Elizabeth Hall
A walk Through History
As the only building in Napanee made from red sandstone, it is no doubt that this beautiful piece of architecture stands out.
Designed by Thomas Fuller (1823-1898), the co-designer for the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, the Old Post Office was built in 1888 with red stone sourced from the Rideau River, and a clock shipped from Montreal was set up in the tall tower that is seen at the front and centre of the building. The clock was maintained weekly by a man named F.W Smith, owner of a jewellery store in downtown Napanee. The building continued to act as a Post Office until 1969 where it was then replaced by another, more modern Post Office on Centre Street. As of 1986, the Post Office is being used for commercial purposes.
The Old Post Office and the murder of Richard Beard are merely connected by a name: F.W Smith. The man who maintained the Post Office’s clock owned a jewellery store on Dundas street, and on Saturday, Aug. 27, 1921, the store was a victim of an attempted robbery. While on his nightly patrol of the town, Richard Arnold Beard found three men trying to break into the back of Smith’s Jewellery store. Beard approached them but was shot dead. Townspeople found his body in the alley after hearing the gun shot. On Dec. 4, 1921, the Kingston police arrested three men by the names of Sherwood and Erwood Upton, who were twin brothers at the age of 20, and Fred Bryant who was 21. The three were charged with the murder of Beard, along with multiple other offences, including the robbery of an automobile owned by a man named J.W Robinson, multiple drug store robberies, and the attempted robbery of Smith’s Jewellery. However, they were not convicted until Dec. 19, 1921; Erwood and Sherwood Upton were convicted in Kingston of assorted charges, and both were sentenced to four years in Kingston Penitentiary. While Bryant was being held in jail awaiting trial, as Sherwood and Erwood claimed in both of their confessions in 1922 that Bryant was the one with the rifle that killed Beard. On Sept. 27, 1922, Erwood Upton, Sherwood Upton, and Bryant were sentenced to life imprisonment in Portsmouth Penitentiary with charges of Manslaughter.
A memorial plaque has been added to the laneway on John Street where Cst. Richard Beard was tragically shot while investigating a suspicious noise. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
Beard was 51 at the time of his death, he was married with five children and had been a police officer for seven years.
Random History Fact: the youngest prisoner in the Kingston Penitentiary was eight-years-old, arrested for playing a part in a pickpocketing operation.