Bellaville/Park View

The Kemnay Old Parish Register (these were the records baptisms and marriages and sometimes deaths kept by the parish churches prior to the advent of compulsory registration in 1855) of 1844 records that;

Alexander Whyte, son of James Whyte and Sophia Morgan was born 2nd Feb baptised 12th Feb 1844, witnesses James Lawie and John Clark.

From the 1851 census we learn that he was staying at Craigearn with his granny Mary Morgan and he was attending school. In 1861 he was staying at Craigearn with his Aunt Mary, presumably his granny had died, and was working as a farm servant. The Kemnay marriage register records that on 1st July 1870 Alexander Whyte (26), son of John Whyte, hotelkeeper and Sophia Morgan, domestic servant, married Annabella Thom (25), daughter of Alexander Thom, feuar and Ann Wishart née Strath and in 1871 they were staying at Thain's House Station Road, the building which now houses the Chinese takeaway with their four year old son Alexander at which time Alexander was working as a journeyman mason.

He was appointed Inspector of Poor and Collector of Poor and other rates at a meeting of the Parochial Board of Kemnay on 12th July 1875. He was also Clerk to the School Board and its successor the School Management Committee, posts which he was to hold until his death in 1924. He took over the Post Office in the village and was also registrar of births deaths and marriages.

In October 1878 Alexander Whyte took a 99 year building lease of the plot of land lying between what is now Victoria Terrace and the lane which ran up to the Free Kirk on top of the hill and lying adjacent to the plot leased by James Melvin, and erected a house which was called Bellaville after his wife. He later built an addition on the east end of the house where meetings of the various bodies with which he was involved were held. This became known as 'The Office'.

Following his death on 24th March 1924 the property was sold to Robert Alexander Petrie for £552, to finance which, he obtained a loan of £350 from Aberdeen Property Investment Building Society. History does not record the reason, but in 1928 the building society called in the debt. In August 1929 the property, by then known as Parkview, was advertised for sale at an upset price of £500. Nobody appeared at the roup and a new date of 9th March 1932 was set at an upset price of £450. Still nobody appeared and another date of 19th April 1932 was set with an upset price of £400. Mrs Annie Gray, of Station House Tilliefourie, the only person attending, offered £400 and thus became the owner of the house. Mr and Mrs Gray both stayed in Parkview until their deaths, she in 1953 and he in 1954, when the house was purchased by Mr James Stewart, a retired gardener from Forglen near Banff, and his wife Christina.

In 1963 the Stewarts requested that the building lease be converted to a feu duty.