Presents
48 Portugal Cove Road - For Sale
Ideal family home in mature neighbourhood with gated entrance to a park at the back of the house. Built in the 1940’s, this home has an effective age of about 10 years, with upgraded electrical, new vinyl windows and cape cod siding. There is a spacious living and dining area , which includes a wood burning fireplace. The large family room at the back of the house has patio door access to the deck and garden.
The four bedrooms on the second floor include a walk in closet and full ensuite off the master.
The new garage, 12 by 22 , with automatic door is a bonus.
Great updated family home, close to all amenities awaits your viewing pleasure.
This home was built by Ralph Matthews, who started life as a fisherman in Brownsdale, Trinity Bay. In the post war period he came to ‘town’ and got a job scraping ice and doing handyman work in the old arena. The manager of the arena for whom he worked was Arthur Johnson, father of Paul and Evan, who ultimately founded Johnson’s Insurance. The owner of the arena was Ches Crosbie.
Ralph Matthew Jr. is a professor at The University of British Columbia and has a BA in Sociology from MUN and a MA and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and he was kind enough to let Chris O’Dea know a little about Ralph Sr. And the time when he moved to St. John’s
Ralph Matthews Sr. was contemplating marriage and bought a piece of land just outside the City, and began to build the house himself – the one at 48 Portugal Cove Road – but in those days it was 7 Robinson’s Hill.
The arena burnt down and the Crosbie’s decided not to build it again. Instead, they invested in a yacht club in ‘Manuels’ (previously Emanuel’s). The building is still there and is a private residence – it is down the road next to a major supermarket now and opposite a Chinese restaurant. Arthur Johnson went and managed the yacht club for a while and Ralph Matthews went with him – again as handyman etc.
Eventually the Crosbie’s decided to go into the soft drink business and took over Gaden’s, makers of Keep Kool flavoured drinks. It was on Duckworth St right opposite the war memorial. The Crosbie’s also acquired the Coca Cola franchise which was a gold mine given the US servicemen in the City and the high regard for the US and its ‘culture’ in transforming Newfoundland from a peasant society to a commercial one.
Arthur Johnson went as manager of the bottling operation and Ralph Matthews went with him. Johnson ultimately left to found his insurance company while Ralph rose to be plant manager of Gadens – Coca Cola which relocated to the upper end of Water Street just up from the railway station (they had a spur line to load cars for shipment). Ralph had about a grade six education (what a poor boy was able to get in a rural Newfoundland community in the depression and responsible government period). He had limited writing ability (punctuation was often missing and there were wonderful Newfoundland -isims in his letters to his son , Ralph Matthews II (e.g. he spelled ‘whereas’ as ‘wherehas’ which is the way that they still pronounce it in Trinity South. However, it is a measure of his ability that he could manage a ‘factory’ with that level of education.
Ralph Matthews ultimately did not marry the woman he was building the house for. Instead, he married the daughter of a reasonably wealthy merchant from Nipper’s Harbour in Notre Dame Bay. That merchant was Leander Noble who had several canning factories and canned lots of salmon and operated under the name L. J Noble and Son. He also had several coastal traders that would go out with supplies for the fishermen through NDBay and White Bay and come back loaded with salt cod.
Ralph Matthews II, grew up in St. John’s just before Mr. Salk invented the polio vaccine. As polio was generally ‘urban’ in its transmission, Ralph Jr. was shipped off to Nippers Harbour each summer during his teens to be with his uncle Earl Noble (Leander’s Son) and his wife, Elsie. They had two sons, Keith and Kevin the three, spent those summers travelling rural northern Newfoundland on Uncle Earl’s boats and truly having a wonderful time.
Earl Noble ultimately came to St. John’s so his children could be educated better there. He bought Winterholme at the corner of Rennie’s Mill and Circular Road. His widow, Elsie still lives in the house behind Winterholme that he build before he sold Winderholde to Dick Cook. She is 96 years old.
Asking price $399,000
Call Chris O’Dea at 685-6559 for an appointment to view
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