Building a Summer Home
William McLean was the person responsible for the creation of the family cottage which resides on Breezy Pines Island and “The Point”. Mr. McLean was involved somehow with the survey of the Booth railway being constructed in Algonquin Park. He saw an opportunity for a summer lease and chose Lease No. 1, a lease which included 2 lots. The main reason for his choice was so that his wheelchair-bound sister could convalesce. The lease was beside the railway, a key consideration. According to oral records he commissioned the Bartlett brothers to build a cabin on the island in 1906. The original boathouse was built sometime between 1906 and 1909. He also started construction of a bridge to enable his invalid sister to travel from the train to the cottage via her wheelchair. This project was never realized but the cribbing still remains in Cache lake.
The main cabin is mostly original, but has undergone many repairs over the years. There were 3 fires, all caused by lighting strikes. The most recent, in about 1996(?) resulted in significant heat and smoke damage.
The boathouse was replaced at the end of the 20th century. The government would not allow the same size building to be built and were opposed to any cribbed boathouse. Tom Piegon was able to persuade the current Park Superintendent to allow the one that stands today.
The lease is still held in the family to this day.
Printed information on William McLean
National Encyclopedia of Canadian Biography
From ‘National Encyclopedia of Canadian Biography’, published in 1935:
McLEAN, William Arthur, C.E., O.L.S.
Consulting Engineer.
William Arthur McLean, consulting engineer of Toronto, has made for himself an international reputation, especially in the department of civil engineering which has come to play a very important part in national life during recent years – road building. And though he has devoted a lifetime to the hard facts of science, which deals only with the material, Mr. McLean’s sense of spiritual values remains unimpaired. Perhaps there is no severer test of a man’s calibre and spiritual virility. He agrees with what the great chemist, the late Ira Remsen, once wrote: “There is something more important than making a living – making a life.” The McLean family to which W. A. McLean belongs originated in the Highlands of Scotland, whence they removed to Kelmarnock, in Ayrshire, which was the home of his branch of the clan for a long period. The original Kilmarnock settler loved in concealment there for some time after 1745 for political reasons. The family was established in Canada by John McLean, who came from Kilmarnock in 1842. He located in Alborough township. With him came his wife and most of their children, whose names follow, not, probably, in the order of their ages: Adam, Andrew, William, John, James, Hugh, George, Matthew, Elizabeth and Annie. The younger two or three were born in this country. John McLean was a true pioneer, with hunger to possess land and to provide for his family a material prosperity not possible in the old land. So, with determination and fortitude he faced the hardships of the wilderness, cleared the bush from his land, took an interest in the problems that confronted his community, contributing thus to to the foundation of a colony that today holds a foremost place in the British Empire. And while occupied largely, as much needs be, with the physical and material problems of existence, he maintained his hold on spiritual values and brought up his children in “the fear and admonition of the Lord.” His son, Rev. Hugh McLean, was born in Scotland about 1833. He died in Toronto in 1901. He was, therefore, a lad of only about nine years when the family crossed the ocean. He was educated in the local public schools and at a collegiate institute in Hamilton. While he had been reared in the Presbyterian faith, to which other members of his family continued to adhere, he became a Methodist clergyman and held many charges in Ontario. When he was superannuated on account of age, he became a resident again of Toronto. He married Margaret S. McNairn, who was born near Cornwall, Ontario, daughter of Alexander McNairn. Her grandfather fought on the British side of the American Revolution, and at the close of that war located in Ontario; so that all of his descendants are entitled to membership in the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada. Three children were born to Rev. Hugh McLean and his wife: Elizabeth J., Margaret Maud, and William Arthur. William Arthur McLean was born July 11, 1871, in the village of Belmont. His elementary education was received in the public schools of Ingersoll and Strathroy, and then young McLean pursued studies in science at the University of Toronto. He had been articled to the City Engineer of St. Thomas and after leaving the University McLean worked in his office for a short time as assistant engineer. In 1896 he went to Toronto and took a small job in the roadways office, which had just been established by the Provincial Government. He remained in that connection continuously for twenty-seven years; and he was the prime factor in developing that Department into one of the most important; for he organized the Highway Department as it exists today. From 1910-’23 he was Chief Engineer of Highways. In 1916 he was known as Commissioner of Highways, and from 1917 to ’23 his title was Deputy Minister of Highways. When Mr. McLean entered the office in 1896, the science of roadbuilding was in its infancy, and little of any important experimental value had been done in Ontario. Mr. McLean designed the concrete arch built in Massey, Ontario, in 1907. It was the first long span (100 feet) arch constructed in Canada. From 1900 to ’13, he was Associate Editor of “The Municipal World,” published at St. Thomas. He wrote one of the earliest books on road construction. He has also written many articles for scientific journals on highway construction and allied topics, such as water supply and sewage disposable. He is also the author of “Ontario Highway Reports”; “Ontario Government Bridge Specifications, Standard for the Province”; “Principles of Roadmaking,” a Manual for the Province. In 1913, he represented Ontario at the international road Congress, London, England. In 1923, Mr. McLean retired from public office to engage in private practise as a consulting engineer, becoming a member of the firm of Wynne-Roberts, Son and McLean. His practice extends from Regina in the West to Newfoundland. Mr. McLean is a member of many organizations. He is a past president of the Canadian Roads Association. In 1914 he served as president of the American Roads Association – the only Canadian thus far to be so honoured. He was largely active in the organization of the Ontario Good Roads Association, the mother of all similar organizations in Canada. He is a member of the Engineering Institute of Great Britain; also, he is a member and held office (1919-’21), inclusive) as a member of the Council of the Engineering Institute of Canada. he is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario and of the Ontario Land Surveyors’Association. He is an Associate Member of the Faculty Union of Hart House. He is a member of Ionic Lodge No. 25, A.F. and A.M. and of the Lodge of Perfection, Scottish Rite Masonry, Toronto; Cedar Springs Golf Club and the Toronto Board of Trade. Love of the soil seems to be a heritage from his forebears, and this he indulges in operating a 120-acre farm – “Glen Ian”- which occupies a slightly prominence overlooking Frenchman’s Bay. He specializes in breeding Holstein cattle, his registered and fully-acredited herd numbering thirty head. The milk produced is sold to a dairy. Each year, in rotation, about thirty acres are put under the plow, and this he produces a large proportion of the crops consumed by his stock. During the World War, Mr. McLean was chairman of one of the organization boards and was active in the organization of a regiment. William Arthur McLean married in 1925, Marjorie Ruth O’Meara, daughter of the Rev. Canon O’Meara, D.D., Principal of Wycliffe College, Toronto. Mr. and Mrs. McLean have a daughter, Marjorie Joyce. The family are Anglicans. Mr.McLean is one of those men whom the young seek out for guidance and advice. He believes there is no itemized recipe for achieving success; but that, consciously or unconsciously, every man has the God-given opportunity to develop his soul, mind and body, of which the greatest is the soul; and that it is man’s duty to do so; but than duty, it is his great opportunity.
Middleton, Jesse Edgar, and W. Scott Downs. National Encyclopedia of Canadian Biography. 1st. Toronto, Ontario: The Dominion Publishing Company, Limited, 1935. 78-79. Print.