Name/Title
Gibson House - 114 Gibson St.Context
This Gothic style two story home, was constructed by Robert L. Gibson c. 1867 from stone in his adjacent quarry.
The Town of Grimsby designated this a Heritage Property in Nov. 1988.
In 1860, Robert Lillie Gibson, an experienced stone cutter, emigrated from Scotland and was looking around Ontario for suitable employment. In 1866 he and a partner obtained a contract to build a bridge over 20 Mile Creek at Jordan for the Great Western Railway. Now he needed a major source of stone to quarry for the project.
Lot 10, Concession 2 held the escarpment face access to mineable stone. Richard Allison had acquired the lot in 1864. Robert L. Gibson came to the area looking for quarry property and after negotating with Allison, he acquired the right to quarry stone for the job at Grimsby and purchased the first 19 acres of escarpment frontage on March 23, 1866 for $420.
In 1868 Gibson purchased an adjoining parcel from Peter Ball Nelles for $420 and in 1870 another 19 Acres from Nelles, essentially giving him much of the face of the escarpment west of mill lands at the Forty Mile Creek.
Through Robert Gibson's railway contracts, he met Francis (Fannie) Thompson, the daughter of the Station Agent at Winona. Fannie was also a relative newcomer to Canada having arrived here with her parents from Ireland. Although she was 16 and ten years younger than him, they quickly married. Robert acquired the little white house at 102 Gibson Street for his bride while at the same time starting the quarry operation and organizing to build this larger stone House at 114 Gibson Street. By 1876 the former Mill Road had been renamed Gibson in his honor.
The Gibson quarry behind their home flourished for a time, enabling the fulfillment of the initial contracts with the railway and the Welland Canal. However the operation in Grimsby faded within five years as the stone quality was proving inferior for contractual needs.
Gibson acquired quarries at Beamsville to fulfill new contracts to build railway bridges across Ontario and Quebec. However, late in 1881 Robert Gibson had an accident when jumping from a slow moving train. Severely injured, he lived on for several weeks but finally succumbed to his injuries on February 21, 1882 at age 49.
The widowed Fannie remained in this stone home for a number of years and retained their wedding home at 102 Gibson Street, likely for its rental income to help support her young family of six children.
She managed well and became increasingly prosperous through an astute business ability in real estate and mortgage lending, in association with her sister who had married James Doran, a leading Grimsby property developer. She later built a prominent brick home for her family at the corner of Main St East and Robinson South. Fannie never remarried. She died in 1921 at age 78.