Elizabeth Hall
A Walk Through History
The Macpherson House is most likely a building in Napanee everyone has heard of. It was the house that became the social centre of the town after its owner, Allan Macpherson, built it on the north side of the Napanee River.
The Macpherson House was built in 1826, a few years after Allan Macpherson moved to Napanee from Kingston. Allan Macpherson was a wealthy man, he had seven kids, one of which had died young, and he paid for the town’s first school house. He leased a grist mill and a saw mill along the river, but he also owned a general store in what’s now called the ‘Gibbard District’ of the town. Allan Macpherson remained the owner of this house until he moved back to Kingston in 1848 after he secured the Crown Lands Agent appointment (assisting settlers to acquire land). His son, Donald, lived in the house until 1860, and it remained in the Macpherson family until 1896. In 1962, the house was restored to its former 19th century beauty and used to perform living history presentations by the Lennox and Addington Historical Society up until 2014, when it was given back to the County as an addition to the Lennox and Addington Museum and Archives. Today it is opened for tours, and is even said to be haunted by both the Macpherson family and the entire kitchen staff that served them, according to Lisa Bird, who hosted Napanee’s weekly Ghost Walks during the summer.
Back then, some significant historical figures such as Bishop John Strachan (a political bishop who promoted education from common schools and helped found the University of Toronto), and young John A. Macdonald, later Canada’s first Prime Minister, visited the Macpherson House as guests.
The Macpherson House was one of the first houses built on Macpherson land, which was inherited from a man named Frederick Hesford, who had no family ties to the Macphersons. Hesford was originally from Germany and lived in the Macpherson’s basement as he worked at Allan Macpherson’s general store and mills.
Random History Fact: In Ancient Greece, votes were casted by putting different coloured stones into a selected number of pots (white stone for one option, black for another etc.).