Life on Water Street was a constant battle with poverty, disease and violence. While grand, elaborate homes were being erected, only a few short blocks away, the families on Water Street lived in rundown shanties that were later hastily replaced by odd shaped stone buildings. The sidewalks were merely flagstones set in the sand beside open trenches into which the housewives would throw their basins of dirty water. Every second door was home to a seedy tavern with names such as "The Dog and Duck", "Duffy's Tavern", and the "Black Bull". Fresh bear, fox, and beaver pelts were hung on the front doors of shops to dry and the owner of Buckley's General Store always kept a keg of beer in stock for the customers. Anyone could walk into the store, fill the wooden mug to the brim with beer, and drink to their heart's content. Residents of Water Street were so poor, that many could not afford candles to light their homes. When the first oil lamp appeared on the street, several children were so unaccustomed to the sight that they feared the lamp might explode. Cholera, Diphtheria, and Typhoid swept through the residences on a regular basis, causing the average life span to be around 30 years.
This tour shows buildings; commercial, religious and residential, built over a span of eighty years that reveal the progression and prosperity of Prescott as a town. The homes on this tour range from simple cottages to grand mansions. All the beautiful houses were lived in by prominent Prescott residents, many of whom were active members of the community, such as Sir Richard Scott, Bruce Hutchison, and Reverend Father Campion. The different architectural styles of Georgian, Classical Revival, Victorian, Italianate, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne Revival, and Edwardian, reflect the tastes and preferences of those who were successful businessmen, forwarders, doctors and council members. The buildings add much to the area in which they are situated as well as offer much needed history about the town. The honourable Mayor Irwin had only good words to say about the progress of Prescott. He was quoted in an article written in 1874 by the Telegraph, the local paper, concerning the erection of a public building on King Street and how it would meet the expectations of the town's people: "He (Mayor Irwin) felt sure that Prescott would now arouse and go rapidly in the road to prosperity, and had no doubt it would progress more in the next few years than it had in the last twenty-five years". It continued, "It had been called a sleepy old town, but he (Irwin) did not see why it should be, it had a good advantage in its situation. He believes it is waking up from its sleep, for he had seen quite a number of fine buildings in the course of erection, and said 'our back streets would do credit to any town in Canada….The streets in the rear [of King Street] were beautiful, well lined with trees and the houses neat and comfortable".
Many of the buildings and businesses that thrived off of King street, as well as the homes, represent that hope for progress and prosperity.