by Tom Cruickshank, first published in the June 2025 issue of ACO Matters
There are many tireless volunteers who champion the cause of preservation and environmentalism in Port Hope these days, but even the most fervent of them could not match the energy and dedication of the late Alice King Sculthorpe. For her, architectural heritage and nature conservation were a calling and for the better part of 35 years, “A. K.” — no one except telemarketers called her “Alice” — was perhaps the driving force in the local ACO and other causes. She died in 2001, but our town still has her to thank for leading the charge and bringing preservation matters to the fore.
When rumours started to fly in 1979 that our lovely stone railway station was in danger of demolition, A. K. knew who to talk to at CN. When the Fire Hall was all but washed away in the 1980 flood, A. K. convened a group that included council members, LACAC and the ACO to discuss its fate. Only a few weeks later, she was in similar discussions when the bulldozers waited to knock down the burned-out shell of the E. P. Smith Block on Walton Street. And in 1983, when it looked like no one would save the rickety old Midland Hotel from neglect, A. K. stepped up, bought the John Street landmark and restored it.
Not every battle was won (the Fire Hall is a loss that still smarts), but with A. K. on board, nothing went down without a fight. With her kids all but grown, she treated advocacy like a full-time job, juggled commitments to various causes, kept a list of contacts in government and the private sector and knew which strings to pull when heritage issues were on the radar. Headquarters was the kitchen in her home in Port Britain, a corner beside the supper table stacked high with random files, papers and correspondence. Somehow in this organized chaos, the fate of Port Hope’s heritage was in capable hands.
Born in 1925 and raised on Long Island, New York, A. K. (née Schultz) came to her interest in heritage buildings and natural landscapes honestly, having spent her summers at her grandfather’s summer home in Port Hope, namely Penryn Park, built in 1859. As he guided extensive additions to the old brick dwelling, family patriarch H. H. King dabbled in architecture, as did his daughter Winnifred Schultz (A. K.’s mother), who is thought to have designed Rose Cottage, which stood on Victoria Street at the entrance to Penryn until it was moved to a new site in 2021. Some of that flair for architecture would wear off on A. K., but it was her older brother Peter, who caught the restoration bug first.
Of the four Schultz siblings, Peter and A. K. were the two who settled permanently in Port Hope. Here, A. K. married local boy Bob Sculthorpe in 1949 and started a family that would eventually number four kids. Meanwhile, Peter was already active in restoration, having bought no less than three Walton Street buildings with an eye toward restoring them: the Guide office, the St. Lawrence Hotel and the Waddell Block (now the Waddell Hotel). Everything changed in 1969, with Peter’s untimely death at age 46. That’s when A. K. and Bob picked up where Peter left off.
While Peter was hands-on, A. K. found her strength in advocacy. She cut her teeth on a confrontation, not over the fate of a building, but with the provincial government’s announcement to build an oil-fired hydro-generating station on the lakeshore at Wesleyville. In the end, protests went unheeded and the plant was built, only to be promptly mothballed in 1973 when the skyrocketing price of oil made it uneconomical to operate. It remains idle to this day.
A second issue soon erupted on the environmental front when CP Rail, the City of Toronto and the province proposed to ship the city’s garbage by rail to a new landfill site, also to be built at Wesleyville. Aghast, the local opposition was vocal and effective, and A. K. was in the thick of it. It proved to be a long and bitter battle that consumed untold hours and was only settled when the Ontario Municipal Board decided against the idea. In retrospect, the fight took its toll, but after that, there was no holding A. K. back.
As her role unfolded, A. K. divided her advocacy between heritage architecture and nature conservation. She was a founding member of the Willow Beach Field Naturalists and served the town’s advisory committee on trees. No question, however, she was best known for her work on behalf of heritage architecture. Early on, she sat as founding chair of Port Hope’s LACAC (now Heritage Port Hope), the committee that administers heritage matters on behalf of the town. Likewise, she devoted years to the Port Hope branch of the ACO, serving as local president in 1976, ’77 and ’78 and again in 1981 and ’82. In the meantime, she took on the chairmanship of ACO-Central in Toronto. Toward the end of her life, she sat on the board of the Capitol Theatre, where she and Bob were instrumental in building the new adjunct theatre, which bears their name to this day.
But of all the projects with which she was involved, we are told that A. K.’s proudest achievement came in 1997. Still serving on Port Hope’s LACAC, she was a major figure in the effort to establish Walton Street as a heritage conservation district under the Ontario Heritage Act. She saw it not only as a way to preserve buildings, but as a tool in ensuring that Port Hope’s retail sector could thrive in its beautiful main-street setting. Not everyone was convinced, but A. K.’s negotiation skills and her sheer determination came in handy. Indeed, there was no stopping her.