10424 Highway 1: The Frederick William Bishop House

Architecture Style: Greek Revival

Built: Bef. 1898

Frederick William Bishop married Carrie Shaffner in 1890. They would need a home of their own, as Fred had been teaching in the winter, and farming at home with his father in the summer. “Home” was the grand New England Colonial built for his mother, Martha [Durgin], in 1865. The first Bishop home was torn down:  an old, old, house on the north side of the road, standing when James Armstrong sold the farm to Fred’s grandfather, William Bishop Jr., in 1826. It may even have been there when William Marshall sold the land to James Armstrong in 1824. Now a third Bishop home went up on the farm, this one for Fred, Carrie and their four children: Reg, Edgar, Marian and Irving. Irving was born in 1904, the year the property was deeded to Fred. Ten years later, patriarch William Henry died, and Fred and Carrie moved to the big house.              

A picture taken by a cousin in 1898 shows the house in a more rambling character. It had no verandah then, and no upstairs bay window. Instead, set in among the apple trees (it was almost certainly built in an orchard) it seemed to go on and on. There was a carriage house with copula on the east side, and on the west, at the back, a summer kitchen ell, New England style. A white picket fence at the front had an inviting gate, and its large posts made perfect perches for the boys at family photo time. A note on the back of a later photo (c. 1920) in Carrie’s writing says, simply, “Old Home”.

Fred’s oldest son lived here with his first wife, Maude Thorne, and their baby Ralph. In 1921 Reg seems to have “traded homes” with John O. Elliott, who had been living in the Asaph Marshall home. John Elliott owned the Bishop house for over 20 years. 

The McGill family lived here in the ’40s and ’50s: Hallett and Mabel, and then Vaughan and Joan and their boys, Johnny and Larry. Hallett drove trucks, and Vaughan served in World War II as a tank driver. His wife Joan was one of  Paradise’s “war brides”.  In Canadian towns and villages, the men who went overseas often fell in love and sent for their brides. Paradise was no different. The transition for these brides could be difficult.

The Brintons, who had moved to Paradise in 1947 when they began their poultry farm on the Avard Longley estate across the road, bought this home in 1961.      

After 1985, Robert Saunders lived here and created a neat and pleasant rural retreat. He was an avid gardener and a quiet and pleasant neighbour to all.