New addition to built heritage in Wolfville

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Wolfville has another addition to its inventory of built heritage since a plaque designating the Fales house on Main St. went up last month.

The solidly constructed, white-clad home at 149 Main St. is not old by Nova Scotia standards. It was constructed about 80 years ago, but the owners, Philip and Sonia Hoad, have collected excellent documentation on the man who had it built.

Dr. Alonzo Fales bought the land in 1927. He had his retirement home constructed by Elam Langille, who built over six houses in the town between 1920 and 1940.

From a family long settled in Annapolis County, Fales was born in 1869 in Victoria Vale. He went to Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1894. He began practicing in Bridgewater then he specialized in ear, nose and throat diseases. Beginning in 1897, he put up his shingle in Malden, Mass. and built a large practice. Married in 1902, Fales was described in the Middleton Outlook in 1909 as a successful physician and accomplished big game hunter.

Fales bagged bear, wolf, and moose. In the Yukon twice to hunt, he often took 10–12 weeks off in the summer to escape the stress of his practice. Usually he hunted in Nova Scotia, but he also made forays to Montana, Newfoundland, northern Ontario, Quebec and B.C.

In 1906, this sportsman traveled to Alaska, walking 114 miles to Nahlin Mtn. to become the first white man to hunt in that district. In 1908 he is reported to have called up 28 moose in western N.S.

In 1913 he moved back to a Nova Scotia practice in Middleton. After 18 years, he moved to Wolfville.

A 1931 story indicated Fales would roll a steel ball down the boards intended for his house to ensure they were true and flat. As a result, his traditionally-styled home was well built and featured solid oak flooring.

Fales lived on Main St. for 15 years, visiting Massachusetts regularly. He served as president of the EKM Hospital in 1939.

After his death in 1953 and without any offspring, Fales left the bulk of his estate to Dalhousie University for the Fales Visiting Professorship in Physics.

The Bayne family lived in the house for 20 years and Ken and Ursula Baker families lived in it until the Hoads purchased it in 2005. It was remarkably untouched, they said. The couple spent a year meticulously renovating the home with assistance from architect Vincent den Hartog and contractor Colin Morgan.