The property was subdivided for development in 1908 by J. Walter Gage (Plan 117), but most of the development in this plan occurred after the installation of water mains and sewers in 1910. This property was bought in 1911 by Charles Andrew Klainka (pronounced Klankey), who built the house and sold it in 1913 to Agnes Wheeler, widow, who is said to have been a dressmaker. When she owned it, the house was known as “the brown house”. Mrs Wheeler sold it in 1943 to Arthur Herbert Freeman and Julia Edna Freeman his wife, who had retired from farming at 2196 No 2 Side Road.
They sold it in 1965 to William Samuel Parkin and his wife, Judith Anne Parkin. It was bought in 1973 by Risto Liipere and his wife Carole Lynne Liipere, and bought from them in 1974 by Michael Harron and Susan Marie Harron, his wife. The present owner purchased it in 1984.
Charles Klainka was a foreman at Nicholson’s Planing Mill. An accidental injury there in August 1910 perhaps convinced him to retire from the planing mill, for he soon afterwards became operator of the Ford Garage at the corner of Locust and Water Streets. He also had a large car repair shop on Pine Street. He built several houses on speculation, including two on Hurd Street (514 and 518) and one at 255 Guelph Line. The Klainka family are longtime residents in Burlington. One Klainka had a tailor shop in Highville; another in the 1930s and 1940s had the garbage collection contract for the Beach Strip.
