Sketch of Doyle House, Castleton

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Cobourg Daily Star, Saturday, January 26, 2002

The Doyle House, Castleton
Sketch and text by Barry King

"Just north of the old Cramahe Township Hall on Percy Street in Castleton stands a charming red-brick home in the familiar Ontario Gothic style. Of particular interest is the unusually paned Gothic-arched window in the central gable. The decorative bracketing and delicate gingerbread trim accenting the full-width verandah, and the evenly balanced columns that support it, together reflect an age of formality and conservative values.

In the 1880s, it was home to Michael John Doyle who is listed in the 1878 “Atlas of Northumberland and Durham [Counties]” as an agent and assessor. He also held the positions of Reeve of Cramahe Township and, later, of County Warden.

Members of the Conservative Party often gathered at the Doyle family home and it was their vigorous political discussions that were to influence the Doyle’s daughter, Iva (Mrs. Howard Fallis), in adulthood. She came to believe strongly in “the idea that every Canadian citizen interested in his or her Country’s welfare should endeavour to render some form of public service.” Her work for the party, as both a platform speaker and as a campaigner, led to her appointment to the Senate in 1935 under Prime Minister R.B. Bennett as Canada’s first female Senator."

Cramahe Archives does not hold the original item in its archives, but has a digital image.

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