Catherine G. Hennessey

For most people on PEI, the name Catherine G. Hennessey is immediately associated with preservation of the built environment. Both a tireless heritage advocate and historian, Catherine produced a small book on the Prince Edward Island Pottery Co. and is an avid collector of Island pottery.

Among her collection is a piece that she created in clay during the time she was employed at Holland College School of Visual Arts in the mid 1980's.

The clay house is a model of Atwell House a stone house located in New Haven, PEI, which Canada's Historic Places describes it as:

The Atwell House is notable for its use of Island sandstone in its construction. It is one of only 8 remaining sandstone homes built in 19th Century PEI. The property that Atwell House now sits on was originally glebe land. In 1837, this land was given to Ambrose Lane by his father-in-law, Lt. Governor C.D. Smith. Lane had a varied and influential career as an army and militia officer, politician, and judge. Lane sold the land to Thomas Kickham in 1840. It is believed the house was built in 1842 using proceeds from the sale of the adjacent farm. Kickham called the property the Dog River Farm for the river running below it, later to be renamed the Clyde. 

Local tradition maintains that the stone for the house was taken from the farm property, and construction was undertaken by local stone masons, Thomas and John Heartz. It is also believed that the finish work carpentry was done with timber sent from the Island to England and then returned for installation, arriving by ship at a dock formerly on the property. 

In 1843, Ambrose Lane re-acquired the property and used it as a hunting lodge. After his death in 1853, it saw a number of owners and became known variously as Sherwood Farm and later Atwell House, after the family who owned it in the 1970s.