Fairknowe Home for Scottish Orphans
now the Fairknowe Apartments at 6 Fairknowe Dr.
1897
William Quarrier
This is an amazing photograph, dated 1897, that was taken at the side of Fairknowe, the Quarrier Home for Orphans in Brockville. This large group of mostly girls has just arrived by ship and railway from Scotland. There is a small number of boys dressed in dark suits with white collars. After 1876, William Quarrier (1829-1903) of Scotland operated a number of orphan homes in Scotland and in Brockville & Belleville to take care of indigent and homeless children that were left on their own without means of support. The headquarters was located at Bridge of Weir, near Glasgow, Scotland. The organization run by William Quarrier, the Orphan Homes of Scotland, purchased this large house in the east end of Brockville in 1888 from Amelie and Harry B. Abbott, the previous owners. Abbott had been the Vice-president and Managing Director of the Brockville and Ottawa Railway while living here. Earlier, from about 1847 to 1871, it been the home of Caroline and George Crawford, the original owners. Quarrier’s aim was to re-locate hundreds of his charges to Ontario.
The taking of a group photo graph like this was a tradition when a new group of boys or girls arrived. The adults on the top step of the porch include William Quarrier and his wife Isabella, along with others who remain unidentified. Many of the children were quickly dispersed to foster households in eastern Ontario, who arranged to receive a child that was taken in as a unpaid employee and was expected to work for their keep. Some of the children may have been treated with kindness but more often they were taken advantage of and used as cheap labour on a farm. After 1934, Fairknowe was owned by Dorothy and Arthur C. Hardy and was used as the Brockville Children’s Aid shelter. The building still exists today as an apartment and is located on Fairknowe Dr. Quarriers still operates as a social care charity in Scotland to help people with disabilities and housing problems. © copyright -Doug Grant, September 2009