Regular readers of these short articles closely will remember the name of George Gellie. He was the entrepreneur who built the property in Station Road now occupied by the Laird's Throat bar, and later built two properties on High Street, Albion and Woodbine, now Berriedale. In July 1879 he took a 99 year building lease on a piece of ground on Victoria Terrace at an annual rental of £3. He built the property then named Rosewood and now known as Gowanbank, on the corner of Kendall Road and leased it to William Henry who was born in Echt and came to Kemnay to practice as a doctor. For generations Kendall Road was known as 'The Doctor's Brae'.
In the early 1890s Dr Henry built the house across from the golf course naming it Finnercy after his birthplace at Echt. The property was then leased to George Proctor who had recently retired after 37 years as headmaster at the local school, and who later built a house farther along the terrace.
In 1880 George Gellie used Gowanbank along with his property in Station Road as security for a loan of £650 @ 5% which he took out with the Kirk Session of Leochel Cushnie Parish Church. In 1899, after acting for some time as Road surveyor at Alford and by then staying at Ranna in Tarland he entered into borrowings amounting to £900 @ 5%. Security put forward included: that portion of the lands of Ranna called West-Town; the piece of ground extending sixty feet along the north side of Carlton Place, Aberdeen; a piece of ground, part of the lands of Calsayseat, Aberdeen; the two leases in Kemnay previously mentioned.
Following George Gellie's death on 7th January 1905 at the age of sixty five years, all his borrowings were redeemed and Gowanbank was sold for £430, to Alexander George Reid and his brother William Bisset Reid who traded as builders in the village. At the time of the sale the Reids were staying at Ardennan, across the lane, which they had built in 1900. Alexander George with his wife and family occupied one flat, and William who was single and staying with his parents in another part of the building. In 1931 the property passed to William George Macfarquhar who traded in the village as a chemist during most of the 1930s.
Some of the more senior members of the community will remember Mrs Aitken, later Mrs Duff, who lived in the property for a number of years and who took in boarders and summer visitors. She then kept a small hotel in Macduff known as Dounemount House which is now a nursing home. She was followed in Gowanbank by John Paterson, a retired farmer from Upper Leochel, Leochel Cushnie, and his wife Jane. Following their deaths the property was acquired by Dr Frank N. Forster, who was a member of the local medical practice for a number of years before eventually retiring to Aberdeen along with his wife Dorothy.