The house Helen Naundorf grew up in is going to the birds and she couldn’t be more pleased.
On Sunday Naundorf, 90, and her 86-year-old sister Gladys Gibson watched as a birdhouse replica of their parents’ house was unveiled at St. Albert Botanic Park at almost the exact spot where the original once stood.
“We’re very pleased. It’s exactly the way it was,” said Naundorf.
The sisters’ parents, Tom and Florence Atkinson, were not the first settlers to own the farmstead where the botanic park is now situated, but park volunteer John Beedle wanted to commemorate their contribution to the land.
“The Atkinsons lived there from 1917 to 1952. I thought people would appreciate the historical background,” said Beedle.
The Atkinsons farmed 380 acres on riverlots 41, 42, 43 and 44. The roads have changed since they left their farm, but in terms of modern-day landmarks, it stretched from the ball diamonds to where Sir Winston Churchill Avenue meets Sturgeon Road. The Atkinson sisters walked 1.5 miles to the old brick school on Mission Hill.
Beedle studied old photos of the house and commissioned carpenter Kevin Brenneis to build it. Just like the original, it is complete with a red roof, cream-coloured siding and a veranda. The original home had two bedrooms upstairs and the upper story of the birdhouse has room for two chickadee families. The birds enter their 18-by-16-inch abode via a hole that looks like a window to passersby.
Naundorf noted that the birdhouse is located right beside the trees her father planted as a wind shelter to protect the farm.
“Those trees are still there. I remember he watered them faithfully every evening,” she recalled.
