Strachan Street

In 1953, the first year of the Stratford Festival, Gordon Jocelyn was the dresser for Alec Guinness (see Mornington Street) as Richard III. In the photo below, Guinness is fitted with his coronation gown of red velvet trimmed with white ermine. 

He was coordinator of the Jazz Music Festival for three summers (1956-1958) in the early days of the Festival. The building where the concerts were held was known as The Casino (see Water Street), a facility used in the winter months by the Stratford Badminton Club. The Festival Concert Hall, as it was renamed for the summer, held 900, but the jazz was so popular citizens who couldn’t get tickets sat on the Water Street hillside at the rear of building with blankets, and on occasion kids, such as Gord Conroy, who listened for free to the likes of Oscar Peterson, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. During the rest of the year, Gordon Jocelyn taught at an alternate school in Toronto, SEED. After he retired from teaching, he turned to acting and hosting on CBC. He was a character actor and was often cast as the innocent, parson type. He was best known for The Dead Zone (1983), Taking Care (1987) and Act of Vengeance (1986). He died in 2016 at 96.  Source: Gord Conroy

* To catch the flavour of this remarkable man go to Star Obituary, written by his children.

And yes, there was that wonderful sign you see in the photo. Wouldn’t people love to have that today. Kist was the popular soft drink in town with a bottling facility on Cobourg Street just above the bandshell. (see Cobourg Street). Harrison Showalter, who had a doctorate in chemistry, headed the Kist operation. He also was the first president of the Stratford Festival in 1953, and a key figure in helping Tom Patterson make his dream a reality (see Queen Street).

But there are other memories of this address, beyond candy and fish and chips.

A number of people lived in the house at 8 Strachan St. in the early 1900s. The house was probably built in 1903 in that it is not listed in Vernon's City of Stratford Directory, 1900-1902. William McLennan was there by 1904,  Frank Taylor by 1909-1910, and Fred Seltzer from 1921 to 1926. Until then it was a residence only.

By 1928, William Hyde, a barber, lived and operated his business there through 1937. By 1939, John F. Mackinson and his wife Mary were running a small restaurant at 8 Strachan, and in the following year, J. Edgar Reynolds and his wife Loretta had taken over

Jeff Liedtke picks up the story of his grandmother, Loretta Reynolds, on the Facebook site If You Grew up in Stratford . . . “I believe Grandma had the fish and chip store shortly after Grandpa Reynolds passed away, around 1941, when Dad was about 10.”

Loretta was listed as a widow in the Vernon directory for 1942, and ran the restaurant herself after her husband died, until at least 1948. By 1950, Elizabeth Keehn is running a confectionary store at 8 Strachan, which she did for at least three years. The Ney family was living there by 1955. 

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Linda Whittington, who was Linda Mansfield at the time and who lived at 45 Strachan St., remembers other chapters in the saga of the house. She recalls Loretta Reynolds rented the house and what happened after the house was sold.