were installed. The sun porch was repaired and the entrance from Victoria Street rebuilt into the beautiful private residence that you see standing today.