Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Abandoned/Demolished House, Richmond

     I photographed this old house in the late 1990's - a few years before it was demolished.  It was located on the corner of the Western Road (Rte.2) and Rte. 127 in Richmond.  These photos were taken in the days before I had a digital camera - these are scanned.
     I don't have information of who built this house - before it was demolished it had been rented.
     The 1880's Meacham's Atlas of Prince Edward Island shows Pat MacDonald living here with 80 acres of land.  The railroad (today the Confederation Trail) was adjacent to the property - I took the first two photos standing on the rail bed.
     The 1928 Cumins Atlas of Prince Edward Island shows Coleman and Mary Cameron living here on 78 acres.
 The above/below photos show the south facing facade of the house.
     The main part of this house is a large L-shaped with two major gables, one south facing and the other east facing (towards Rte. 2) on the inside corner of the L is a tall steep dormer gable as seen in photo below - an unusual, unique design element.  There is also a kitchen wing built out the back, westward.  I would estimate this house was built in the 1890s.
Below: Gable end facing Rte. 2 Hwy.
     Below Photos, the northeast side of the house.  Note the second floor round-top windows throughout the house.
     The last tenant of this home was Shirley Anne Dugay who was murdered (not in this house) by her estranged husband Douglas Beamish in the fall of 1994.  No one lived in the house after that - it was later demolished.

First time animal DNA used to solve crime -
     Douglas Leo Beamish, Shirley’s estranged husband, was the primary suspect in Shirley’s disappearance. Foul play was suspected from the start but without a body, it was difficult to investigate. RCMP found a plastic bag near the body containing a leather jacket with bloodstains and two strands of white hair. The blood proved to be Shirley’s and the hair was from Snowball, a cat belonging to Beamish’s parents. Douglas Beamish was staying with his parents at the time of Shirley’s disappearance. 
cf. http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/acsw_fvp_2010a.pdf
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3 comments:

  1. edmacintyre@hotmail.comAugust 1, 2013 at 11:16 PM

    This is a very interesting article about this old house .I stumbled upon it when I was Googling an image of Douglas Beamish while reading an a report in the Guardian newspaper about his denial of parole for the murder he was serving a prison term for.
    I live in Summerside but I work in west Prince so I would drive by this house every work day before it was demolished. I was always intrigued by the unique gable constructed on a 45 degree angle with two other gables. I have experience in carpentry in architecture and carpentry and I've never seen this type of gable before...and I doubt if I will ever see it again. Its a shame the old house had to be demolished because it was unique and had a lot a character. I am also descended from MacDonalds in that area(Grand River)so I thought I could be related to the people who built this house years ago.

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  2. UnknownMarch 1, 2021 at 11:39 PM

    Hi, from Toronto-Canada:) I am just watching this case on Forensic Files ,house was beautiful , as edmacintyre@hotmail.com said it is shame the house had to be destroyed :((( Ed why the house was destroyed? No one did not want to live in it? Family did not want the house???

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    Replies
    1. UnknownApril 5, 2022 at 8:08 PM

      Hi.the house at time of demolition was in dire need of repair.i think the last property owner tore it down so it wouldn't be an eye sore..I grew up just a few houses down from this.my aunt actually rented this in the early 1980s

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