If you happened to be driving along Park Lawn Road in June/July 2020, you may have noticed a tractor or mechanical digger or a truck between 238 and 242 Park Lawn. The machines have excavated what will become the basement level of a new house to be constructed at the new address, #240.
Originally part of the same lot on which stands the house at #238, this piece of land long since featured a garage on a concrete floor before the machines broke that up and took it away in preparation for excavation. But the machine operator had a sharp eye and when working the digger a few steps north of the house at #238, pushed aside a concrete slab and uncovered an old water well.
This was the well originally used with the farmhouse on one of the many market gardens located in the area more than a century in the past. Capped probably when the town water supply connecting to new houses in the area was extended to the old house at #242 Park Lawn, the well had been effectively preserved. A former resident of #242 in the 1930s, whose family used the well, recalls her brother against the admonishment of his father racing across the yard with a plank on his shoulder. Inevitably he tumbled into the well, but was saved from a deep fall and serious injury by the plank!
Originally part of the same lot on which stands the house at #238, this piece of land long since featured a garage on a concrete floor before the machines broke that up and took it away in preparation for excavation. But the machine operator had a sharp eye and when working the digger a few steps north of the house at #238, pushed aside a concrete slab and uncovered an old water well.
This was the well originally used with the farmhouse on one of the many market gardens located in the area more than a century in the past. Capped probably when the town water supply connecting to new houses in the area was extended to the old house at #242 Park Lawn, the well had been effectively preserved. A former resident of #242 in the 1930s, whose family used the well, recalls her brother against the admonishment of his father racing across the yard with a plank on his shoulder. Inevitably he tumbled into the well, but was saved from a deep fall and serious injury by the plank!
After finding the light of day, even now water was present at the bottom. The well’s diameter was 44” and depth was plumbed at 22’ below ground level. The well has since been filled in … but in its short second lifespan provided a momentary diversion into history for current and prior residents.
– Murray Johnston
– Murray Johnston
RSS Feed