66 Balcom Road: The George Covert House

Architecture Style: Greek Revival

Built: About 1865

The Victorians loved verandahs. Not for them exclusive, backyard decks to “protect privacy”: they wanted verandahs and porches that looked out on the world, and gave shelter from sun and rain on a summer’s night after a hard day’s work. A simple Greek Revival Home could be upgraded with a verandah or bay windows that also looked outward. They were a confident people who lived in a confident time.

The Balcom Road was a busy thoroughfare to the farms in the “back settlement”, and the Covert family lived here for about fifty years. Their land was part of the large holdings of the Starratt family, who chose to live closer to the “Post Road.”  In this picture Guilford and family are dressed in Sunday best; the house is at its best too with fresh paint, neat walkway and grounds.  Guilford farmed, but he and his brother Charles also helped their father in the tannery business at the old home. Gil liked fun, and he was as cheerful as his pleasant house. He farmed, sold clams throughout the village, and made friends. He married Ida Wilson, the daughter of his father Charles’ second wife.

In the ’20s, Nova Scotia was relocating Cape Breton miners to valley farms, to combat the problem of out-migration. Young people were leaving the farms for higher education or industrial jobs. In 1922, William and Polly Jacques came from Glace Bay under this program and struggled to adjust.  Their son was killed in the coal mines, and in 1937 his widow, who had married David Waterfield, came to Paradise to settle things. She did not intend to stay, but with her sons, George and Art Jacques, and her daughters, Doris and Shirley Waterfield, she did.  George was killed in Sicily in World War II,  but the rest of the family lived here until the ’50s. There was no power line until 1948, so homework was done by lamplight, and spring, with its longer daylight hours, was a very big event.

When Ina, Doris, and Shirley moved to an apartment in Wilfrid Bishop’s building, Art kept ownership of the home. It was renovated by Ross and Constance [Walker] Hawkins and then sold to Ross McLaughlin.