10136 Highway 1: The George Starratt House

Architecture Style: Vernacular

Built: c. 1795-1830

George Starratt was one of three sons of the first Paradise Starratts, Peter and Eleanor [Armstrong],  who came with other planters from Granville in the 1780s. George and his brother John each built homes in Paradise. A third son, William, went to sea and died in Boston in 1777. George lived in this lovely homestead with his wife Sarah [Balcolm] whom he married in 1785. This may have been their second home, as its style suggests the 19^th century. Sarah was the daughter of Planter Samuel Balcolm, who was among the Massachusetts colonial troops at the Siege of Louisbourg in 1758. George and Sarah had six children, including “Paradise Twins” (we seemed to have quite a few!)  Benjamin and Joseph, b.1793. Simon, a sea captain, inherited this classic vernacular home. Its projecting centre bay gave a sense of entry downstairs, and light and space upstairs.

George died in 1820, so he did not live to see the railway slice across his front property in 1869, and destroy some graves in the Starratt (Paradise) cemetery. The railway was not universally welcomed; it changed the village landscape, and cut into people’s farms.   Still, those who lived close to the tracks sometimes said that the regularity of the trains brought comfort, and the haunting whistle was a romantic call. What did sea captain Simon think? Did he know that the Age of Steam would end the Age of Sail?

When Simon died, Alvin and Anne [Dunham] kept the homestead, and William E. built on the westernmost portion of Starratt land. Alvin’s grandson Cyril, after some probate confusion, was the next owner. Cyril was the last Starratt to live on family land, and in 1944 he and his wife Bessie and their three children moved to Port Lorne.  By Kenneth King’s time, children were being bused to Bridgetown for school, farms were struggling,  and the apple orchards and mills were gone, along with all that the Starratt pioneers had known. But the home remained, as strong and simple and beautiful as ever.

It was purchased in 1966 by Ralph and Jeanette Foster, wonderful Paradise neighbours. Ralph was much appreciated for his care of the cemetery, and the church.