James Richardson Grain Elevator - History

(Top photo undated, Queen's University Archives. V23-Box 6-1 Kingston Picture Collection. Boats and Boating. Cargo Ships. Below - Schooners at the Richardson elevator, City of Vancouver Archives CVA 260-1920.)

JAMES RICHARDSON BEGINS HIS EMPIRE

James Richardson was born in Ireland in 1819, arriving in Kingston in 1823 when the population stood at a mere 3,000 citizens. Entering the grain trade in 1857 with sons George and Henry, Richardson bought the old Commercial Wharf in 1868. Located at the foot of Princess, it was once owned by the Royal Mail steamship line. Richardson had an octagonal office building built there. Their first vessel, the grain schooner The Richardson was built at Kingston in 1867. A 4,000-bushel grain load to Oswego marked the first grain shipment from Kingston. View from the top of the Richardson elevator (below - undated Queen's University Archives, V23-Box 6-3, Kingston Picture Collection, Boats and Boating) showing the railway spur passing the octagonal office building, bottom left. A lake vessel, likely being unloaded, faces up Princess Street:

RICHARDSON GRAIN MOVES WEST

Richardson died in 1892 and the company established a western headquarters in Winnipeg by 1912. The Richardson family history and legacy is deeply-woven into the fabric of Kingston, though a discussion of this topic is beyond the scope of this post. By 1919, the Anchor Elevator Co. Ltd., and Eastern Terminal Elevator Co. Ltd., were under its control, having incorporated Pioneer Grain Limited in 1913. The company's large $1.5 million terminal grain elevator at Port Arthur was completed in 1919. There were 250 western Richardson grain elevators in operation by the 1930’s, signalling the shift of the head office west to Winnipeg in 1939. The firm's executive office had moved there in 1923. (Richardson advertisements published in the Kingston Whig-Standard - 1919 above. Below - 1938)

The local office was then relocated to Princess and Ontario Streets. (Below - Queen's University Archives, V020 Box 1 - Slide 62, Allan Ronald Hazelgrove Fonds. Stone Houses of Frontenac and Kingston series.) At the time this photo was taken, March 12, 1961 the office at 253 Ontario Street bore Richardson & Sons as well as Crawford lettering:

RICHARDSON'S KINGSTON ELEVATOR 

Previous to the erection of a grain elevator at Kingston, Richardson transferred Great Lakes grain from sailing vessels to barges at Kingston. These large barges were then towed to Montreal. Three-storey, 60,000-bushel elevator Richardson No. 1 was built on the wharf in 1882 but burned on December 1, 1897. At the time, the Richardsons were not sure they would rebuild. 

That soon changed, and it was replaced by a 250,000-bushel wooden elevator in 1898-99 also designated Richardson No. 1. Dimensions of the new elevator were: 138 feet high, 53 feet wide, 150 feet long, nine bins each 54 feet deep, and four scales. The power house was 150 feet away, 35-feet square with a 75-foot stack, with power transmitted utilizing a rope drive. 

CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS

• The last of 650 spiles, driven into the bottom in clusters, were completed in ten days on January 20, under contractor J.E. O'Shea.
• The cement foundation boxes for masonry buttresses were being filled on January 23, resting on the spiles.
• Tinning by the Pedlar metal roofing company of Oshawa was underway on April 21.
• The north-side marine leg of the elevator, capable of unloading 9,500 bushels/hour and was placed on May 3. The south side's two vessel-loading legs were capable of vessel loading at a rate of 20,000 bu/hr.
• The railway spur was being completed May 11.
• Equipment was tested on May 13, with only minor work required on main floor.
• The steamer Orion was to be unloaded on the evening of May 13, with another 12 vessels waiting to unload. The sloop Echo arrived on May 16 with 22,000 bushels of barley from lake ports. Orion again discharged 13,000 bushels of wheat from Chicago at the elevator on June 2. The sloop Madcap unloaded 1,800 bushels of oats on June 10.
• Dredging by a government dredge was underway near the elevator on June 1.

 

The Richardson elevator, like the nearby Montreal Transportation Co. elevator, (above, centre in 1918 - City of Vancouver Archives) could only accommodate three boxcars on its spur.  It was a busy year for elevator construction, as the Kingston Elevator & Transit Co. and Montreal Transportation Co. (MTC) had also built elevators along Kingston's waterfront - all three totalling 1,550,000 bushels in capacity. The Richardson 'high-storage' design used spouts, while the 'low-storage' MTC elevator used conveyor belts. Grand Trunk Railway boxcars adjacent to the elevator (undated James Richardson & Sons photo):

Through the late-10's and early 20's, the point of transshipment changed from Kingston to Port Colborne, since the Welland Canal could not accommodate the Upper Lakes' larger vessels. Some grain was handled by the Kingston Richardson elevator for ship-to-rail transshipment, then sent by train to Montreal. The Richardson elevator was the only one of Kingston's three elevators still standing in 1926, when the arrival of several vessels awoke the elevator from its inactivity necessitating 30 workers on site. On September 28, 1933 the 375-foot Robert P. Durham arrived at the elevator with 195,000 bushels of wheat from Fort William. This was only possible after dredging by the Canada Dredging Company. Previously, large boats had often grounded in the harbour! Lake vessels on both sides of the well-labelled Richardson No.1 elevator with boxcar (undated photo courtesy Keitha Pixley) and the right-hand vessel being loaded by both loading spouts:

In 1937, the Richardson elevator had a book value of $70,000 for insurance purposes, and by the 1940s was estimated to have a replacement building cost of $90,000. the Kingston Grain Elevator on Front Road was built, and larger grain-carrying vessels were able to transit all the way from the Upper Lakes through the Welland Canal, business was diverted from the Princess Street elevator. The Richardson elevator was sacrificed in the interests of progress, sold in August, 1940 for demolition purposes.

Whig clipping, November 1941 (above). Undated Whig photo appearing to show the Richardson elevator under demolition:

ELEVATOR FIRE AND DEMOLITION

Frankel Brothers of Toronto was awarded the contract by Vice-President John B. Richardson to demolish the elevator. Considered by Richardson to be not of economic value and in danger of becoming a waterfront eyesore, the Kingston elevator caught fire on the evening of Tuesday, December 23, 1941. Noticed first by an Ordinary Seaman O'Neil of Kingston, on duty at the nearby naval training base formerly the Richardson office, at the foot of Princess Street.   The sailors formed a volunteer fire brigade organized by the Naval Lieutenant Sherman Hill, commander of the training base. To save their training vessel Magedoma, formerly the Fulford Yacht of Brockville anchored a mere 150 feet away from the elevator, they kept the sailing vessel's decks wet to prevent sparks landing. Several large freighters were anchored at winter berths only one hundred yards away! The Kingston fire department deployed 6,000 feet of hose, tapping hydrants at the CP station and on Queen and  Princess Streets. The elevator was completely destroyed, before its demolition that was already underway, was completed. The original octagonal office, housing a wartime naval training centre at the time, was not damaged.

 Postcard memories: