09/11/2025
Chester, NS: Sept 2025: Barbie & I consider ourselves to be only the stewards of Cavendish House, thus we have tried to preserve its history through rescuing the home from demolition and preserving the treasures found within. Upon acquisition we knew we had to preserve the architectural significance, restore/renovate and in some instances rebuild (a portion) Mary Cavendish's (nee Wurts)* summer home built in 1928/29. Along with the actual acquiring of the house, we purchased the contents and with that inherited boxes of old bric-a-brac and other casual items. Most of these items went directly into storage for sorting at a later date. Well that day has come 14 years later as Barbie delves into the legacy & history of the house. One item that has surfaced is a very large (20" x 30") birthday card, water colour on very heavy card stock. The card was in honour of Mary Cavendish's 80th birthday. What is more surprising about unearthing this treasure is the tie-back to my family, as the creator of this card for Mary was by my Aunt Phyllis Harris (P.C. Harris), an amateur painter and sister to my father. The card now thankfully hangs in our Cavendish House along with other treasures from that era.
*[-excerpt from 'The Winterthur Library, The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera', Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum - "After the elder Mr. Dayton died (Mary's first husband) in 1927 (in a hunting accident), his widow married George Sidney Godolphin Cavendish (1895-1973), a photographer and retired British Navy lieutenant commander, in January 1933. (Cavendish’s mother was a daughter of the 9th Duke of Leeds.) Mary Stuart Wurts Dayton Cavendish died in 1980, at her summer home in Chester, Nova Scotia."]
