AMHERST, N.S. – Amherst was a thriving centre of industry in the late 1800s, and much of that industriousness was led by Nelson Admiral Rhodes.
“It wasn’t until after I bought the home that I started to learn about the historical significance of Nelson Rhodes and the Rhodes-Curry construction company,” Dan Read said.
Read and his wife Kathleen moved into the Rhodes home, located at 57 Havelock Street, a little over two years ago and have been renovating the home ever since.
“The porch was falling right off of it. It would have come down this winter. It was that bad.”
While renovating the inside and outside of the home, Read became fascinated by the impact Rhodes and company co-founder Nathaniel Curry had upon the growth of Amherst and the Maritimes.
With the help of several local historical organizations, Read has accumulated a thick binder of historical information about Rhodes-Curry, and breathlessly names the dozens of buildings they built throughout Amherst and the Maritimes, including several sandstone structures still standing in downtown Amherst.
Rhodes built his home at 57 Havelock Street in 1890, and the Reads are opening their home to the public on Saturday, June 8, from 1 to 4 p.m.
“My goal is to open our house once a month throughout the summer for the public.”
The Reads are members of the Amherst Area Heritage Trust.
“This house should be viewed by people. I don’t want history to forget this man.”
They moved to Amherst from Ontario.
“I worked on the assembly line at General Motors from 1993 to 2008. I was a welder when I finished,” said Read.
Why did they choose to move to the Maritimes?
“We always wanted to move to the Maritimes,” Kathleen said.
“We picked Amherst because it’s central to all three provinces,” added Dan.
Their children and grandchildren also moved to Amherst.
“My son and his wife and our two grandchildren live on the third floor of the house,” said Read.
And his daughter and three kids live in Fort Lawrence.
“I bought a house in Fort Lawrence and renovated it and moved my daughter here in the spring of 2018, so now I have five grandkids here.”
Read also owns $3,000 worth of model trains and hopes to start a train club in Amherst.
“I have 10 engines and 50 to 100 pieces of rolling stock.”
He is currently seeking out others interested in forming a train club.
“There’s a train show in Sackville and I’m going to go there and see if we can get Moncton and Sackville to come to Amherst on Oct. 26,” Read said. “If there’s and interest, we’ll find a building to house the club.”
People attending the house tour on Saturday can offer a donation.
“The money will go to the Amherst Area Heritage Trust fund, and if we do a train club we’ll have that money to start the operation of the train club.”
Kathleen is a painter specializing in painting with oils. She does landscapes, black and whites, knife painting, fine arts, and other oil painting techniques. If interest is shown, she would like to start teaching landscape oil painting.
“I’d have the painting classes here once a week, on Tuesdays or Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” said Kathleen. “I’d like to have a meet and greet when we have the open house to see how interested people are.”
For more information on the house tour, train club, or painting classes, call 902-614-0333 or email [email protected]