The house at the corner of Centre Street and Mississauga Street is known today as the Breakenridge-Ure House. It was built between 1823 and 1825 by John Breakenridge - a Barrister, a United Empire Loyalist, and a man generally regarded as having a socially acceptable background.
What makes this house different from his previous homes is that it had a full basement. The basement provided a separate space for the cooking fireplace and a separate place for the baking ovens. Also, the scullery and servant quarters were in the basement.
The house is a two story centre hall Georgian plan house, and built of local brick and not clapboard.
In 1825 John and Mary Warren Breakenridge moved in to their new home here on Centre Street with their 3 young children, and their two black servants, one named Mary. A mere three years later, John Breakenridge died, and Mary was a widow with 5 young children.
John Breackenridge had left no last will and testament, but he had left debts of more than 500 pounds. This is a time when estate law ignored women. The estate of the father became the estate of the eldest son. But John Baldwin Breakenridge was only 8 years old, and not legally competent.
Mary's brother was a judge, which was lucky for her, because the family ensured that she kept the house.
And in 1829, with Eliza Fenwick, a prominent writer, teacher, abolitionist and early feminist, Mary Breakenridge opened the Niagara Seminary for Young Ladies.
This was one of the very first schools for young women, run by women, with the classes taught by women.
They advertised in the local papers, and farmers journals, and students arrived - all of them daughters of the wealthy and prominent.
Eliza Fenwick taught French. Mary Breakenridge taught drawing and music, and both taught young ladies other skills of the day that would attract a suitable husband.
The school lasted just a few years, and by the mid-1830s, the socially prominent and wealthy young women of the day saw their elegant school close….a pattern of school closures in Niagara, that continues to this day.
From the Breakenridge House, walk along Centre Street, keeping the St. Andrews Cemetery on your left. At the first intersection, you'll be turning left.
Bernat, Clark. 2009. Eliza rubbed elbows with literary elite. Niagara This Week, Mar 13, 2009.
https://www.niagarathisweek.com/news-story/3278966-eliza-rubbed-elbows-with-literary-elite/
Paul, Lissa and Murray Wilcox (eds). Hunting for Mrs. Fenwick. http://elizafenwick.com/
Niagara on the Lake Public Library Digital Images Collection. 1977. Breakenridge-Ure House in Niagara-on-the-Lake. http://vitacollections.ca/notlheritage
Right in Niagara. 2009. Revisiting "Old Niagara on the Lake" http://rightinniagara.blogspot.com/2009/11/revisiting-old-niagara-on-lake.html
Stokes, Peter John. 1971. Old Niagara on the Lake. Illustrated by Robert Montgomery. University of Toronto Press. 152 pp.
Walters, Karina. 2016. SEARCH ENGINE: 'Haunted house' now a heritage home. St. Catharines Standard, Saturday, February 6, 2016. http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2016/02/05/search-engine-haunted-house-now-a-heritage-home/2485116/data?g=d