251 Allan Street - O. Norman Carlson and Rosalind Parnaby Carlson House

Norman Carlson was born in Saskatchewan and served in the Second World War

This lot is part of the Brantwood Survey which was approved in 1907 and developed by the Cumberland Land Company. That year the lot was purchased by Cameron Bartlett, listed in 1911 as a widower, and later sold back to the Cumberland Land Company with other lots. In 1925 it was granted to the Canadian Bank of Commerce, now CIBC. On 23 May 1944 it was granted to Norman Carlson with a building covenant for $200. That means he undertook to build a house within a certain length of time. On 28 Sep 1945 he took out a mortgage for $3,200 which was discharged in July 1962. He died in February 1984 and his widow sold it for $135,000.

Orlando Norman Carlson, known as Norm, was born in Saskatchewan in 1919 and served overseas in the Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars, a Montreal Regiment, in the Second World War. He married Rosalind Parnaby and they had three children. He is listed as a mechanic in 1945 and 1949 and was very active with the St John Ambulance. There's a photo him being invested by Governor General Georges Vanier as a Commander of the Order of St John in 1965.

The records show that in 1946 he lived on Reynolds Street, probably with his in-laws and probably because the house was under construction. The Parnabys lived across from the tennis courts. The 1947 phone book shows him living at 68 Allan Street which, after houses were renumbered in the early 1960s, became 251 Allan.