To market, to market

Market Place runs between Wellington and Downie streets to form the third side of the triangle known as City Hall Square.

The area between Market Place and the back of the city hall is still called Market Square because it was for many years the site of the farmers' market, an integral part of the first Stratford Town Hall, built in 1857. Market Place was named for the bustling market which once occupied the square and was an important part of the town's early business and community life.

The market was also at the social and political hub of the town, a natural outgrowth of the new town hall, which was hailed as one of the finest buildings of its kind in Canada. Donald McDonald, who, with his cousin John, was one of the original Canada Company surveyors. He sold an acre of land at the apex of the triangle to the town as a town hall site. In 1834, John McDonald had laid out the original village square on Ontario Street. It became known as Shakespeare Square, then Post Office Square, and now it is known as Memorial Park. It was the coming of the railway in 1856 that drew the focus of the town away from the Avon River.

Donald McDonald was a surveyor, but also skilled in land transactions, and he became a man of wealth. Shrewd enough to foresee the value of the land which would become the core of Stratford, he and his wife Frances acquired it from Dr. Morris Lee Wolf of New York City in 1853. They sold the apex of the triangle to the Village of Stratford in 1855.

Like all the land on which Stratford is now situated, it had originally been owned by the Canada Company. When surveyor John McDonald laid out the street plan in 1834 he included the city hall triangle as it is today except the street known as Market Place was then occupied by an open stream called the Romeo Creek.

Romeo Creek mill

It was Romeo Creek which led to the appeal of this site. German settler William Rischmiller (or Rueschmiller) bought the property and on it established a sawmill in the 1840s. Adelaide Leitch described the scene in the book Floodtides of Fortune: "In the heart of the growing village, Rischmiller's steam-powered sawmill worked away, strewing the area with logs, slabs, stripped bark and brush, until the village council began complaining much to the distress of the schoolboys from the nearby grammar School who used the marvelous, primitive jungle for their games. The mill turned little Romeo Creek into a moving belt of sawdust that went sluggishly downstream into Erie Creek and, eventually into the Avon."

Shortly, the growing prosperity of the commercial centre of the fledgling community was no longer compatible with the operation of a sawmill. The mill property changed hands, and its ownership went to New York City. In 1855, when Donald McDonald (1816-1879) and his wife sold one acre of their property to the village (for 200 pounds), they stipulated the buyer was "to have and to hold the said land and premises and appurtenances in trust to use the same for the purpose of erecting and maintaining thereon a market house and buildings incident thereto as aforesaid forever."

The text of that stipulation made no mention of a town hall, and that omission led to many legal wrangles over the years. But Donald McDonald was shrewd. His reason for stipulating "a market house and buildings" was probably because he believed a market would best guarantee continued prosperity and commercial activity for the site. McDonald and his wife had a vested interest in the new town hall site; they owned considerable additional property around the triangle of Town Hall Square. Stratford separated from Perth County in 1853, became a village in 1854, and a town in 1859. A bonus of 50 pounds was offered for the best "town hall plan," and work was underway in 1857 on the new "market building."

To satisfy McDonald's stipulation, the town fathers were careful to incorporate both the town market and town offices in one building, supplemented by the weekly outdoor market in Market Square. Perth County historian William Johnston described the new building as follows:

• Market Square press archives: Between October 2011 and January 2014, the Stratford Gazette published a series of articles written by Marianne Brandis (see Water Street) in which she placed the revitalization of Stratford's Market Square within the context of urban renewal practices from around the world.  

• A quick history of Market Square presented on July 9, 2017, by  John Kastner, general manager of the Stratford Perth Museum.      

• Stratford Market Square Home Page:  History, Events, What's New

Market House and First Town Hall, 1858

The Market House " a handsome brick structure" in the centre of Market Square, contained the Town Hall and the various offices of the town government. Source: Stratford City Directory, 1876. 

Note:  Bob Toleff summarized the building's importance this way: Built in 1858, it was multiuse, doubling as a market building. It also housed a music club, debating club, and concert hall. The police and fire departments were also accommodated there, as was the town's first library. There were stores and butcher stalls on the bottom floor. The building was destroyed by fire on November 24,1897. The town hall building on Wellington Street is built on the same spot. Source: If you grew up in Stratford FB. (See Wellington Street)

"With its cupola and extended flag staff, it was for years the pride of the citizens, exciting wonder and admiration in backwoods youths who came from the northern townships with their oxen, to trade in this great metropolis. After four homeless years since separation from the country, the first Town Council meeting was finally held in the news building on May 10, 1858. There were stores and market stalls on the main floor, with the council chamber and concert hall above. 

By 1876, Stratford town council wanted to extend Market Square and approached McDonald to buy more land. By now he was a Canadian senator (Liberal), and got about $50,000 for two acres of land. In 1887, Frances McDonald, by then a widow living in Los Angeles, conveyed a 30-foot strip of land between Wellington and Downie streets on Market Square, for the sum of $1, again contingent on its being used only as a market place. She also required the city to replace the wooden sidewalk fronting the business places on Market Place and to remove the wooden railing that she considered an eyesore.

On or about 1 a.m. on Nov. 24, 1897, Stratford's handsome town hall, which had become a city hall in 1885, was destroyed by fire. A Scottish concert had been held in the second-floor hall in the evening before. The only people in the building when the fire was discovered were three tramps sleeping in the jail cells, and they were told to "get the hell out of town as fast as possible!" 

Donald McDonald's stipulation about a Market House was further ignored when the present city hall was built in 1898. There were no market stalls included. However, the McDonald stipulation plagued the city fathers for years. After the turn of the century, when the parks board wanted to plant grass and flower beds in Market Square, permission was denied.

A proper market building was eventually built behind the first fire hall, near Waterloo Street, and when that building was torn down, the Stratford Farmers Market was shuffled off to the city fairgrounds. With notes from Stanford Dingman

Curfew Bell silenced by fire.

Stratford passed a curfew law in 1897 which became effective April 21 . The law set out that the bell a top City Hall be rung each night at 9 o’clock by the janitor at which time children under 14 were supposed to be off the streets. Ringing of the bell was short lived as it was destroyed in the fire that consumed the City Hall jon November 24, 1897. A report published by the Stratford Heraldk stated as follows " the silver tongue bell, which did the duty in the City Hall Belfrey, for nearly 40 years, and was generally recognized as one of the best bells in Western Ontario met with the worst faith that many people anticipated The workmen engage in cleaning up the debris, have not yet reached the bottom, but melted chunks of brass have been found, and it is pretty generally suppose that the fierce flames which found vent from the interior, by way of the Belfrey, melted the bell. Although there is a clock in Bell Tower on the present, City Hall, neither of the clock or the bell wherever installed, the curfew continued to ring for many years on the fire hall on Albert Street but that practice eventually came to an end, according to city clerk, Lawrence Graham, the curfew law is still on the books, but it hasn’t been enforced for many years

In 1964, letters to the Stratford Beacon-Herald supported the "save” position, but it was not an easy battle and the outcome was far from assured. In 1967, Mayor Clarence (Dutch) Meier presented a proposal to revitalize the city that called for replacing the city hall (at 1 Wellington St.) with a high-rise tower that included a hotel and rental outlets. The fight to save the city hall stretched across the reigns of six mayors and city councils before a win was declared. Renovation work on the building began in 1974.  

Information taken from  Dean Robinson's book, Not the Last Waltz and other Stratford Stories, which includes the famous interview of the city hall itself by Lotta Gibson of the Beacon Herald in June 1969.

*   Watch  video below by Stratford District Historical Society 

Director: Andrew C. Brown,  Producer: Nancy Musselman   SDHS

Frederick Ubelacker, was an avid photographer and the founder of the Stratford Camera Club in 1900. His collection of negatives was donated to the Stratford-Perth Archives by his grandson in 1975 and is a rare early record of candid shots of daily life.  

In 2006, the archives, in conjunction with Gallery Stratford and photographer Terry Manzo, who printed the black and white photos from the 300-plus original glass-plate negatives, showcased the images in an exhibit at the gallery called The Archives Project: The Photographs of Fred Ubelacker. The photographs depict a wonderful playful quality of not just the photographer but of his subjects. Some of the photos shown were children tobogganing, a small child in a buggy pulled by a dog, and the family’s pet monkey and chickens, too. Fred liked to do trick or experimental photography. He would expose two or three images of the same person in one photograph. Source: Reflections: Stratford-Perth Archives

There was even home delivery for items such as carrots or tomatoes by the bushel, things too heavy to carry. There were seed drawers and and bins for flour and sugar and porridge mixtures, and wonderful aromas that reminded everyone of yesteryear. And let's not forget the aroma of Dustbane on the creaky floors.  

Some youngsters will remember that at the Budd store you could buy a bag of peas that would become the ammo for the 36-inch straws (a.k.a. peashooters) available at Ted's Sporting Goods on Ontario Street, which became Ted's Hobby Shop on Wellington Street. And apples. You could buy an apple at Budd's as a treat. Or candy. And bamboo poles for fishing, or for the home-made high jump bar in the back yard. 

The building at 33 -37 Market Pl., considered Victorian Gothic in style, was built in 1899 for William Robison Marshall. George Larkworthy (see Ontario Street), ran his butcher shop at 33 Market Pl. from 1903 to 1912 and later from 1919-1937. Edward Tout, a butcher but also a grocer, who lived at 8 Ballantyne Ave., occupied the premises from 1913 to 1915, and after the Second World War. McDermid and Kyle Hardware served customers there from 1948 to 1963, at that location by the Canadian Red Cross from 1967 into the late 1980s. (see photo to the left).

Before Elmer George Budd (1887-1952) was at 35 Market Pl., there was another flour, feed and seed store at that address from 1913 to 1915. Its proprietor was Oliver Henry Killer, who lived at 370 Huron St. Elmer Budd and his wife Lillian lived at 100 Brunswick St. in 1930. By 1940 their son Keith, still living at home, was working for his father and the store had become E. G Budd and Son. Many remember Keith Budd in his fedora, serving customers; there were no ball caps worn to work in those days. 

In 1988,the  Stratford Historical Society noted the building originally had a flat roof line. The wall dormers and cornices were added later. The building has unusual semi-elliptical windows and retains its original double doors. Budd's retained the original storefront details including the signboard and the end piers, plus the original hardwood floors. Sources: Stratford and District Historical Society;  If You Grew up in Stratford . . . FB; Vernon's Stratford city directories. Compiled by Gord Conroy

Photos of E.G. Budd history by Mirjam Shut. 

Hand-operated elevator, electric coil for driving the belts, hand-painted scene on the front window just before the sale of the building in 2012 to show what the back of the building was like in the early days.  Source: If you grew up in Stratford . . . FB

It was the place to be for folk music, poetry, and dramatic readings during the 60s and 70s. The Coffee House featured Canadian Legends, including: Perth County Conspiracy (does not exist), featuring Cedric Smith, Terry Jones, and David Woodhead; Brent Titcomb; John Jackson; Valdy; and Joe Hall. Performances usually began after the evening performances at the Stratford Festival and often lasted until 4 in the morning.

On a warm Friday night in July 1961 the Black Swan opened to the public and stayed open until the student matinees at the festival ended about three months later. Some nights, there were as few as 10 to 20 patrons but other nights the place was jammed. They drank espresso or a variety of teas or cider and munched and sandwiches and bagels  

However, by the following spring in 1961, the Swan's rented house on Ontario Street was gone, demolished after it was declared unsafe . Finley was without official partners now and after some scrambling, he found what he needed at 32 Downie St., on the second floor of the building.

Cedric Smith (see below) was one of the first artists at the Swan. He played a guitar and sang mostly Clancy Brothers, and Kingston Trio songs. He was so popular that he became the Swan's resident troubadour before the first Swan season had ended.

It was in the Black Swan's new home that Smith, who had a keen interest in theatre, worked some Shakespeare material into his performances. It was a vital place, remembers Finley, but it had to be because by then there were two other coffee houses operating the city, the Cats Eye on Market Place and the Three Ravens in the Optimist  Club hall near the arena. After two years, in 1963, the Swan's time at 32 Donnie Downie St. came to an end as a result of competition.

Next, in 1964, Finley found around the corner and down the street, a larger second floor space that included a state of the art commercial grade kitchen . What he found was the Worth Block and the former Blacksmith Shop restaurant at 42 Wellington. He rented the location for the summer for $200 a month.

As the Swan's 1965 season wound down, Finley was thinking about another locale, which came to be the second floor hall at 31 Market Place formally the Fiesta Dine and Dance Hall. It was not as polished or grand as 42 Wellington St., but it had more space.  Seating capacity at the new address was about doubled from 100 to 200 for Harry Findlay and the Black Swan and for performers and patrons they had another decade of mostly good times. The Swan's last season was in 1975. Source: 42 Wellington, the music and the memories by Dean Robinson. Robinson tells a comprehensive story that talks about the performers (with pictures) at the Black Swan.                       

Richard Keelan moved to Canada and settled near Stratford and met Cedric Smith. In 1969 they named themselves the Perth County Conspiracy. In 1970 they recorded their first album (Does Not Exist) for Columbia. They were also invited to record an album in the CBC studios; their self-titled LP which immediately followed their first. They then put out a double live album (Alive) on Columbia and recorded several more (live) albums under their own label.Source : Whatever.com

See Allen's Alley to hear their music