Sounds of Stratford - Over time

Stratford passed a curfew law in 1897 which became effective April 21 of that year. The law set out that the bell atop 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 on November 24, 1897. A report published by the Stratford Herald stated as follows: "The silver tongued bell which did the duty in the City Hall Belfry 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 engaged in cleaning up the debris [from the fire], have not yet reached the bottom, but melted chunks of brass have been found, and it is pretty generally supposed that the fierce flames which found vent from the interior, by way of the Belfry, melted the bell." 

 Although there is a clock in the bell tower on the present City Hall, neither the clock nor the bell were ever 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. Source: Beacon Herald

The Kroehler steam whistle kept everyone moving on time from 1917 to 1969. Chief engineer Irving Riehl transferred the bell to the archivist James Anderson in 1987 who recalled that it was originally a single unit built in the late 1940s. The company decided they could improve the sound by adding a second whistle to harmonize with the first. Many relied on the whistle's call to get to work on time and even to set their watches. 

When James Reaney’s play about the 1933 furniture workers strike in Stratford was being performed in 1979, Kroehler’s “King Whistle” was bought out of retirement to advertise the play. This important artifact is in the Stratford-Perth Museum who loaned the whistle to the Stratford-Perth Archives for an exhibition seen here.

Here is a piece about “King Whistle” play put on by Stratford Central high school:

https://www.streetsofstratford.ca/king-whistle

Photo: Stratford-Perth Museum

For decades, the best-known sound in Stratford was the railway’s steam whistle that roared at least half a dozen times a day from the roof of the powerhouse near the big railway shop. In the early years, there was a long blast at 6:40 a.m., not a pleasant sound if you were still in bed and scheduled for the day shift. 

Seventeen minutes later there was a short blast that sent employees to their work stations. At 7 a.m. it blew again and the workday was officially underway. The noon-hour break was bracketed by blasts at 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., and five hours later the last roar sent everyone home for the night. Later, as shifts were reduced in length, the whistle’s first call came at 7:40 a.m. and its last at 5 p.m. Too, there was a noon-hour warning blast at 12:57 p.m. 

The whistle, which stood almost five feet in height, was built in the shops, probably about the time the powerhouse went up in 1908. Fed by a steam line from below, it was operated by an electric clock mechanism that could be overridden manually.

A train track was very near to the Festival tent in 1953 . It alway sounded its whistle right in the middle of a performance which was, of course, distracting for the actors and the audience.  One time the Director of the CNR was in the audience and he heard the whistle and put a stop to it.

Personal Note: I lived on Douro Street in the 1940s not far from the railway station on Shakespeare Street. It took me minutes to run down to the tracks and watch the black monsters bellowing steam, chugging into the station.

The steam whistles could be heard anywhere in the city . Often at night while lying in bed, I would hear the train's mournful sound tailing off in the distance and dreamed someday I would ride the rails to some exciting place. Paul Wilker

When the shops were taken over by the Cooper-Bessemer Corp. the frequency of steam whistles was reduced significantly.

If you have been to a Festival performance, you have probably heard the fanfare. At every performance there is a fanfare, played by local  musicians to inform the audience that the show is about to begin. They play four times at four theatre locations for each performance. It was always a thrill to hear the brass horns and drum echo throughout the building, announcing that something special was about to happen. The fanfare was composed by Louis Applebaum and has been played more than 100,000 times since the theatre opened in 1953.  By Paul Wilker 

Louis Applebaum, composed the Festival Fanfare. He was honoured with a Stratford Bronze Star on July 1, 2006. It is in front of the  Avon Theatre. (see Queen St.)

Post office bell. The post office was completed in 1884 and the Bell was installed shortly after. It was cast by the Henry McShane Foundry in Baltimore. When the post office was torn down in 1961, the bell survived, and it now hangs at the entrance of the Stratford Perth Museum.

The Razzamajazz is a 24-foot barge that cruises up and down the river at least two nights a week offering live jazz  by local musicians from its floating stage.  It started entertaining visitors and Stratford folk in 1990.

The main act was "39 Casino Band" who volunteered their time in the early days to get the Razzamajazz started.

In the beginning, Jack Hayter, leader of Stratford’s own ‘39 Casino Band, helped built the original barge and did likewise for the new one. 

The '39 Casino Band Band members enriched the lives of Stratford citizens for five decades. They originally played for community dances in the 1940s and then voluntarily for events throughout Perth County. 

*     For more of its story see  The HMS Razzamajazz