Dr. Joseph Henry Oliver Home – 128 River St
This home was built about 1904. Dr. Joseph Henry Oliver and his family lived in this three-story house. His home had his living quarters as well as his office, consulting room and a dispensary. At one time he was the medical Officer of health for Brock Township. Dr. Oliver was one of the last country doctors to make house contact calls. Often, if a patient could not reach his office, he would gather up his medical supplies in all kinds of weather and go out to provide medical assistance. In his later years, the families of the patient would come and pick him up in a buggy or cutter and in the summer his daughter Bessie would drive him about.
He retired in 1954 at the age of 84 and lived to the age of 96. In 1914 his wife, Elizabeth Martha St. John died about six months after his daughter Bessie was born. She was raised in this house by her two aunts.
Dr. Oliver was a member of the official board of the Methodist Church and also served as a member of the 116th Battalion in World War I. As a veteran, he proudly attended the unveiling of the Vimy monument in 1936. A recently discovered receipt for $2 for a math exam showed that he studied at Trinity College in Toronto for his medical degree.
His daughter Bessie played the piano and organ at the Town hall and the United Church and was always running next door to the Town Hall to get books for children when the Library was there. Dr. Oliver’s two sisters helped to organize concerts and design the costumes for several plays at the Sunderland Town hall.
In the 1890s, Dr. Henry Oliver was a teacher at the SS4 Ridge School after he completed his high school education in Uxbridge. Gus Doyle, the Future town Constable, was one of his students. Dr. Oliver went to the University of Toronto and finished his first year. Then, in order to raise money to finish his degree, he worked as an assistant to a doctor in Northern Ontario for a few years. After he graduated with a medical certificate in Toronto, he returned home to Sunderland and was listed as doctor in the 1910 Ontario Gazetteer for Sunderland.
2. Saint Andrews United Church – 10 Church St N
3. Sunderland Town Hall – 120 River St
4. Dr. Joseph Henry Oliver Home – 128 River St
5. St. Mary’s Anglican Church – 134 River St
6. Dr. James McDermott Home – 160 River St
7. The Fogg House – 198 River St
8. The Blacksmith Shop – 135 River St
9. The Nipissing House Hotel – 123 River St
10. Stop 4 Variety – 111 River St
11. The Old Drug Store – 108 River St
12. The Gigantic Hand Saw, Guardian Pharmacy – 103 River St
13. Flindell’s Fresh Mart – 97 River St
14. The Beall Block – 93 River St
15. The Harness Shop – 89 River St
16. Taylor’s Store – 85 River St
17. The William Doble Home – 32 Albert St
18. The Sunderland Presbyterian Church – 5 Albert St
19. Doyle’s General Store – 3 Albert St
20. The McDermott Block – 1 Albert Street S
21. The Sunderland Telephone Company. – 63 River St
22. James Doble Home – 3 Cedar St S
23. William Nassau Doble Home – 12 River St
24. Thomas Welsh Home – 20 River St
25. Robert Doble Home – 48 River St
26. The Bank – River Street (CIBC) – 74 River St
27. The Brock House Hotel – 82 River St
28. The Hardware Store – 92 River St
29. The Early Undertaker – 96 River St
30. The Printing Shop – 98 River St
31. The Magic Door – 100 River St
32. The Sunderland Legion – 104 River St
33. 108 River Street – 108 River Street
34. Freeze Creamery – 5 Church St N
35. The Sunderland Memorial Arena 1948-2009 – 20 Park St