King's Point heritage house expected to open next summer

Tourists visiting King's Point next summer will be able to visit a historic two-story home and get a feel of what it was like to live in the province years ago.

The house was built in the early 1900s and was donated to the King's Point Heritage Society by the Yates family in 2001. It contains old-fashioned furniture, tools and other items that were used by its original owners.

Maurice Budgell, a member of the heritage society, tells about the first family who lived there.

"Adolphus Yates was the father of the family who lived here originally," said Mr. Budgell. "I believe they came here from Southern Arm and then started a business. Out of his daughters, one of them was a nurse and another one was a teacher. They had a lot of books, which are still in the house. They owned certain masterworks that not everyone had in their homes at the time," he said.

These books are mostly hardcover and fill a study room in the house.

The room also contains an old-fashioned typewriter, which is still in working condition. The house is full of antiques, including a gramophone, a radio and a Singer sewing machine that is built into a table.

"There are little things that we are trying to preserve," said Mr. Budgell. "Like this table where you would have the old washbasin and jug. There is also this piece of furniture (a bureau) that was built in Jackson's Cove about 80 to 90 years ago. Everything was handcrafted at that particular time," he said.

One of the oldest items, a hand written receipt from 1869 for items purchased when the mine in Bette's Cove was operational is framed. It's an artifact the Yates family preserved.

"Down in Bette's Cove where that mine was in 1869, there were 2000 people. They were so far advanced that the men printed their own money and used their own currency. But the mine didn't run very long because they had a landslide or something that filled it all in," explained Mr. Budgell.

There is still a significant amount of work to be done in the house, but the society is hopeful it will be open to the public by the next tourist season. One of the uncompleted tasks is restoring the washroom.

"We're looking for one of those old cast-iron bathtubs, the real old heavy ones with the legs on it," he said.

Additionally, the society plans to restore the general store still standing in the backyard.

Through the windows, a person can see its original built-in shelving and the counter where the cash register would have been. The shop will serve as an extra place to display antiques.

The weigh scale once used in the store is in the kitchen of the house. Mr. Budgell told of an amusing way in which some merchants chose to use these devices.

"Years ago when the old people or the merchants wanted to rip you off, they would weigh a pound of nails with their middle finger touching the scale," he said. "That finger was always worth a fortune because rather than the full pound they would say, 'yep that's right, right on there,' and weigh so many ounces extra. People said it was the million-dollar finger for the merchants because if they had two pounds and a quarter, the quarter was the weight of their finger," laughed Mr. Budgell.

So far, the house has been completely repaired to improve its overall stability, including new floor joists. When money becomes available, future additions will include a basement office and a workshop for refurbishing the antique furniture.

Mr. Budgell hopes the heritage house, combined with other tourist attractions in the area, will help make the entire town into a tourism centre.

"The Alexander Murray Trail is here when you come into town, then you have the cafÉ, then the pottery shop, then the whale pavilion then this museum," he said. "We're hoping that this road will become a tourism plaza throughout the waterfront."