Barn in background of 1920s Long Branch photo appears to be located on Samuel Smith homestead
Long Branch, early 1950s
The first photo on this page is an aerial view of Long Branch, which Robert Lansdale has shared with us, from the early 1950s.
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In this photo, Robert Lansdale has indicated the position of the boat — shown in the second photo on this page — and the direction in which the camera was facing when the latter photo was taken, in about 1925.
Left to right in the second photo, which Barbara Durance has shared with us, are Connie Durance, Cyril Durance, George Durance, Rene Durance, and Florence Morrel. (Photo credit: Doris Durance. © Durant family and Robert Lansdale).
You can, again, enlarge the photo by clicking on it. If you double click, you will get the maximum enlargement. To return to the page you are now viewing, click ‘Back’ on your browser.
In a previous blog post, we displayed a map on which Robert Lansdale has indicated the approximate location of the boat in the photo, and the direction in which the camera had been pointed. The diagram on the aerial photo at the top of the current page provides the same information.
Another blog post displays an aerial photo of the Samuel Smith homestead as it appeared in November 1949.
Barns were adjacent to but not on the Sam Smith property
I had the impression that the land that remained, at the time when the buildings were torn down in the mid-1950s, were all part of the Smith homestead.
I had the impression the Smith house, the outbuilding immediately to the north of it, and the barns to the south of the Smith house were all part of the same property.
I would be most interested in details from archival records or the like indicating that the barns were adjacent to, but not actually on, the Smith homestead property.
I would add that your initiative, as president of the Long Branch Historical Society in the 1980s, in arranging for a preliminary archaeological survey of the site in 1984, was a key factor in the ‘good news’ story that emerged in 2011, when the provincial government provided $5.2 million to enable the Parkview School property, on which the archaeological remains of the Smith homestead are located, to remain in public hands.