10 Paradise Lane: The John Seymour Ritcey House

Architecture Style: Craftsmen

Built: 1923

This house is built on part of William Longley’s land. William was the son of Planter Israel Longley, who came with his father in 1760. William purchased land in Southeast Paradise in 1799, bordered by the Paradise Lane on the east and the River on the North. He married Esther Dodge, the granddaughter of Capt. Josiah Dodge, a Planter of Upper Granville. Only two of William and Esther’s children survived, the farm was divided between them in their father’s will. William left the western part to his daughter, Susan Sarah Dodge Longley.  She married Benjamin Dodge Leonard, her second cousin.

Susan and Benjamin operated a store on the south corner of the Paradise Lane.  Their son, William Longley Leonard, married Julia Maria Morse, and the house and store became theirs when Benjamin moved to Clarence. After Susan’s early death, he was no doubt ready to move to the Merry farm deeded to him by his aunt Lois. William and his wife, Julia, in a grim family tradition, lost all of their children to early death. The death of children by epidemic, and young people by “consumption”  was all too common. His mother Susan was one of ten children, five of whom died before age 7, and four of her own children died young.  So when William died, we find Julia, a widow not yet 60, selling her property in 1899.

It was purchased by John Seymour Ritcey, of the Lunenburg Co. Ritceys. Their children were Muriel and Carl. When Seymour and Margaret’s home burned in 1922, they built a new home, large enough for two generations to share: a well-designed  Craftsman home, with the natural varnished look of wood a strong feature inside.  Carl and Evelyn [Beattie] lived with them.  When Seymour died in 1934, Carl and Evelyn moved with Margaret to the village centre. Their son George later married Winnie Ritchie.

After Sydney MacDonnell,  Mason and Louise [Jackson]  Pearle bought this house in 1947.  Louise had grown up on this corner, and Mason came to Paradise from  Baxter’s Harbour, to work in our booming apple industry, later in mixed farming and lumbering.  They raised four sons here. In 1972 Jack, their oldest, bought the property with his wife, Anne Marie [Balcom], daughter of Gordon and Elsie[Gledhill]. They raised Randy and Michelle here. Jack’s enlarged farm included beef, working woodlots, and a farm market famous for corn and strawberries! Jack and Anne Marie raised two children, Randy and Michelle, and took an active leadership role in Paradise, and at the Annapolis Valley Exhibition in Lawrencetown, a big part of farming culture here.