Our History
The Brown Homestead was settled around 1785 by Loyalist John Brown and his family. This historic site features the John Brown House, the oldest home in St. Catharines, a two-storey stone house built in 1802 and incorporating an earlier 1-1/2 storey house (ca. 1796). It is also the home of the Norton Cabin (ca. 1817), built by Mohawk chief Teyoninhokarawen (John Norton), which was moved to the homestead in 1997 to save it from demolition.
The charity was established in 2015 to purchase and preserve the house and to reimagine it as a community gathering place that would serve as an engine of progress and development.
In keeping with our founding principles, we have spent much of the past few years evaluating the best role for the homestead as a public space by engaging in a series of community outreach projects to help shape our vision for the road ahead. Having completed our strategic plan, feasibility study, and financial plan, we are pleased to share them with you, starting with our Road Ahead video presentation.
Indigenous History
Prior to Loyalist settlement, the Niagara peninsula was inhabited for around three hundred years by Iroquoian-speaking people known as the Attawandaron, or the Neutral Confederacy. In addition to hunting and trading, they engaged in agriculture in parts of Niagara township and disappeared in the mid-17th century. They formed three main east-west trails across the region, choosing to travel along the escarpment because it provided a flat, linear path and was a clear indicator of direction, connecting those living north of Lake Ontario to the Haudenosaunee in western New York. The Haudenosaunee regularly crossed the Niagara River to hunt for furs that they would then trade with Dutch and English merchants.
Burghardt, Andrew F. “The Origin and Development of the Road Network of The Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, 1770-1851." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 59, no. 3 (1969): 417-440.
These well-worn paths were later augmented by the Mississauga Nation who inhabited the lands between York and the Head of the Lake, or modern day Burlington, travelling through on their way to the Niagara River. The most prominent Indigenous route through Niagara was the Iroquois trail that ran from Queenston to Ancaster along the bottom of the escarpment, but the Mohawk trail along the top of the escarpment and the Lakeshore trail along Lake Ontario were also essential.
In the 1764 Treaty of Niagara, the Seneca agreed to cede to the British government the entire Niagara River, including a four-mile strip on the west side between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Twenty years later, the British government purchased much of the land situated to the west of the four-mile strip from the native Mississauga people in an agreement that was updated and solidified in 1792 as the "Between the Lakes Treaty (No. 3)." This land included the township of Louth, where the Brown family settled in the 1790s. The Brown Homestead is located on the historic Mohawk Trail, which ran along the top of the escarpment from the Niagara River into Ancaster and beyond.
This means that we exist within the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. Today, Niagara remains home to many Indigenous people, and we are pleased to recognize and celebrate their friendship and the continuing historic partnerships that make it possible for us to be here in the present.
The Brown Family
The Brown family was part of the 1710 Palatine German migration to upstate New York. They settled in Schoharie where John Brown married Magdalena Zeh on May 5, 1770. John Brown and his brothers joined the Loyalist cause during the American Revolution.
Butler’s Rangers cartridge box plate from the Canadian War Museum
John served as a private in Captain Lewis Genevay’s Company of the Corps of Rangers, known as Butler’s Rangers from 1781 until their discharge in 1783. He was subsequently granted 900 acres of land in adjoining corners of Thorold, Pelham and Louth Townships to reward his loyal service to the crown and to replace lands he lost in Schoharie. This tract included the parcel on which the John Brown House sits facing Pelham Road, as well as the rolling hills and valleys once referred to as “The Gore,” now part of the Short Hills Provincial Park, which the house overlooks.
In order to ratify the land grant, the soldier in question had to clear five acres of land and build a dwelling no smaller than 20 x 16 feet. The section currently considered the original structure of the home, now the rear section of the present building, is exactly 20 x 18 feet.
The soldier also had to occupy the dwelling for one year before his patent was granted. Given that the land grant was ratified in 1797, the current belief is that the original structure was completed by 1796. Construction of the remainder of the house is said to have begun in 1802 with the rear wing being used as a kitchen upon completion of the main house. John’s sizable 1206 acre homestead was divided among his children when he died two years later in 1804.
Georgian Era
In the early 19th century, Pelham Road was an essential transportation route for travelers, especially during the war of 1812. Because of its location, John’s son Adam transformed a section of the house into a tavern and an inn for travelers, and was issued a license to distill liquor. At this time the front hall was divided by a partition of 2” x 24” whitewashed pine boards, probably as a throughway for food carried from the kitchen to a “birdcage bar” constructed at that time in the rear of the ground floor parlour.
The remains of the birdcage bar were found behind the Victorian wall to the left of the fireplace in the parlour, and date from the years when Adam operated the building as a coach stop. This style of tavern serving counter consists of a small square cubicle which contained the supply of liquor, ale and crockery from which the bartender served liquor to patrons. It would appear in this case that food was also dispensed from the same cubicle. Separate from the tap room, these “birdcages” are known to have been an integral part of many early inns between 1700 and 1840, but few have survived. This rare feature is one of two documented known examples still in existence in Ontario.
On the upper floor, the original “ballroom” has been divided. One theory, due in part to the nails used in the wall’s construction, suggests that this division took place sometime after the original construction and prior to 1825 to accommodate Adam’s children, born between 1807 and 1823, or to have rooms available for occasional travelers. The current prevailing belief, however, is that the partition was raised after 1858 to accommodate the needs of a new owner.
Additionally, based upon a mention by William Hamilton Merritt of his Dragoons retreating to the house after a particular skirmish, there has been speculation that the house was occupied at times by the company during the war of 1812. Bayonets and muskets were reportedly found under the kitchen floor during an earlier renovation of that part of the house, although this has never been documented. The Decew House was used as a base, primarily after John DeCew was imprisoned in Pennsylvania in 1813. Given its location, it is highly likely that the company (or others, British and American) used the John Brown House to stop upon certain occasions, rather than as a base of operations. Recent research suggests that it may also have been used by the British as a supply depot following the fall of Fort George and occupation of the Niagara Peninsula by the Americans in 1813.
Adam and Abraham, who was just eight years old when his father died, jointly inherited the house as part of a 436 acre parcel, including attached lots in Thorold and Pelham. Upon coming of age, however, Abraham immediately transferred sole ownership to Adam, who then sold much of it to John Brown Jr. Adam's son Jacob inherited the then 119 acre homestead in 1855, "under conditions" that he pay certain "charges and liens". Three years later, in 1858, he sold the property to a Mr. Joseph Chellew for 525 Pounds.
Victorian Era
Among the main changes made by the Chellew family was the conversion of the ground floor tavern room to a formal parlour. It retains mid-Victorian features, such as cyma curve (S-shaped) moulding profiles, a heavy plaster cornice that runs around the room and a rosette with turned band and centre ornament that are characteristic of the late 1860’s or early 1870’s. The birdcage bar from the earlier period was enclosed in lathe and plaster, perhaps to create two small parlour bedrooms to the rear, one being the former tap room.
Another significant change was an ornately decorated verandah across the entire front of the house. This was accompanied with Victorian tape pointing on the façade of the house, which involved a thin mortar rendering over the stone walls to imitate a finer, cut ashlar stone work). There are also two original brick outbuildings on the site that date from this period: one a smoke house, the other a dairy.
Joseph Chellew Jr. purchased the house from his father in 1892 for one thousand dollars and, in 1902, sold the property to a Mr. Lafontaine B. Powers. There is a stone shed addition, built as a garage in the 1920’s, across the back of the house from the kitchen wing. It replaced an older wooden porch which ran along the east side of the kitchen, across the driveway and covered the well. Mr. Powers also purportedly opened the wall of the hearth of the original structure to use it as an opening for sorting fruit.
Conclusion
The property was passed to the youngest Powers son, Charlie Powers, in 1950. He lived there until his death in 1978. The following year, Heritage Consultant Jon Jouppien purchased the property and began restoring the house. He built a contemporary galley kitchen into a small room previously used as a store-room and converted a small upstairs bedroom into a washroom.
In 1983 Mr. Jouppien requested an exterior heritage designation and in 1991 an interior heritage designation, both of which were granted, making it the only house in the city of St. Catharines at the time to have both an interior and exterior designation.
The house remained in Mr. Jouppien’s possession until June of 2015, when it was purchased the John Brown Heritage Foundation, a registered charity founded by descendants of the original homesteaders, John and Magdalena Brown. In 2021, JBHF was renamed The Brown Homestead.
Bibliography
1. 1980 Heritage Assessment Report by Peter Stokes
2. City of St. Catharines By-Law No. 82-174 (July 1982)
3. City of St. Catharines By-Law No. 91-409 (October 1991)
4. Corporate Report: Recommendation Regarding the Repeal of Designations of 1317 Pelham Road Under Ontario Heritage Act. File 10.64.128. January 30, 2014
5. Downs, Peter. “It’s really old… and soon, pre-1800 house will be sold.” St. Catharines Standard. May 22, 2010
6. Moorman, David T. “The First Business of Government: The Land Granting Administration of Upper Canada.” 1997