Kathleen and Bill built the home in 1956, the year after Bill had

been transferred to Charlottetown to work in the laboratory at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. By that time, their third son Danny had arrived, and they looked forward to living and raising their young family in a home of their own. Although most of their peers

lived in apartments around the city, they preferred to spend their money towards a mortgage rather than pay rent. With that in mind, they looked around for a property they could afford.They looked at a number of properties, some of which were owned by the Owen Connolly Estate. Connolly, who had emigrated from County Monaghan in 1839, became a prominent merchant and businessman, and had accumulated rather extensive landholdings in Charlottetown Royalty and in other parts of the province. Before he died, he appointed trustees to administer his estate. (According to Connolly’s wishes, the proceeds of his estate were to be used to provide bursaries to deserving Irish Roman Catholic males. Kathleen and Bill’s sons were eligible to apply; their daughter was not. That has since changed; girls can now apply and Kathleen’s daughter Mary Jane is now one of the trustees of the Estate of Owen Connolly.)

By the 1950s, the trustees of the Connolly Estate were subdividing the remaining land in Charlottetown, and Kathleen and Bill looked at a number of lots until they decided on one in the northwest area of Charlottetown.

The lot they purchased was located on what was called Burke’s Lane, unpaved, unserviced and unadorned. It was then located in the village of Spring Park, which would later be annexed to the City of Charlottetown. There was ten acre field behind them, and scarcely any neighbours. In reality, they were living in the country, surrounded by fields. Some of their friends questioned why they would want to live so far from the centre of town, but it was an ideal location for bringing up a young family.

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