10644 Highway 1: The Putnam Leonard House

Architecture Style: Vernacular

Built: c. 1800

This house is one of the earliest Paradise homes.  Pictured here c.1968, it was built on   Balcom land, and though it was always known as “the Balcom house” it was probably built by Putnam Leonard.  Putnam was the son of Planter Jonathan Leonard, who kept the inn and mill nearby on the Leonard Brook.  Reg Piggott wrote, “My house is all put together with wooden pegs. All rafters, floor timbers, sills etc. are hand-hewn …and all the boards that are exposed in the attic are sawed out with the old type up and down saw…”. [unpubl. manuscript]  Putnam and Anne [McGregor] lived here from 1800-1828.

The Balcoms bought back the property when the Leonards left. So, it became “the Balcom house” for generations. When Reuben died, it went to Samuel, and then to (Richard) Burpee, whose children from his first marriage to Harriet Parker outmigrated to Massachusetts. It passed from Balcom hands when both of Burpee and Mary [Rice] Balcom’s sons died young. Lt. Harold C. Balcom was killed in the Halifax Explosion in December 1917, as were many young soldiers waiting in Halifax to be shipped overseas. Then in 1921 Louis, aged 37, died in this house, of a ruptured appendix.

Family documents show that in September 1940 Carrie Dill bought the house in preparation for her November marriage to Reg Piggott, a Whitman descendant of “Planter” heritage. After farming for some years, Reg ran an antique shop, pursuing his love of interesting and beautiful antiques, old guns, and the stories that went with them. Reg, Carrie, and their children – Peggy, Mary Lou, Reg, and Susan-were a busy and talented family, at the centre of the church, school, and community activities in Paradise.

Later owners included Roman Bartkiw, glassblower and potter, the Cox family, and William and “Mickie” Arrowsmith of Greenwood; Mickie and her girls loved the Victorian parlour and the rambling upstairs. The house was modified considerably inside.