Ontario Street Waterloo to Romeo
160 Ontario Street: Perth Mutual Insurance
Perth Mutual Insurance at 160 Ontario Street dominated the northeast corner of Waterloo and Ontario Streets before it was sold and demolished in 1960 after attempts to sell and refurbish failed. Photo: Stratford- Perth Archives.
The Perth Mutual Fire Insurance Co was organized in 1863 with its first offices in the Jarvis Block over Dutton's drug store. It soon had offices in the Mowat Block at the corner of Wellington and Market (Downie) Streets. (see Wellington Street for photo). It later moved to 160 Ontario Street for more than half a century at the corner of Waterloo ( see photo to the left) and still later to the former McLagan mansion at 210 Water Street. (see Water Street for photo).
Early History. In 1863, Dr. John Hyde (1819-1889) (see Brunswick Street and Hyde Road) was chosen as president, and William J. Imlach as secretary. The company was set up originally to transact business on farm property only. It was a mutual company owned by its policy owners to provide insurance only to its members.
Progress for several years was necessarily slow. Subsequent to Mr. Packert being appointed secretary, in 1877, a change of policy was effected, it entering the field as a competitor for commercial risks. This has been followed by marked success.
* For more on its history and and move to Water Street see Flashback: Perth Mutual Insurance History
Ontario: Queen's Arms Hotel, since 1858
Robert Johnson built the original Queen’s Arms Hotel in 1858 on land he purchased from the Canada Company. Named in honour of Queen Victoria “the graceful frame building” provided free transportation for guests to and from the railway station and stabling for close to 100 horses. John Forbes, who lived at 131 Nile St. (see Nile Street) was an original owner of the hotel.
John Corrie bought the hotel in March 1866, and it remained in the Corrie family for almost half a century. John Corrie was an member of Stratford society and, according to the 1879 Perth County atlas, the Queen’s Arms became the preferred headquarters of county councillors and politicians. John operated the hotel for a number of years and then retained managers until his son Fredrick John Corrie assumed responsibility for the hotel about 1892.
Fred Corrie was born on Jan. 21, 1862, in St. Marys, Ont., the second child of John Corrie and Mary Ann King, who both had emigrated from England and were married in Stratford on Feb. 23, 1860.
Fred Corrie began running the Queen’s Arms in 1904 and immediately rebuilt it as “The New Queen’s Arms,” which opened in 1905. The new hotel was constructed in the Neo-Classical Revival Style, characterized by the cupola on the angled corner of the building that includes a doorway that led to the original tavern. That tavern, according to contemporary newspaper accounts, had "the finest bar in the province . . . built of massive quarter-cut oak.” The hotel was lit through by a combination of electric and gas lamps.
The restaurant was decorated in an oriental style, fashionable at the time, and the second- and third-floor hallways were carpeted in red velvet. There were bathrooms and lavatories on each floor, with hot and cold running water. In the 45 spacious guest rooms were Belgian carpets. The rooms rented for $1.50 to $2 per day. Fred sold the hotel in 1914. Source: Stratford-Perth Archives
There were other owners including the Pinkney family, father and son. In 1992, the Ford family took over the Queen's and the Boar's Head restaurant and then in 2024, the Queen's was sold again. It became part of the the Marriott Group and is slated to re-open in 2024 after a major five million dollar re-modelling as a 31 bed boutique hotel: the Queen's Cue Marriott Tribute Hotel. Jay Ford, who himself started to work at the Queen's in 1994 after his parents bought the establishment, will remain in charge of the Cheers-like pub.
Ontario St: Silverwood's Dairy, delivery to your milkbox
Drivers 1948
Silverwood Dairy drivers, Stratford Ont., 1952
Silverwood’s Dairy was a big hit in Stratford after it arrived in 1928. It had been started by Albert Edward Silverwood in nearby London, Ont. Silverwood’s bought Stratford Dairy on Albert in 1928, and then took over the Stillman Creamery premises at 187 Ontario St., next to the Queen’s Hotel. The purchase included the dairy stables on Albert Street. see ( Albert Street)
Some may remember the Silverwood motto for its ice cream: Smooth as velvet. Or, how about the catch phrase in this Silverwood's ad that was popular for a long time: “You can whip our cream but you can’t beat our milk.” Many would agree.
Albert Edward Silverwood (1876-1961) did not start his work career in the milk business. In 1903 he joined Silverwood Produce, a company that dealt mainly in poultry. That business made him a wealthy man. He started his dairy company in 1928, but by then he was a dairy magnate. He bought local dairies and owned subsidiaries as far away as Western Canada. By 1928 his company was taking in more than $4 M in sales. His dairy operation was a force in Stratford for more than half a century. Home delivery of milk continued here until the late 1960s.
* For more of the story and pictures see Flashback Silverwoods History compiled by Gord Conroy
189- 91 Ontario St: Vogue Theatre and the Saturday matinee
1984 Photo: Joel Meier
A personal remembrance. It seemed every kid in Stratford went to the Saturday matinee at the Vogue Theatre. at 168 Ontario St. We had to because we did not want to miss the next episode of the cliffhanger serials. Did Batman really go over the cliff in the Batmobile? Also, there were great John Wayne and Roy Rogers westerns, the Three Stooges, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Abbott and Costello and cartoon marathons, and popcorn. The Vogue was torn down to create (what else?) a parking lot. By Paul Wilker
185 Ontario St: Stillman's Creameries
This is Stillman's dairy as it was in 1926. By 1930 this business became Stillman's Sparkling Beverages at 11 Cobourg St. To get oriented, the Salvation Army Citadel would have been to the left. That building later became the Odeon Theatre, which later became the Vogue Theatre. (see Silverwood's picture above). The building to the right of the dairy was the Classic City Bakery. The signboard reads, "The home of Butter Krust Bread." The Queen's Hotel is behind the tree.
196 Ontario: Daisy Macklin, one of the first female doctors
196 Ontario St.
Daisy Mary Moore Macklin, born in 1873, was the seventh of the eight children of William Macklin and Hester Ann Godfrey. At the time of Daisy’s birth they settled in Stratford.
Daisy attended elementary school and the collegiate institute in Stratford before following in the footsteps of her brothers William (1860-1947) and Alfred (1868-1948) to study medicine. Jenny Trout and Emily Howard Stowe were the first women admitted to study medicine in 1871 in Toronto and the first women licensed to practise medicine in Ontario. Daisy graduated from the University of Toronto medical school in 1895, giving her the distinction of being among Ontario’s early female physicians.
Following graduation, she practised in Stratford but later opted to be a medical missionary in China. After a few years, she returned to her practice in Stratford. In 1911, according to the census, she was living at 196 Ontario St. with a boarder and two teens, for which she was providing care and support.
Her brother, Dr. William Macklin, and his wife Dr. Dorothy DeLany, went to China in 1886 to found a medical mission in Nanjing, which was sponsored by the Disciples of Christ Church. In 1892, the Nanjing Christian Hospital was built, and they served the hospital and the people of Nanjing for 40 years, before returning to North America in 1927. Shocked by the opium trade and addiction, William opened an opium clinic in the hospital. He objected to Western economic imperialism in China and helped translate progressive books in an effort to advance reform in China. More than 100 years later, that hospital is still open and part of the Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, one of China’s important treatment and medical research facilities. Source. Historic Plaque Properties; Dr. Daisy Mary Moore Macklin (1873 – 1925) – Stratford & District Historical Society
218 Ontario Street Baptist Church
Born in 1876, William Joseph McCully left his native Seaforth, Ont., at an early age to go to Black Creek, where where he worked in a cheese-making factory. He later went to a Strathroy school to take a short course for dairymen. When he came to Stratford, he managed Thomas Ballantyne's cheese-making plant in the Edington Block on Erie Street. After two years, McCully and a partner built a creamery on Erie Street.
In 1901, the Stratford Herald ran the description of a house that architect James Russell (see Russell Road) was to build for William Joseph McCully at 218 Ontario St.: “It will be of red brick with brown stone trimmings and to have (a) slate roof; will contain nine rooms as well as a bath room. The bath room will fitted up in the best manner. The house will have grates and mantles, bevelled plate and stained glass, laundry in the cellar, etc., and will be 36 feet by 43 feet in size, with verandas, balconies.”
McCully was a 27-year-old "dairyman" when he bought the land for his house from a marble cutter, James Gadsby. The house he had built was valued at $2,750.
In the 1911 census, McCully was listed as a grocer. After his success in the creamery business, he partnered with John Haugh in the purchase of a grocery business. He remained a grocer, first at 12 Downie St., and then at 92 Ontario St., until his retirement in 1933. He became widely known throughout Ontario for his business integrity and at one time was president of the Ontario board of the Retail Merchants Association.
McCully was interested in all sports and was a promoter of soccer, softball, hockey, and horse racing. He was also among the founders of the Stratford Country Club. Source: Historical Plaque Properties
230 Ontario St. William Joseph McCully, Dairyman
The Ontario Street Baptist Church, a substantial red-brick structure at 230 Ontario St. was built in 1889 at a cost of $12,000. It was not the first meeting place of Stratford's Baptists. In 1857, Thomas Birch, a newcomer from Brantford, gathered about a dozen others of the faith, and for some months they held prayer meetings in the village's log cabins.
On April 3rd, 1869, 16 charter members formally organized Ontario Street Baptist Church, with Thomas Birch and George Larkworthy (see their houses below) its first deacons. One of the earliest members of the congregation was a woman who had been a slave in Kentucky.
In May 1861, when the frame building opened for worship, it had 41 members. Rev. R. McClelland was the first minister. Following him, in 1862, was Rev. C. J. Shrimpton, whose annual stipend was $400. During 1862, the congregation members agreed to set aside six and a half cents a week to pay off the church debt.
A decision was made in 1866, to tear down that church, and rebuild on the former Ontario Street site of Stillman's Creamery, on the northwest corner of Nile and Ontario streets, which the congregation bought for $400. When construction began in 1868, the church refused to supply whisky for the workmen, as was the custom of the day, so the men refused to work. As a result, the Baptists started the job themselves. The first pastor (in the new church) was Rev. John McLaurin, who departed the following year to become a missionary in India. The church was torn down in June 2019 because of a dwindling congregation and to make way for a condo development.
Dick and Karen Rigg compiled a history of the church. The History of Ontario Street Baptist Church Sesquicentennial Celebrations 1859-2009 Stratford, Ontario: The Ontario Genealogical Society Collections Source: Church History
330 Ontario St: The Rapid Transit Company
The wooden four-wheeled conveyance in this photo was Stratford's first public transportation vehicle. Operated by John Stevenson, it is parked in front of the Stevenson house at 330 Ontario St. Known as The Rapid Transfer Company, for most of its well-dressed passengers it was likely their first ride in a bone-jarring motorized vehicle. Early in the 1900s, these people movers were built on chassis supplied by firms such as Packard. They were termed forward-control power-chassis that also were suitable for use as trucks, buses and delivery vehicles. Text and photo: Vince Gratton
330 Ontario St .Margaret Stevenson, musician, festival founder
Margaret Stevenson Grant. Photo: Kapuskasing History.
Margaret Glenn Stevenson Grant (1903-1995) was a noted piano teacher, vocal teacher, adjudicator and author born and raised in Stratford. In the 1920s, Margaret Stevenson was a central figure in the musical life of Stratford with others that included Cora B. Ahrens ( see Hibernia Street) and William. B. Rothwell ( see Water Street) before she married Norman Grant in 1928 and moved to northern Ontario. She made a major impact on the musical life in Kapuskasing during her time there with Norman and her family from 1946 to 1965.
Margaret Grant was born in Stratford as Margaret Stevenson and studied with Cora B. Ahrens before going to the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto where she studied under the famous Danish pianist Viggo Kihl. She obtained her licentiate diploma in 1922 with the highest marks in the country.
Margaret taught music in Stratford first at her family home at 330 Ontario Street in 1924 and then at a studio downtown at 72 Ontario Street, where her father’s insurance office, J. and J.R. Stevenson Insurance and Real Estate, was located. Her father had served as mayor in 1914 and again in 1919 from July to December and in 1920.
She worked with Cora B. Ahrens and William. B Rothwell to establish the Stratford-Perth County Music Teachers’ Association in 1926. In 1927, she again worked with them to establish the first Perth County Music Festival in 1927. It is interesting to note that Audrey Whiteside, later Audrey Conroy, (see Water Street), music teacher and organist in Stratford during her life, was a multi-award winner in advanced piano classes at the age of 11. Like Margaret, Audrey also was a student of Miss Ahrens. The festival was first held in the auditorium at City Hall as subsequent festivals have been.
In 1928, Margaret married Norman Stewart Grant, 1899-1988, originally from Brussels, a chemical engineer, who took her to pulp and paper towns in Northern Ontario. When she arrived in Kapuskasing in 1946, her first step was to create a Girl’s Glee Club which was active until the high school hired a music director and a school choir was formed. Over the next period of time, she taught dozens of students in Kap, and she also gave master classes to all the piano teachers in the area. She was recognized widely not only for her musical knowledge but for her personal warmth and her ability to communicate. From 1959 to 1967, she adjudicated piano classes in the Toronto Kiwanis Festival, the largest such festival in the Commonwealth. In 1976, she wrote a book entitled Your Child and The Piano: How to Enrich and Share in Your Child’s Musical Experience. Although the book is now out of print, its lessons are still relevant today.
Margaret maintained close connections with Stratford through music connections and with family. Her sister, Ann, (1915-2006) married Wilfred P. Gregory, (1912-2010) who was mayor of Stratford in 1955-1956.
Norman Grant
Norman Grant was the Technical Director at Spruce Falls. He was also a highly regarded mayor of Kap from 1957 to 1965. Norman and Margaret Grant lived at 62 Riverside Drive. They had two sons: John Grant who became an economist, and Peter Grant who became a communications lawyer. Her daughter in law, Judith Skelton Grant, born in Stratford in 1941, and whose father ran Skelton Motors, and who was a gifted piano student of Audrey Conroy, is an author whose best known work is the authorized biography, Robertson Davies: Man of Myth.
Norman Grant died in 1966. However, Margaret Grant continued to teach piano to a number of students in Toronto for many years. She passed away in 1995 at the age of 91. But her important contribution to the musical life in Stratford and in Kapuskasing will always be remembered. Sources: Floodtides of Fortune; Margaret Glenn Stevenson Grant (1903-1995) - Find a Grave Memorial; https://www.kapuskasingmusicfestival.com/about-us#:~:text=Norman%20Grant%20was%20the%20Technical%20Director%20at%20Spruce,regarded%20mayor%20of%20Kap%20from%201957%20to%201965; https://www.geni.com/people/Norman-Grant/2693005
330 Ontario Street, the childhood home of Margaret Stevenson Grant.
In 1874 a house was built on the property now known as 330 Ontario Street but which was originally part of a larger 100 acre tract of land owned by James A. McCulloch, a lawyer in Stratford. James was a son of William F. McCulloch, (see Water Street) a miller, distiller and lumber merchant, Stratford’s wealthiest businessman and the first reeve of the new village of Stratford when it was incorporated in 1854. (see also William Street). The land on which 330 Ontario Street is located would have been part of the original William McCulloch Grange property.
In April 1874 John Avery became the first occupant of 330 Ontario Street when he moved in with his wife Martha and their daughters Margaret Elizabeth, known as “Maggie”, age 9 and Martha who was 6 years old. Both were born in Ingersoll in Oxford County. A plasterer by occupation John Avery was born in Bristol England in 1830 and after immigrating to Canada, married Martha Hicks, born in Ireland, who grew up in East Nissouri, Oxford County, where her father Robert Hicks was a Toll Gate Keeper. Several roads in pioneer Ontario had toll gates established at various locations along the way for the purpose of collecting fees, or tolls, from travellers to accumulate funds for maintenance and future construction.
The Avery family’s stay in this early Stratford house was brief as they moved back to Ingersoll in 1876 where John continued his work as a painter/plasterer in Ingersoll where he died in November 1893.
The John Stevenson family lived there in the early 1900s. Margaret, John's daughter, first taught piano from that house and worked with Cora B. Ahrens and William B. Rothwell to establish the first Perth County Music Festival in 1927 before she married Norman Grant. Photos included above show Margaret and Norman Grant in later life and the house at 330 Ontario Street. Source: Stratford-Perth County Branch ACO (Architectural Conservancy of Ontario) | Historical Plaque Properties
352 and 356 Ontario St: Tudor Supertest station
The Supertest station at 356 Ontario St. in 1931. Vince Gratton
The northwest corner of Ontario Street and Trow Avenue was once a part of the Johns family's taxi business. Their horses would graze on the open area closest to Trow Avenue. In about 1930 that open area (356 Ontario St.) became the address for a Tudor-style Supertest service station. It was first owned and operated by Jasper and Weber. Then it was Scrim's second location, and finally finally it belonged to Ralston Harold Shore (1918-2003), known to one an all as Rolly. He and his wife Hilda (1917-2005) lived not far away, at 268 Cobourg St. Their place of business reflected the Supertest company's standard architecture and was a full-service facility for the motoring public.
The twin gas pumps were called Canadian Double Pumps and were manufactured by Service Station Equipment in Toronto. The series of light bulbs surrounding their top covers made these pumps unique. The vehicle parked at the pumps awaiting fuel is a 1931 Plymouth PA 3 window coupe.
This house, at 352 Ontario St., in 1910, was owned by Thomas Johns and family. His son William (known as Billy) entered the family's service-centre business as a young man and operated it until the mid-1960s out of this house. He was a pleasant man and a classy operator. His taxis were always black and spotless. In the hands of Thomas, and then William, their business had a long run.
In 1959, the original Tudor gas station and the Johns family home were leveled and replaced by a larger and more modern Supertest building. After extensive renovations, the building today houses a UPS store. Source: Vince Gratton
495 Ontario St: The Brooks' Steamer, "the gentle giant of motion"
Brooks factory Stratford-Perth Archives
Developed by an American financier and based largely on an American model, the Brooks Steamer was the only car ever built in Stratford. Some 200-300 from wer built from 1923 to 1929.
This was an unusual venture. By the 1920s, the era of the steam-powered automobile, which was never very popular at the best of times, was drawing to a close.
That reality didn’t deter the smooth-talking, personable Buffalo, N. Y., promoter Oland J. Brooks. He plunged into the steam-car business in 1923, though subsequent events suggest he was more interested in building his personal fortune that he was in building cars. Oland moved to Toronto in 1920 to set up a finance company.
By the early 1920s, gasoline-powered vehicles were much more common than those powered by steam. Regardless, Brooks bought a defunct threshing machine factory in Stratford, Ont., retro-fitted it, and in 1923 established Brooks Steam Motors Ltd. Dubbed the "Gentle Giant of Motion," the Brooks sold for the gigantically uncompetitive price of $3,885 or about the same as a Pierce-Arrow. That explains why, along with its lack of performance and operational complexity, there were few takers. To showcase his cars, Brooks established taxi companies in Stratford and Toronto using his steamers.
As the business began to fail, Brooks misled his investors by reporting inflated production figures; in reality, the company built only 18 cars in 1926. When it went into receivership in 1929, Brooks Steam Motors Ltd. had assembled only 180 vehicles and its investors had lost close to $4,000,000. Brooks disappeared with "millions of dollars unaccounted for" and, after the mid-1930s, there was nothing heard of him and his "beautiful second wife and playboy son" until a death notice appeared in a Florida newspaper in 1961. Avalon Fabrics (later Collins and Aikman Ltd.) took over the Brooks plant at 494-500 Ontario St., but the building was eventually torn down and on the site now is a luxury hotel, The Bruce, on the corner of Ontario Street and Park View Drive.
* For more information on the Brooks Steamer see Flashback article: Brooks Steamer Stock Certificate
Quick Fact. Brooks Steam Car: Oland J. Brooks oversaw the only car produced in Stratford. The factory located at 495-500 Ontario St. manufactured approximately 200 to 300 cars between 1923 and 1926.
