ATHABASCA — The streets of Athabasca are rich with history stretching back to the founding of Athabasca Landing in 1877, and even further to the days of forest and footpaths before European settlers arrived.
And one piece of that storied history recently changed hands: in May, the current owner of the Dent House, a staple along the Athabasca Historical Walking Tour, put the 112-year-old residence on the market after almost 60 years of ownership.
Originally constructed in 1912, the house's latter years have been marked by much different occupants than in the middle of its tenure on 52 Street. Realtor Shahira Bury recalled fond memories of the Burritt’s silly Christmas decorations around the property in years past, a far cry from the type of décor that could have been glimpsed inside in the 1930s.
According to files from the walking tour brochure and the Athabasca Archives, William Dent, a manager – and later owner – working in the lumber industry purchased the house alongside his wife Elizabeth Mahood between 1916 and 1917.
The building had originally been built as a one-storey store that never saw its opening day, and with the help of Mahood’s ship carpenter father, the family converted the store into a two-and-a-half-storey house.
Together, Dent and Mahood had five children, but lost a son between the ages of 10 and 11 in a drowning accident in the nearby Athabasca River. After establishing his own sawmill on the east side of town, Dent and family left the community around 1928, and the house was purchased by the Alberta Provincial Police (APP).
APP Cpl. Ken Heacock and schoolteacher wife Rebecca had been in the community since 1917 — the same year the APP was formed — and moved into the Dent House in 1928, when it began functioning as the APP office and jail cells as well as officer living quarters.
Heacock and Rebecca served the community in their respective roles for another two years before leaving for Vegreville, and the house and policing duties were taken over by Cpl. Frederick Moses.
Moses, initially a Royal North West Mounted Police officer, served as the town’s enforcement through the APP’s disbandment in 1932, and after joining the RCMP, retired from his role in 1934.
Although no information was available on the police occupants after Moses, the house continued to functioned as the barracks and jail house until the RCMP sold the property to one Clark Pitman in 1947.
Not quite 20 years later, Clark’s son, referred to only as Jesse, sold the house to Jake and Iris Burritt, the faithful owners and occupants for the last six decades.
June 21 marked the latest sale of the property, but although the new owners are local to the area, they have not been identified. Bury was the realtor handling the sale and said it’s not every day a house with as much history as the Dent’s former residence sells.
“If a house is built in the ‘70s, people think it’s old,” said Bury with a chuckle. “It’s rare to have sales in our community of houses that old. I’ve been selling real estate a long time, and I haven’t sold a house that’s over 100 years old because they’re usually not still standing.”
Bury said for her, the stories about the house shared by Burritt during the sale process were what made the job unique, rather than the physical structure of the house itself.
“More than anything, if those walls could talk, I’m sure they could tell a lot of stories,” said Bury.
