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The Work of Our Hands The world that the Bryce family and Eadie brothers entered in Mount Pleasant at the beginning of the 1840s could not have been more different than the one earlier pioneers entered decades before. By the 1840s the village seemed to have reached an apex in its development as a result of the generous dividends of the wheat economy. This has been described as a sense of "elegance" introduced into the village, most publicly demonstrated by a spate of residential development, including imposing mansions and unusual octagonal structures. These grand homes served as symbols of the owners' sense of place in the community and outward signs of their wealth and social standing resulting from the prosperity achieved as a result of the wheat boom, the waves of immigration into Canada West and the spin-off mercantile interests. This could not be represented any more boldly than with the construction of Abraham Cooke's massive red brick house. Begun in 1840 by builders brought in from Hamilton, the Georgian home with its Greek Revival and Regency details such as its large floor length windows on the ground floor and its treillage decorated verandahs Abraham Cooke's "Brucefield," built c1840, Mount Pleasant's most palatial house ever. Cooke had seen Col. MacNab's "Dundurn Castle" and "The Willows," the imposing Greek Revival mansion of Squire Racey's son­in-law Miles O'Reilly, and, not to be outdone, copied Georgian, Regency, and Greek Revival elements from those grand Hamilton houses to build his own extravaganza. Brucefield's renown for lavish events attended by the area elite lasted until the mansion was sold by Dr. Alexander Cooke to Hartley Hartley in 1876.Hartley was a farmer with no interest in entertaining but his dressmaker daughter made gowns for village belles attending parties elsewhere. This photo, taken during the tenure of the McAlister family in the early 1900s shows architectural details since removed. The tennis player is an unidentified guest of the McAlister family who were great fans of the sport.