Gordon Marshall House

Address: 155 Hellems Ave.
Built: 1884
Designated: 1997
By-law Number: 1997-11002

Reason for Designation

This two storey red brick ‘T’ shaped house was built in the Italianate style in 1884. Characteristic of this style are its segmentally arched windows and doors and double hung windows with two over two panes, many with their original wavy glass. Interior features include a marble fireplace of typical Italianate style with rounded arch and cast iron coal grate in the front parlour, hardwood flooring laid in concentric patterns and woodwork with elaborate decorative detail. The wooden front porch with its turned posts and spindles along the eave dates from the 1890’s.

The house was built for Elias Holder, a Crowland township farmer of German ancestry who was the owner of a livery stable on Division Street during the 1880’s. He also had a contract for carrying mail in town and later worked as an implement agent. Ownership passed to James O’Neil in 1888. Of Irish parentage, O’Neil clerked in C.J. Page’s general store on East Main until 1892 when he left with his wife and child to seek his fortune in the Dakota territory of the American west. Thomas Gordon and his wife Eva Knight Gordon purchased the house in February of 1892, and it has remained in the same family for over 100 years. The Gordon’s Scottish ancestor came to Niagara-on-the-Lake with the British army. Thomas was born in 1863 and brought his family to Welland about 1885. He worked as a clerk for David “Daddy” Ross at the Ross Company Store on the corner of East Main and King Streets for many years. Two of the Gordon’s six children, Florence and Mary, lived in the house for many years. Mary’s husband John Lockley Brodie died at age 29 in 1920 and Mary Gordon Brodie returned to live in the house with her young daughter. In 1967, the house passed to her daughter, Betty Brodie Marshall.