65 Navy Street - Sumner House

This house was built by William Sumner a year after his house next door on William Street.

65 Navy Street as well as the adjoining lot on William Street were bought from William Chisholm by William Johnson Sumner (1797-1841) in 1831 for 20 pounds, or about $80 at the time. He was the son of Thomas Sumner, a soldier who fought under General Wolfe at the taking of Quebec City in 1759.

In 1832 he built this house and sold it after 8 years for 100 pounds. The Sumners continued to live in the house around the corner on William Street. William Sumner had been the proprietor of the Grove Inn in Nelson, which is now Burlington. Then he leased the Oakville House from his good friend William Chisholm. It was located on the site of Paradiso Restaurant on Lakeshore Road. Sumner Street, which is the south side of George’s Square, is named after him.

Matilda Sumner, a daughter of William Sumner, married Samuel McGiffin, the brother of Captain John McGiffin, who lived next door. In 1873, Matilda and Samuel purchased this house, which had been Matilda’s childhood home. Unlike his brother and father, Samuel McGiffin was not a mariner, rather he was a hardware merchant. His store was in what had been the original St Jude’s building on the northwest corner of Thomas and Lakeshore. By that time the congregation had moved to its current location. The original St Jude’s had been built by the Methodists and sold to the Anglican Congregation when the Methodists found they couldn’t afford it. The building was torn and replaced with a branch of the Merchants Bank, later the Bank of Montreal. A few years ago it was remodelled to become a clothing store.