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3. 424 Buxton Street:
Built to Last
Brick manufactured in the Qu’Appelle Valley north of
Indian Head was used to build this house for Mr. W.
F. Johnston, in 1897. The Johnstons had come from
the east in 1882, but settled first in the valley. Some say
Annie (Lauder) Johnston was the first white woman
in the Qu’Appelle Valley. A few years later, during the
Riel uprising, she was also one of the few women who
did not leave her home. The wedding of Miss Bessie M.
Johnston to Mr. Andrew Dickson of Breezy Heights on
January 5, 1899, testifies to the charm of the family’s
Indian Head home.
A gentleman farmer by the name of Adam Davidson
owned the house from 1903 until 1946. In 1946, after
raising six children, Justin Harvey McCorkindale and
his wife, Maude Beach, bought the house for their
retirement. One year later, Harvey died. After Harvey’s
death, Maude stayed in the home until she died in 1962.
It then became the home of their son James and his wife,
Eva. Jim and Eva McCorkindale operated Mac’s Taxi
from this location. Even after Thor and Barb Johnson
bought the house in 1976, people still came by asking for
taxi service.
Although the house has undergone extensive interior
renovations, the exterior, with its buff-coloured brick
and decorative front veranda and trim, remains relatively
unchanged. The exterior walls on the first floor are
thirteen inches thick, while the second floor walls, also
brick, are nine inches thick. The house’s original address
was 424 Otterloo, but it was renumbered 424 Buxton in
the 1980s. BAW
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