Fulford Place is an Edwardian building situated in Brockville, Ontario on the shore of the St Lawrence River. Formerly known as Elizabethtown, Brockville is a city in Eastern Ontario. It was first settled by English speakers in 1785 when refugees from the American Revolution fled north. William Buell Sr was the first loyalist to settle in the area, resulting in locals calling it Buell’s Bay. As the area grew the town was renamed Elizabethtown by officials from Upper Canada. In 1812 leading residents of the town suggested naming the town Brockville in honor of Major General Isaac Brock, widely recognised as the saviour of Upper Canada during the war with America.
By the nineteenth century Brockville had developed into a local centre of industry with a foundry, shipbuilding, a tinsmith, tanneries and a brewery. In 1854 Brockville and Morristown NY, situated across the Lawrence River, became centres for the patent medicine industry. Such medicinal products as ‘Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills’ And ‘Dr McKenzie’s Worm Tablets’ were made. It was the patent and creation of ‘Dr William’s Pink Pills for Pale People’ that resulted in Fulford Place being built.
George Taylor Fulford was the proprietor of a drug store and also famous for owning the patent for ‘Dr William’s Pink Pills for Pale People’. The Pills claimed to cure cholera, nervous headaches, palpitations, sallow complexions and partial paralysis. The medicine contained iron oxide and magnesium sulfate. G.T Fulford & Company aquired the exclusive patent and the product came to be advertised in over 80 countries around the world.
With his growing wealth Fulford commissioned NY architect Albert W. Fuller to design and build a summer home in Brockville. The mansion was decorated in Beaux Arts style, characterised by French and Italian Baroque and Rococo formulas. The building of the Edwardian mansion was begun in 1899 and finished in 1901 and the mansion was famous for its lavish design and decor. The mansion has 35 rooms including a grand hall, huge verandah, a moorish smoking room and billiard room as well as a rococo style drawing room. The gardens, originally part of the ten acres of land on which Fulford Place was constructed, were designed by the Olmstead Brother. The Olmstead Brother’s Company were an influential landscape architectural firm from the United States, established by brothers, John Charles Olmstead and Frederick Law Olmstead Jnr.
At the age of 53 Fulford was the first person in Canada to die in an automobile accident. On October 8th 1905, Fulford was riding in a chauffeur driven open roadster in Newton, Massachusetts. The car slammed into a streetcar, resulting in the death of the chauffeur and Fulford who died seven days after the accident. Following his untimely death his socialite wife Mary Wilder White became fascinated with spiritualism and started to hold regular seances at the mansion. Mary was close friends with the Prime Minister of Canada, William Lyon MacKenzie King, also an enthusiast of the occult. In the 1930’s King met medium Henrietta Wreidt and it is reported that they attended a seance at the Fulford house and experienced Direct Voice Mediumship. King was said to have participated in many seances held in Fulford Place. He is even reported to have continued spending time in the house following Mary’s death. While he was Prime Minister, King’s interests in the occult were kept secret.
Fulford Place is now a Museum, with the house and gardens preserved by the Ontario Heritage Foundation. Mary White is said to haunt the mansion. She was terribly afraid of thunderstorms and it is said that anytime there is a thunderstorm, loud and unexplained knocking occurs at the door as though someone is trying desperately to come in from the storm.
When I went to photograph Fulford Place the Museum was closed. The house has a strange feel about it and while I walked around alone taking pictures it was hard not to feel as though someone was watching from the empty house. The garden also has some interesting statues. This beautiful mansion is well worth a visit.
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