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--· Stone house holds wonderful memories The large stone house at 23 Charlotte St., once held a cor-1 nucopia of fruit and vegetables in its back yard. A large, beautiful garden containing peach, pear and apple trees, and all lands of vegetables covered a considerable portion of the grounds behind the building when Rednersville resident Barb Roblin lived there. Charlotte Street is just off Highland Avenue in Belleville's west end. Roblin was born in its master bedroom in 1928. She is the daughter of William and Nora Kyle, who owned Kyle's Garage on Station Street, which stood in the neighborhood of Tradeau Motors and the liquor store. The Kyles purchased the house from Edgar and Elizabeth Smith for $2,600 in 1927. The glass in the sun room, built by William Kyle, comes from car windows at Kyle's Garage. Despite living her early years during the Great Depression, Roblin has fond memories of the house. Her sister, Mary, took her wedding vows there and the reception for Roblin's own big day was held there. William Kyle was an avid gardener, hence the multitude of food in the yard. Roblin recalls going door-to-door selling strawberries as a young girl. Each summer the family would pile into their Buick and go for picnics. One year William Kyle told his children to gather small stones during each outing. Kyle used the dark, round stones to build a fireplace on the second floor of the house's three-storey tower. It is still there. was a billiards table that sup- our house; big, grey stone." According to information asplied hours of entertainment to sembled by the Hastings the Kyle children. Bathroom facilities con- County Historical Society, sisted of an outhouse when the John Turnbull built the house Kyles moved in but William in 1855. He also erected anput a bathroom in the house. other abode immediately west He also laid much of the hard- of it but the building has since fallen under the wrecker's ball wood floors in it. At Christmas the Kyles' rel- and an apartment building ocatives gathered at their house cupies the space. because it is so big. Turnbull was a wealthy Today the house has an merchant (having made his apartment on the west side but during Roblin's days there it money in banking and real eswas part of the main house. tate) who built the home next The doorway into it is now a to 23 Charlotte for his daughter, Charlotte Eliza. She and closet. Besides the house, Roblin her husband, Alfred Argyle also remembers the neighbor- Campbell, lived there three years before moving into numhood. As a child she rode a to- ber 23. Charlotte Street is boggan down the hill at the end of Wareham Street. "That named after Tumbull's wife. was Ketcheson's Hill. When we The house was built in the were kids we lived on that Italianate style and is one of hill," she says. It took its unof- the earliest of its kind in ficial name from the Ketcheson Belleville. family that lived nearby. The many good time at 23 Mr. Lowry, another resident Charlotte are tempered by one of the neighborhood, added joy bad memory. Roblin's father to the already carefree days of died there while stacking coal Roblin's youth by creating a and wood in the basement skating rink on the corner of when she was still a young Bridge and Dunbar Streets. "He would flood the rink and all the kids from the West Hill would go there and skate." Other former West Hill residents took part in many hockey games on the ice. There were no homes west of Moodie Street so Roblin often played in the open field now covered with streets and houses. Behind Roblin's home was the girls' residence for Albert College. A new building has replaced the old one after fire ravaged it in 1980. "It was gorgeous," says Roblin of the forAt the bottom of the tower mer building. "It was stone like Barbara Roblin girl. The Depression was still going but the family persevered. Nora Kyle continued living in the house for many more years. She died in 1978 and the house was sold as part of the estate to Geoffrey and Paula Cole. Today it is owned by Michiel and Ren Duinker who live there with their children Hilary and Hartley. The Kyle family from left, Ruth, William Jr., Mary, William Sr., Barbara in dad's arms, with the family Buick. (A