Mast House
The Doctors’ House
Prepared by Colin Beairsto
Director, Yukon Historical & Museums Association
The House
“Dr. F.J. Nicholson has commenced work on a residence situated at the south end of town.” (The Whitehorse Semi-Weekly Star, 10 May 1902)
This was the announcement of the start of construction of the house now known to Whitehorse as the Mast House at 209 Elliott Street. “The Doctor’s House,” its most common name in the first half of this century, is a hip-roofed cottage of frame construction, with an enclosed veranda dating from the 1920s. The house is a significant reminder and link with Whitehorse’s heritage for several reasons: its location, its additions, and the people who have lived in it. the Mast House is a precious survivor of the 1905 fire that claimed the White Pass train station, the fire hall, and the Yukon Electric building among others.
The house may be seen in a number of period photographs taken from the bluff (to the west) behind town as well as in a few taken from the river (to the east). A series of photos from the bluff taken by Whitehorse photographer Ephrim J. Hamacher on May 24, 1903 capture Whitehorse, including the Mast House, and a large crowd watching a game at the ball diamond on the other side of Main Street.
The house is located in what is now the downtown core of Whitehorse, an area that is largely covered with multi-storey commercial and office buildings of recent construction, but which formerly had many more private residences. It is one of the few remaining private dwellings in the area.
There have been three additions to the Mast House over the years, which also make it a good example of the kind of construction seen in many Whitehorse dwellings. The original building may have been quite modest but, as the town grew, so did the building. In some early buildings the original structure was only a tent frame that was covered over and added to. The Mast House, however, is not one of those structures that exapnded in size and substance. It does, nevertheless, have tasteful adaptive additions that demonstrate some of the construction methods of many of Whitehorse’s older buildings. The house is in good condition; the main concern is the foundation, which has weakened on the west side in recent years.
Mast House Owners and Occupants
Finding a doctor to practice in Whitehorse was not always easy, and the house was one of the perks that came with the position. Whitehorse’s first hospital was constructed at Second Avenue and Elliott Street in 1902. The fact that the hospital would only be “a stone’s throw” away, must have been a factor in selecting the location of the doctor’s house.
It was home to Dr. Nicholson, Superintendent of the Whitehorse Hospital, and then owned by Carleton W. Cash, Chief Clerk for White Pass Stage Lines. It was sold to the Commissioner of the Yukon Territory on December 17, 1910 and continued to be used for many years as a doctor’s residence and office. The different doctors living at the house over the years included Dr. Nicholson, Dr. Waldo B. Clark, Dr. Norman E. Culbertson, Dr. Reginald John Wride, Dr. Allan C. Duncan, Dr. Stewart, and Dr. Frederick Burns Roth. Following Dr. Roth were Chief Magistrate Kerr, and Magistrate Andrew Gibson. Gibson had been a Commissioner of the Yukon. A school principal was also reported to have lived in the house.
Dr. Clark was the medical superintendent for the White Pass and Yukon Railway from 1910 to 1915, when the “new” hospital was built. Dr. Clark was married to a local nurse who passed away in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1919. After that he moved to Vancouver with his 2 two month-old son, Waldo.
Dr. Culbertson was a physician in Dawson City in the years leading up to World War I, and came to Whitehorse in 1920. He was the hospital physician, doctor for the R.C.M.P. and First Nations people. Before long, Dr. and Mrs. Culbertson had arranged improvements to the house.
“The enclosed verandah recently completed on Dr. Culbertson’s cottage adds very much to its appearance and comfort.” The Weekly Star October 24, 1924.
On a cursory look at the building in 1998, the veranda looks as if it could be original; the 1924 carpenters did a fine job of enclosing the existing redwood floored porch.
Dr. Culbertson left Whitehorse in November 1927 on a year’s leave of absence, planning to do post-graduate work in Edinburgh and London. He sold his piano to the Ericksons who kept it in the Regina Hotel for many years. Culbertson died at sea on July 12, 1928, reported The Whitehorse Star of July 20, 1928. A well-liked man, Culbertson’s death was a shock to local people.
About 1929, Dr. Reginald Wride, Mrs. “Ted” Wride and Marjorie, their daughter who was then about two years old, moved up from Atlin, BC. Wride had taken his training at the University of Western Ontario, and had worked as a pathologist in Vancouver before moving north. With the family dog, a husky named Snookie, Marjorie would play across the street with the Coulter girls, Margaret and Patricia. Marjorie would also go down the street to play with Bill McBride’s children, John, Mary and Betty. One of Marjorie’s small chores was to walk over to the back door of the Traveller’s Cafe to buy bread: for twenty-five cents a loaf! The Wrides moved to Princeton, BC, when Marjorie was just beginning the second grade at school.
Wride was the only physician in town—as was often the case before World War II and the Alaska Highway. He would regularly be called off to other parts of the southern Yukon on short notice. Someone would come to the house for him, and off he would go on a dog sled.
At times, being the lone doctor was the same as having no doctor at all, especially when the physician became ill. In Medicine, Madams and Mounties, Dr. Allan Duncan relates how Dr. Nunn was the lone physician in Dawson when his appendix ruptured. With no one else available to operate, Nunn died of peritonitis.
Dr. Allan Duncan, the author of Medicine, Madams and Mounties, lived in the house while he practiced in Whitehorse from 1935 to 1937. He was single on his arrival in town. On Discovery Day (August 17) 1936, Duncan married Winona Spence in the Anglican Log Church just along the block. Winona has since passed away and Dr. Duncan remarried. Recently, his wife, Mrs. Jean Duncan, related that Bugs the cat, who in Medicine is pictured with the author in the house, would drag bones around the house at night, and keep the good doctor awake.
Duncan, in Medicine, relates that his move from Whitehorse was abrupt. Dr. Nunn had died in Dawson. Before long there was a woman in labour requiring a doctor. Duncan had a couple of hours notice to get on a plane to fly north to attend to the expecting mother. Duncan had moved north from Winnipeg in 1933 and practiced in Mayo before coming to Whitehorse. After Whitehorse the Duncans were in Dawson City until 1947.
In about 1940 Dr. Burns Roth began his practice in Whitehorse and moved into the house. He was the Whitehorse physician throughout the war, though when he was out of town there was now back-up. On at least one occasion an army doctor was called in to perform an appendectomy on a local resident.
In 1945 Roth married Audrey Ryder, a local lady. Her parents operated Ryder Oats and also had a horse corral at Second Avenue and Lambert Street—just beyond the back door of the doctor’s house.
In October of 1946 the Roths went on sabbatical, and Audrey’s brother, Lloyd, just back from overseas, moved in to housesit. Housesitting is a tradition that continues today in Whitehorse. When a homeowner will be away (or “Outside”) for a few months he or she will ask a friend or acquaintance to stay in the house to look after it and keep the fire burning during the winter. It is often a bit of a treat for the sitter as well, though there is some anxiety about keeping the house in good order.
Imagine the concern of Lloyd Ryder on the cool snowless afternoon of October 8, 1946 when the Carmichael Apartments on the back half of the lot next door caught fire. Johnny Carmichael’s building was not to be saved, and there was great concern that the doctor’s house would go up too.
“The town fire brigade and those of the army and RCAF worked hard for some time to bring the fire under control. There was a strong wind blowing at the time, which did but serve to fan the flames.” The Whitehorse Star, 11 October 1946
Six families lost their homes and belongings in the Carmichael Apartments fire, but thankfully there was no loss of life save for Mrs. Earle’s Boston Bull terrier.
While the fire was raging, people from across town went to work immediately to rescue whatever possible from the apparently doomed doctor’s house. Gudrun Sparling wondered if the recent wedding presents of her friend Audrey, and china in the china cabinet, would survive the rushed exit to the street. Household belongings were removed pell mell. A good lot of it ended up in the porch of Mrs. MacPherson’s house across the street.
The feat of the afternoon occurred when tall and lean Ronnie Greenslade, a signalman in the Canadian army, picked up the refrigerator and carried it out himself. The roof and rear of the house were alight at one point. In the end, the doctor’s house was saved. The scorched southwest corner of the house was soon repainted and the remains of the Carmichael Apartments were removed without delay.
Afterwards, Matt Nelson moved an old army barracks building onto the Carmichael property, and set up his tinsmith shop. On the front half, the O’Harra Bus Lines building had come through the fire unscathed despite being closer than the doctor’s house. It operated a bus service to Haines and Fairbanks, Alaska, for several years. William Morris, the undertaker, would later set up in the O’Harra building.
Bill Barrick lived on the east side of the doctor’s house. Barrick was in the army. He later moved to Haines, Alaska, where he was a State Trooper. After Bill Barrick came Joe Kemp the barber, and then Joe Bowker, a plumber for Nelson’s who later worked in the city’s water department.
The Roths returned from their sabbatical and later, in 1948, moved on to Saskatchewan where Roth became the deputy minister of health. Immediately after the Roths left, Jock Kerr moved into the doctor’s house.
Kerr, a former Mountie, had been stationed in Mayo. In Whitehorse, he became Chief Magistrate. He has been noted for his common sense approach to his duties as magistrate. Kerr was followed in the house by Andrew Gibson, another magistrate. Gibson had been Commissioner of the Yukon in 1950 and 1951.
In the late 1950s the clerk of the territorial court, Miss E. G. Thompson, lived in the house. Gordon Cameron and his family lived across the street, at 208 Elliott. Cameron was Commissioner of the Yukon Territory from 1962 to 1966. Mrs. Wiese lived in a large house just down from the Camerons. On the Thompson (south) side of the street, E.W. Drebit lived at 207 Elliot, and Nelson’s still had its tinsmith shop at 211A.
In 1961 Ivor and Martha Mast bid on 209 Elliott. At that point, the W.J. Morris Funeral Director and Embalmer was next door at 211 Elliott, though later on Barry’s Tax Service was located there.
Ivor Mast was an agent for Explosives Ltd., and used the house for that business, though his explosives magazine was out of town. Mast had been posted in Mayo with the RCMP for many years and took his discharge in the Yukon and remained here. The Masts made no changes to the front of the house but may have laid the hardwood floors. The Masts moved out in 1985.
Demolition/Relocation Planned
The Mast House – Doctor’s House is currently threatened with demolition or relocation. The current owner of the property wishes to clear the way for new development on the Mast House site and on several lots adjacent to it. The Whitehorse heritage community fears for the house. The Mast House has heritage value for locals but, beyond that, its preservation and restoration could bring economic benefit through the trades work involved in restoration, and through its continued contribution to the tourist appeal of the city.
Preserving the Mast House – Doctor’s House on its original site would ensure tangible economic benefits as well as maintaining an important physical link to Whitehorse’s heritage. A 1986 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Study found that “renovation is twice as labour intensive as new construction and yields 27.8 direct jobs per million dollars invested in renovation, as compared to new construction which is material intensive and yields just 12.8 direct jobs per million dollar expenditure.” Regarding commercial properties, many developers boast that restoration increases property values and therefore taxes for the municipality.
Heritage tourism is one of the fastest growing areas of our economy. According to the Tourism Association of Canada, nearly 40% of tourism is culturally based. According to the Longwood’s study in the United States, Americans would rather visit our historic sites than go shopping.
We urge you to voice your opinion on the possible loss of this important heritage resource. The City of Whitehorse has passed a by-law to protect the city’s heritage. This is a first opportunity to prove that it works.
YHMA February 2, 1998
Update
[top] This web edition was prepared and edited by Amanda Graham, for the YHMA. 19 January 1998; updated 4 February 1998.September 2007 Update-
With successful lobbying the the Mast house was saved from demolition but moved to 410 Wood Street in July 1998 by owners Howard & Gordie Ryder (see Ryder House) to be renovated. However, due to a stop work order the building has remained vacant perched above a hole intended to provide a basement for the home. It is in this sad state that the building has remained for the past 8 years.
Building's Use and Condition
| Current Use | |
| Past Use | |
| Condition | |
| Foundation / Floor | N/A |
| Walls | N/A |
| Windows / Doors | N/A |
| Roof | N/A |