The notion of a rustic cottage hidden away on a coastal island congers images of long afternoons spent relaxing on a shady porch in a worn wicker chair. The Leigh home has never been a place of such idle pleasure - be it the nature of the owners or the house itself - it has always been a place of active pleasure.

 

Like most Buccaneer Bayites, ours is a tradition of city people turning to rural tasks. A returning to more basic skills and community long before it was thought fashionable.  Common to all settling families at Buccaneer Bay, our connection leads back to Mr. Calvert Simson. Our site was first occupied by Alex McKelvie who was a close friend of Calvert and business partner to Joe Allan (father to Tootsie (Leigh), Harvey and Ken Allan.

 

Each summer following 1925 the Allan family traveled to Buccaneer Bay for their two week holiday in August. How long the McKelvies had summered at the rustic cabin is not known. In '25 the cottage consisted of a small kitchen and bedroom in what is now the girls' backroom or The Hen House. In those days, the front part of the cottage consisted of two bedrooms and a living room with a wood floor and wood walls five feet high. Weathered white canvas slung above formed the remaining walls and roof. The Allans purchased the cottage in 1931. They removed the partition between back bed­ room and kitchen, making a larger kitchen. They built Sleepy Hollow (the sleeping shack) for a growing family that had not yet seen Ken arrive.

 

Tootsie tells the story of Labor Day weekend in 1932 when the whole affair almost went up in smoke. She was nine at the time and her Dad had just stoked up the hot air heater before settling down for a nap. As she lay in her bed her attention was drawn to orange patterns dancing on the fabric roof. She stood on the metal bed frame and peered over the  partition to see her father asleep and the tent roof ablaze around the overheated stove pipe. Toots and Harvey ran buckets of water from The Store (McLaughlin) pump to Gertie Allan who passed the buckets to Joe on the roof. In the course of putting out the fire, Joe slipped and grabbed the hot stove pipe resulting in serious burns which Nana Smith dressed twice daily for the remainder of the vacation. That season ended sleeping under the stars.

 

The next season started with the caretaker, Walter Starret and Joe Allan tearing down the burned remains and preparing to reconstruct. Throughout that spring the Union Steamship made a special stop at Buccaneer Bay, as Joe traveled up every Friday with a load of lumber. He would row the building supplies to the front beach throughout the night and start building at day break with the help of Mac McCulloch, the farmer. The trip home Sunday night would find Joe asleep with a book on his lap. The new building had to be constructed on the existing floor plan but Calvert Simson gave Joe permission to add a verandah down the east side.  In the summer of '33 the  family returned  to find

the house closed in and quite livable. The summers that followed found spare time absorbed in the task of finishing off the cabin.

 

Perhaps recognizing the need for fresh recruits unbeknownst to Toots, the Allans invited Tootsie's 16 year old boy friend up for a weekend - Bob Leigh. Things apparently went well, as three weeks later Bob sailed his Flatty up from Vancouver for another visit.  Reports are he spent three days becalmed on return, though clearly the relationship had caught a gust - and a new journey began.

 

Joe Allan and Bob shared an easy rapport built around their strong work ethic, which they  poured into continuing  improvements to the cabin.   After the war, marriage and  three children, Toots and Bob bought the cottage from Gertie Allan in 1955.   Toots started embellishing immediately, moving the cupola from the creamery at the aban­doned farm  to the roof of the Leigh home.   In 1957 they moved the kitchen to the front of the house and the bedrooms to the back, smashing a now irreplaceable antique wood stove in the process.

 

By 1960 Toots and Bob had labored the place to something they loved, when a December snow storm delivered two big tilting fir trees from Bob Smith's property through the living room roof.  Tag Nygard lifted them off with his Michigan with the aid of the neighborhood work party. In 1964 they eagerly accepted when Joe Simson offered the residents an opportunity to purchase 106 acres. This created even greater incentive to upgrade the cottage. In the early 80's Brent built the Mendicino style water tower.  No  other member of the family have trusted their life sleeping in it.