By: Ken Mather [with support from the Mackie Lake House Foundation]
ISBN: 978-0-88839-769-0 [Trade Paperback]
ISBN: 978-0-88839-770-6 [eBook]
Binding: Trade Paper
Size: 8.5" x 11"
Pages: 176
Illustrations/Photos: 91
Publication Date: 01 Oct 2024

Ken Mather recounts the fascinating story of a historic house and the people who lived in it for over a century. The house was designed and built in 1910 for the Buchanans, a well-to-do family from Montreal, by Robert Findlay, who was renowned for his designs for Montreal’s affluent merchants and industrialists.

When the Buchanans moved to Vancouver after the First World War, the house was sold to the Layton family from Norfolk, England. They became an integral part of the Coldstream community for the next 15 years. A daughter, Elizabeth Layton, had the distinction of being the Secretary to Winston Churchill during the war. With the outbreak of the war and the break-up of the family in 1940, the Laytons sold to the Austin, Hugh and Grace Mackie, who had been running the Vernon Preparatory School since 1914. They lived their retirement years in the comfort of the lovely house. Though Hugh and Grace Mackie had four sons in all, only Patrick “Paddy” survived to inherit the house after the passing of his parents and uncle. Paddy was a true “renaissance” man: a musician, painter and naturalist, along with many other talents. It was Paddy who established the foundation that maintains the house to this day.

Through compelling research and captivating detail, Mather illuminates the people and events of this storied landmark and the reader will learn much from this excellent account.

KEN MATHER has been researching western Canadian heritage for over four decades, working in curatorial, management, and research roles at Fort Edmonton Park, Barkerville and the O’Keefe Ranch since the early 1970s.

He is the author of several books on pioneer and ranching history. His fifth book, Trail North – The Okanagan Trail of 1858-68, was runner-up for the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Historical Writing. In 2015, he received the Joe Marten Memorial Award for the Preservation of Cowboy Heritage in BC.

“People of all ages are drawn to historic properties because they serve as “portals” to other times. Mark Twain captured this interest in his novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) and popular television series such as Anne of Green Gables (based on the works of Lucy Maud Montgomery) and Downton Abbey (created by Julian Fellowes) have made the communities in which such properties are located tourist destinations.

The historic designation process, whether municipal, provincial or federal, allows individuals and/or non-profit entities to preserve and interpret places and landscapes with architectural and other significance; however, they can also become “contested” spaces as historical narratives change. This is particularly true with respect to the rightful questioning of colonialism in Canada and the treatment of Indigenous peoples. Thus, the custodians of structures associated with colonization are being challenged with respect to their relevancy in a more just and egalitarian contemporary Canada.

Ken Mather tackles this issue head on in his book Coldstream Lake House: a storied landmark of the Okanagan..."

Read the rest of the review at The BC Review.

— Adriana Davies