Dr. Peter R. Shaver built the house at 153 Mornington in 1879 as an income property. It wasn't unusual, in the days before pensions, for those who could afford it, to invest in real estate as a means of income after they retired.

The first residents of the house were Philip Henry Fauquier and his family. Philip was born in Woodstock, in 1848, to E. A. Fauquier, a produce merchant, and his wife Alice. He married Isabella Shibley in 1872 and they had six children together. At the time of their marriage, Philip was working as a bank clerk for the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Their residency in the house was only a year, and by the time the 1880 census was taken, they were living in Fargo, Dakota Territories, USA. This was the first of many moves which included Windsor Ontario, another location in the Dakota Territories, Detroit, Michigan and finally Toronto where Philip died in 1919.

Although the second tenant lived there for four years, very little is known about her. In the Stratford Directories, she is listed as a widow of the Reverend Bell. Only her first initial, R, is given, and as there were two Reverends Bell in Stratford, it isn't clear to which man she had been married.

After Dr. Peter Shaver's death in 1892, the house at 153 Mornington became part of his estate and was sold in 1894 to Frank Ward. Russell Stewart, a public school principal, was the occupant at that time.

Peter Rolph Shaver was one of the leading physicians in Perth County during his time. He was born near Hamilton, Ontario to a family of United Empire Loyalists. Peter's grandfather, William Shaver, was born in New Jersey and later moved to Pennsylvania. He was a participant on the side of the British during the American Revolution. He brought his family from Pennsylvania to settle in Ancaster, Wentworth County, Ontario after the war.

Peter's father, John, fought against the Americans in the war of 1812-1814. He married Catharine Hess and together they had eight children. Peter Rolph, born in 1829, was their fifth child. Catharine died in 1839, and John married Ellis Lewis a few years later.

Peter received most of his education at Victoria College in Cobourg. After graduation, he took four years of medical studies at McGill University in Montreal. He graduated in 1854 with a Doctorate of Medicine and Mastery in Surgery. He came directly to Stratford to set up his practice. A few years after settling here, he became the Perth County Coroner, and later, the surgeon to the Perth County Jail. He spent a year on the Stratford City Council, but gave up politics because of the pressure of his medical practice.

In 1856, Peter married Eliza Jane Ryan, whose father was a hardware merchant in Toronto, and a native of Dublin, Ireland. She was the grandniece of the Rt. Rev. Lord Bishop Gregg of Cork Ireland. Together, they had six children, all boys: William (1856), Charles (1859), Arthur (1861), Horace (1964), Sidney (1867), and Harry (1878).

The family lived on Brunswick Street, first at number 109 which had been built in 1857. In 1878, Dr. Shaver built the Italianate house next door. After Peter's death, in 1892, Horace, who had a bookshop on Ontario Street, was listed in the 1896 city directory as living in the house along with his mother, and youngest brother, Harry, who was still a student at the time.

William became a chemist and moved to Toronto. He died there in 1922. Charles married Ann Moderwell, the daughter of Robert Moderwell, Perth County's first sheriff, and moved to Saskatchewan to take up farming. Charles was the only brother to get married but he and Ann did not have children. Arthur moved to Toronto where he worked as a salesman for a stationery manufacturer. He died in 1948, at age 70. Horace became a book and stationery merchant in Toronto where he died in 1947 at age 78. Sidney worked as a bookkeeper in Toronto before moving to Chicago where he died, at age 25, in 1893. Harry was the only son to follow in his father's footsteps and to become a physician. He died in Petoskey, Michigan in 1928 at the age of 49. They are all buried in the family plot in Avondale along with their mother, who died in 1900, and their father, who died in 1892.