Wendy Gutcher from Helping Hands has received a wide assortment of donations since opening her non-profit almost 10 years ago.
But she’s never seen anything like this before.
“We never know what we’re going to get,” she says. “I was shocked.”
Earlier this week, a framed advertisement from the Sault Daily Star dating all the way back to Sept. 6, 1951 was anonymously dropped off, along with other donations, at the backdoor of Helping Hands.
The newspaper ad was posted by Fred J. Dawson Insurance and Real Estate, now known as Dawson & Keenan Insurance.
According to the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library, Frederick J. Dawson was the son of James Dawson, the Sault’s eighth mayor, and the grandson of John Dawson, who established the Dawson Real Estate and Fire Insurance Company near the corner of Queen and East Streets in 1892.
Based on the newspaper ad from more than 70 years ago, a pair of east-end single-storey residences was selling for $15,500 each at the time — an unimaginable number by today’s standards.
SooToday can't say for sure what it takes to get your hands on a "splendid" home these days, but this much is certain: buyers forked over more than $300,000 for the average house in Sault Ste. Marie last month, according to Jonathan Mogg, the president of the local Real Estate Board.
“That was still probably a big purchase back then,” he says. “But when I look at what our generation has to pay in comparison and income wise, and what a payment would be then, it’s so much harder for our generation.”
Adjusted for inflation, $15,500 in 1951 is the equivalent to approximately $170,000 in 2022.
The average house in the Sault is going for about twice that amount today.
It’s safe to say this astounding donation took Gutcher by surprise.
“We don’t even know who dropped it off,” she says. “We get so much stuff around here, which we’re so grateful for, but we were never expecting something like this. It’s amazing.”
Gutcher says she’s looking forward to displaying this piece of local history at Helping Hands’ new location on Wellington Street West.
If you are the person who dropped off the frame to Helping Hands — or you know who it belonged to — please reach out: [email protected]