ManorPark Community

Stephanie Harker of Arundel
From the May 1998 Manor Park Chronicle
By: Carol Burroughs

Stephanie Harker and her husband Peter bought one of the second 100 houses in Manor Park, on Arundel Avenue, where Stephanie still lives. They had emigrated to Canada from England in September 1948. The Harkers met during World War II, when they were both in the Army, and later knew each other at Cambridge. Peter Harker came to Ottawa to accept a post with the Geological Survey of Canada.

Sterling and Barbara Ferguson showed them a new subdivision of Manor Park in December 1948. Five houses of the second 100 were still unsold. The house which they selected was scheduled for completion in March, but in fact was not ready for occupancy until June 1949.

Stephanie Harker has preserved documents and records relating to the purchase of their home and costs associated with home ownership. For example, a basic three-bedroom house cost $9685; a house with dormers and a fireplace cost $10,015. The monthly cost of a mortgage amortized over 20 years was $44.25. The second mortgage added another $7.25 a month, and taxes were $12 a month. Residents had to collect their mail from the post office at St. Laurent and Montreal Road, until an enterprising postmaster offered to deliver mail for $4 a year. Ice blocks for the icebox were delivered four times a week, for a cost of 4 dollars a month.

Manor Park was the first post-war subdivision in Ottawa. It was featured in a three-dimensional model displayed in the A. J. Friedman department store (now The Bay on Rideau) in 1947, and in Canada 1955, the yearbook published by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada. In 1949, a small pond still existed near Farnham and Dunvegan, and Cunningham's ridling school was next to the cemetery gates at Hemlock and Beechwood. Signs in Manor Park instructed riders to walk their horses in the residential area.

Stephanie and Peter Harker raised four children in Manor Park. Stephanie recalls that there were eight kindergartens for the five-year-olds at Manor Park school, including one at each end of the gym! The Harkers were founding members of the church of St. Columba, involved by Bill and Margaret Baldwin in the building campaign. When the cornerstone was laid, all the children used spoons to "excavate" the earth. Peter Harker had been a choirboy at Lincoln Cathedral, and he and his children were active members of the choir.

Stephanie Harker is quietly modest about her personal contributions to the Manor Park community. But as those who know her can attest, she has always been a concerned neighbor and a committed volunteer in local and broader community organizations such as Highland Lodge, or helping to run polling stations. She helps out without asking for thanks or recognition, exemplifying the spirit of Manor Park.