Vintage Caledon is a virtual museum and archive of the architecture, landscapes, people, ancestral roots here and abroad, and stories and lore of Caledon, Ontario, Canada and MeetUps and Popups posted and hosted by Caledon Heritage Foundation and our Heritage Partners

Story told by Bob Smith
Story recorded by Ann Wood and Jean Proctor
Story transcribed by Fay McCrea
Story submitted to CHF by Fay McCrea

This is a story told by the Late Bob Smith, part owner and pharmacist at Leggett and Smith in Bolton, to Ann Wood and Jean Proctor in October 2007 and later transcribed by Fay McCrea.

"A lot of people came over to the pharmacy in Bolton from Caledon East because we had a lot of animal health products as well as the pharmacy.

The veterinarian service was a big part of our business we had a lot of animal health supplies and a lot of the farmers would come in to get supplies. 

Mr. Leggett belonged to an Animal Health Association in the United States and he was interested in bringing it to Ontario.   I’d had a little training because I had lived on a farm up in Ripley-Kincardine way and it stood me in good stead but I picked up a lot of information from the farmers.

We used to sell Penicillin, Streptomycin, Tetracycline and those injectable products for the animals because the farmers would pretty well treat their own animals as there weren’t many vets around. Dr. McCabe lived across the street and he was the only one in the area.   I knew the type of medication that an animal would need and the farmers knew how to administer it. That was a good part of our business at that time.

We were still doing a fair bit of that almost up until the time I left the pharmacy (1984)."

Bob Smith passed away in June 2013.
What a great record of the story Bob told about  Leggett and Smith selling veterinarian supplies from the drug store.

A Story told by Fred Bull
Story told by Fred Bull to Marg Foster and Fay McCrea

Fred Bull lived on Heart Lake Road until he was married and he moved to Etobicoke.  Fred has a fabulous memory and has told some wild tales. He knows all the people’s names and the years, etc. He went to SS#9 school at Heart Lake and Charleston.

"For something to do when we were young boys, we used to trap skunks and raccoons. We were skinning a skunk quite successfully until the hired man put the knife into the gland and I got it on my boots.

The teacher intercepted me before I got in the school as she was quite upset about the odour. We would sell the skins for 75 cents to $1.00.

We rolled the skins and the raccoon pelts and wrapped them securely in brown paper and tied it up tightly.  Then you put your name and address on it and mailed it to Simpson’s Raw Fur Market on Bay Street.

Some of the local boys were hunters and they had fox pelts, raccoon and skunk pelts so they hitched a ride down to the Toronto stockyards with their sack and they had the whole back end of the streetcar to themselves."

Story first told by Jack Lundy
Story first written by Alex Raeburn
Story submitted to CHF by Fay McCrea

This is a story that Alex told many times. Alex started to write a column for the Caledon Citizen in 1972,  when he retired, and this is one of his columns. It is a story that Jack Lundy told to the late Alex Raeburn when they were sitting in the parkette (now Raeburn’s Comer) and they would read the newspaper headlines together every morning, watching the gravel trucks turning in all directions.  I told this story at the Celebration of Life for Alex and it received quite a chuckle so wondered, although long,  if this would be a “quote” for the CHF website. 
 
Preamble: Jack Lundy’s family once farmed Lot 11, on the east side of Centre Road (now Hwy. 10) when it was a rough, gravelled road. The mountain then was two separate hills starting with ‘Garrity’s  Grade” and then a level stretch, then the mountain proper. Just north of 10 Sideroad (Escarpment) the road swung sharply to the west, almost at right angles, then followed a semi-circular route to straighten out again at the summit. 
 
Quote from Jack in 1972.  “One morning, Dad and I were working around the barn with the team and wagon when Dad said “Listen, what’s that noise? It must be one of those automobiles! Come on son, we’ll walk to the road.  We waited and finally saw the dust down the road. She wasn’t travelling very fast, but made it all right to the level stretch and then raced for the mountain. At the first turn, the gravel flew, she turned a bit sideways, straightened out again, but you could see she was licked. She stopped right in front of us, steaming and smoking, and then she started to roll backwards. The driver quickly turned her for the bank and there she stayed.  I stepped a bit closer but Dad hollered “Stand back, son, she’s liable to explode at anytime”.  The driver didn’t seem frightened at all. He asked where he could get some water to cool her down. I ran to the pump and fetched 2 pails. After a bit, he filled her with water, grabbed the great brass crank handle at the front and turned and turned, but nothing happened.  I could have turned it better myself; he was frail and ‘citified looking’  but Dad wouldn’t let me. It finally gave a couple of puffs, smoked a little, but wouldn’t start.  He finally asked my father for help. Dad sent me back to get the team and the longest chain. We pulled him out of the ditch, on around the hill and up to the summit.  “She’ll start now”  my Dad said “the gas tank was too low back there”. He turned the big crank again and away she went. He offered Dad money, but he wouldn't‘t take any. Away he went in the dust.  Dad shook his head “They’;; never last” he said.  If he could only see the traffic on Hwy. 10 today.  And that, Jack concluded, was the first car that ever came up the Caledon mountain."

Photo: 197 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Heritage is the Way of the Future
By: Christopher Hume Urban Issues, Published on Mon Jan 23 2012

Even before Crate and Barrel opened its new CB2 store on Saturday, the American furniture retailer was being hailed as a local hero. By restoring the heritage building at the corner of Bathurst and Queen, the chain did the city a huge favour and brought the reclamation of this ratty intersection one giant step closer.

Although long hidden behind a coat of putrid purple paint, the late 19th-century structure turns out to be a modest but utterly appealing rediscovery. Despite having lost its finest architectural feature — a high mansard roof dominated by a north-facing cupola — it retains a sense of balance and scale that stand it in good stead all these years later.

Now comes word that the magnificent 1905 Bank of Commerce at 197 Yonge just north of Queen will also be cleaned up and brought back to life. This remarkable building, a genuine temple of commerce, has sat empty for 25-odd years, an embarrassment to the city. The price of restoration is steep — a 60-storey condo tower directly behind the impressive neo-classical heap, but the developer will also give land on Victoria St. to Massey Hall, which has seen better days but remains Toronto’s finest concert venue.

On the other hand, Odette House, an exquisite late-1800s Second Empire residence at 81 Wellesley St. E. was quietly town down last week to make way for — what else? — a condo. Because the house wasn’t listed or designated as a heritage site, which it obviously was, the city issued a demolition permit without a second thought. Indeed, the trees around the Wellesley property had more protection than the building itself.

And yet, as the world-wide rush to urbanize picks up, it’s clear that 21st-century cities will have more in common with those of the 19th century than the 20th. Our great-grandparents understood instinctively the need for compactness, connection and coherence. Though cities of the 2000s and the 1800s won’t look alike — verticality has replaced horizontality — both will be planned around the need for proximity. For us, of course, there are other issues, too — global warming, fuel costs, congestion….

However, after more than 60 years of sprawl, rebalancing urban priorities won’t be easy. One need look no further than Toronto Mayor Rob Ford to see the forces of backlash unleashed.

The difference now is that developers are starting to grasp the economic potential of heritage. Before CB2, there was Loblaws in Maple Leaf Gardens, Leon’s in the Round House and the biggest heritage renewal project of them all, the Distillery District.

Sadly, Toronto remains overly eager to settle for saving a façade here, a wall there — it’s called “facadomy.” Fortunately, retailers are well ahead of the city on heritage. Even some condo builders are beginning to figure out it’s better to situate their schemes within the larger context.

In truth, heritage preservation has never made as much sense. Most of us prefer historical architecture to our own; typically, materials are finer, the scale more human and design more engaging, more urban.

And as we move into a world of taller buildings and higher densities, the case for conservation, practical as well as cultural, is self-evident. It pays off civically and economically.

But we’re not there yet. Who could forget the sad fate of the old Empress Hotel building at Yonge and Gould? It burnt to the ground last year; police say the fire was the work of an arsonist. So far, no charges have been laid.

Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca