Name/Title
The Seamstress Cottage - 99 Main Street WestScope and Content
The Seamstress Cottage - 99 Main Street WestContext
Constructed in the late 1840's for seamstress Mary Ann Richardson, this variegated Grimsby stone structure central location in the original village as served as the home for a number of dressmakers / seamstresses for the better part of a century.
This property was designated as a Heritage Property by the Town of Grimsby April 2023
There has been much conjecture about this residence's history over the years including oral accounts it was built circa 1800 with left over stone from the Nelles Manor construction or it was the Mechanics Institute Library when the library building was destroyed in the 1895 Carpenter basket factory fire. As the original building still stands, it clearly was not the library location lost to the 1895 fire. Recent extensive research has shown the residence can be factually dated to c. 1847.
The Nelles family seamstress, for whom the cottage is named, was Mary Ann Nelles, the third daughter of Colonel Robert Nelles and his first wife Elizabeth Moore. Born in April 1808, Mary Ann witnessed the War of 1812 and the Upper Canada Rebellion. She married George Richardson of the prominent Loyalist Richardson family in 1837. They relocated to Brantford to work with George's brother who was involved with the post office and the expansion of the town.
George died at Brantford in December 1845 and was buried adjacent to Chief Joseph Brant in the Mohawk Chapel Cemetery. After eight years of marriage, widowed Mary Ann was left with three young children. She returned to Grimsby, set up a seamstress shop and arranged for her immediate family to assist with the children. She also needed a place for the four of them to live.
In 1836 Robert Nelles had his Main Street village property surveyed by George Ball and divided into building lots. The survey shows this lot was for sale for $100, without a structure on it. Ten years later the lot was still available.
When Mary Ann returned from Brantford in late 1846, the Nelles family arranged for the construction of the cottage on this family owned lot. On the hillside overlooking the Forty Mile creek she raised her children and made her living as a seamstress and tailor. Seven years later she married the much older Methodist, Dennis Woolverton, with significant public protest from Rev. Lundy of St. Andrews. He objected on a variety of grounds but was more likely concerned about the continuing shrinkage of his parishioners.
Mary Ann's oldest son raised here was Wm. Locke Richardson [1842 - 1899]. He became a Professor, world renowned orator, elocutionist, and Shakespearean scholar.
The home was rented while Mary Ann lived at Woolverton farm; four short years later after Dennis Woolverton's death in 1857, she returned to the cottage and remained here for thirty years. On her death in 1888, the home was bequeathed to a fellow seamstress, perpetuating the legacy of the home being a seamstress cottage.
The small but solidly constructed home has stood the test of time, with a Shafer Brothers addition in 1960 almost doubling the space for owner Helen Kirk.
At 177+ years of age [in 2024], Mary Ann's Seamstress Cottage is one of many pre-Confederation residences in Grimsby, the home of Ontario's first municipal government.Collection
GHSLocation
* Untyped Location
Digital Photo Library
