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Joseph Bigelow’s first residence 100 Perry Street, Port Perry Plan H-50020 Part Lots 95, 96 While definitely not the most achitecturally impressive home in town, this house, now located on the west side of Perry St., is possibly one of Port Perry’s most historically significant houses. The main reason for this is because it was the first home of Joseph Bigelow, the town’s undisputed most influential and important citizen in the early days of the town’s development. The house that exists today, on the western half of lot 95, Perry St., was not originally located on this property. It was built on the north side of Queen Street, very near the west section of Tweed & Hickory. Followers of local history may recall it was Peter Perry who purchased all of the land in what is downtown Port Perry from the town’s first settler, Elias Williams in 1842. It was Perry who drew up the first plan for Scugog Village (Port Perry) about three years later. To provide some insight into this very simple, but im- portant structure, we have to look back to 1847 when builder Harrison Haight bought Lot 6 on the north side of Queen Street from Peter Perry. Then on March 8, 1850, Hiram Bigelow (father of Joseph), purchased the lot from Haight as an investment for his two oldest children, twin sons Joseph and Joel. Just before Peter Perry’s death in August 1851, the 23 year-old twins took possession of the Queen Street property. The Bigelows immediately erected a simple two-storey structure to house a general store and living In 1852, the growing business added another facet; Joseph Bigelow became Port Perry’s first postmaster. In order to expand their facilities, the brothers bought the neighbouring Lot 5 to the east. HOUS NTRAL A section ofa il ic oster ising Je h Bigelow’s (see advertisement at right). 24 FOCUS - JULY 2009 Port Perry, from the Ontario Observer in danuary 1861. This is the building referred to as the Bigelow’s General Store.