Peter Leggat – A Master Builder

Peter Leggat has suffered the fate of many other local worthies – his life story is largely forgotten, the record of his achievements absent from the documentary record. But unlike other Metis pioneers, Leggat left a legacy of buildings, many of which have survived long after they were built more than 125 years ago.  

Leggat was a second-generation Metisian. His father, also Peter Leggat, was a revered figure, teacher, church elder and justice of the peace. Peter Leggat junior was a builder. He constructed many of the most beautiful and solid homes in Metis. A handful of original invoices detail the cost of his work as a master carpenter. A few letters offer insight into the challenges of building homes in Metis for owners who were generous with advice but sometimes miserly with their payments. Winters were long and clients hundreds of miles away.  

Leggat sometimes worked to the designs of architects. But for many homes, he brought his talents as a craftsman to fashion the buildings using his own experience and imagination. A telltale indicator of a Leggat building is the generous proportions and rooms incorporating arches rather than doors to welcome sunlight into main floor rooms. How many Metis houses are the work of Peter Leggat? If only buildings could speak!