Coal Dealers of Kingston

Though Canada had coal deposits in Manitoba and the Maritimes, it was more cost-effective for Kingston’s downtown coal dealers to import coal from Pennsylvania, particularly the Scranton area. In 1881, ships brought the first shipments of hard, shiny and moderately-priced anthracite coal to Kingston. A lakeside dumping-ground was required for ship-to-shore discharge by conveyor belt or clamshell buckets. By 1892, fourteen coal docks, wharves, sheds and storage dotted the waterfront: East Side Simcoe, Locomotive, Swift’s, Baker’s, Foley and Hanley’s, Atlantic and Crawford’s Wharf, Gas & Electric Works, Water Works as well as several institutions. Coal storage capacity within city limits rose to more than 100,000 tons! A 1919 city directory listing of coal dealers:

Oswego, Buffalo and Rochester received coal by rail, trans-shipping it to cross-lake vessels. Rochester-Cobourg, Morristown-Brockville and Ogdensburg-Prescott car ferries brought coal cars across the lake, without any trans-shipping. Arriving by rail, a pit or trestle allowed gravity discharge of the ‘black diamonds’. Deliveries to city customers were made by horse-drawn wagon or sleigh, later by dump truck. No matter how it was accomplished, clouds of black dust could be counted on, as long as coal was king. 

W.B. Anglin’s site at Bay and Wellington Streets had excellent road, rail and water access. In 1865, their sawmill opened, and it could turn out 10,000 board-feet of lumber per day. The lumber operation ended in 1979 with closure of the planning mill and custom carpentry shop. A prime supplier of heating and industrial coal, Anglin supplied Queen’s University and Barriefield heating plants, local industries, Kingston Psychiatric Hospital and the Strathcona paper mill, eventually shipping 250,000 tons per year. Well into the 20th-century, Anglin Bay’s docks were piled high with coal. Anglin also brought coal by CP to the W.H. Norman wood yard at 771 Division Street. Even in the 1970’s, some local customers still heated with coal, though with fuel oil becoming a cleaner preferred fuel for industry, home heating followed suit. Sold to Triheat in 1998, for the first time in 130 years in business, there was no longer an Anglin family member associated with the enterprise. 

Anglin ad, 1902

Breck and Booth’s coal yard at 300 King Street West at the foot of Beverley  Street was established in 1885. Becoming Booth & Company in 1895, operations ceased by 1941.

1903 ad from the Queen's Journal:

                                           

Booth & Co. Whig ad, 1908.

Robert Crawford entered the coal business in 1881. The coal yard on Crawford’s Wharf at the foot of Queen Street advertised Scranton Coal and Coke, and was passed on to Reginald Crawford in 1941. Purchased by James Richardson and Sons, the name was changed to Crawford Fuels in the 1950’s with the advent of oil. Richardsons were sole owners, having bought out Triheat Services partners Gerry Bradford (Bradford Heating) and Frank Lovett (Kingston Plumbing). Interestingly, Crawford’s extensive coal yard incorporated a travelling conveyor to deposit rail-delivered coal to the appropriate shed: pea, chestnut, stove and egg. The sheds and office were demolished by 1967.

William Drury’s operation at Wellington and Barrack Streets sold coal until 1958. A source for Delaware & Hudson coal (undated) from an online auction:

Frontenac Lumber & Coal’s yard at Ontario Street and Place d’Armes purchased the Kingston assets of the famed Rathbun Company of Deseronto in 1906. Frontenac’s office building was the original Kingston & Pembroke railway station. 

John Morris took on ownership of the Dennee & Morris Coal Co. in 1961, operating from their site alongside the CP at Ontario Street and Place d’Armes until 1960. Their coal yard on Clarence Street had been demolished for the building of the federal building and post office there in 1956.

William H. Norman Wood and Coal at 771 Division Street was just past the entrance to Gus Marker’s yard. Originally obtaining coal through Swift, Sowards or Anglin, the yard eventually had a CP spur. The yard became the north-end branch of Anglin’s after its purchase by Anglin in the late 1950’s. One of the only coal yards in Kingston with an elevated trestle, theirs was 75 feet long.  The property was vacated by 1969.

Harry Rosen began selling coal at 137 Rideau Street in 1937, relocating to 5 Cataraqui Street and enlarging the share of oil sales. The slogan, “Don’t Wait Till You’re Half Frozen – Buy Your Fuel From Harry Rosen” was a familiar sight on oil delivery trucks. Coal sales ended in 1974. Ad from July, 1952:

James Sowards entered the coal business in 1889 with a sizeable coal yard at the north end of Ontario Street at Place d’Armes. Sadly, Sowards died at the yard in 1914 but was succeeded by sons John F. and James A. Sowards. The company operated the steel tow barge White Star and the PatDoris (below, with Richardson elevator) – a 200-foot steam-powered vessel in use between 1924 and the 1940’s. 

The PatDoris  brought coal to Kingston from ports on the New York side. Purchased by Anglin’s in 1963, the yard operated under the Anglin’s Coal name until 1979. Sowards’ 230-foot long coal trestle with covered shed was a landmark in that corner of downtown, until it was demolished in the early 1980’s. The Frontenac Village community was built on the site in the early 1980’s. Sowards’ slogan: “Sowards Keeps Coal and Coal Keeps Sowards”.

A 1955 Whig ad for Sowards:

James Swift established his 300 x 100-foot dock and 150 x 75-foot coal shed at the foot of Johnson Street in 1866. The dock saw passenger vessels, wood and coal shipments and freight warehousing. Sold to J.P. Hanley in 1926, the operation remained in Hanley family hands until the coal enterprise was bought by Richardson’s. Large letters proclaimed “Jas. Swift & Co. Coal” on the shed’s roof, with “Jas. Swift Scranton Coal” on the street side. The coal shed featured an elevator and tripper system to deposit coal in the appropriate bins. A spur was apparently installed, with cement unloading hopper at the shed’s north end. A new Swift office, facing Ontario Street was built in 1947 and demolished in 1970.

Coal dealers advertised on matchbooks: 

• S. Anglin at Bay and Wellington Streets hawked “Blue Coal – Tinted Blue for Your Protection”
• Drury at 235 Wellington: “Selling Delaware & Hudson Sterling Coal – Identified by Chemi-Coating”
• Alex MacMeekin of 367 College sold “Lehigh Navigation & Coal Co. – Old Company’s Lehigh Premium Anthracite Coal”
• James Richardson proffered “Favorite Penna. Hard Coal – Your Hudson Coal Dealer – Delaware and Hudson Coal”.

KINGSTON WHIG ADVERTISEMENTS

 Some 1903 ads: 

Some World War II-era ads: 

Some early 20th-century ads, circa 1911, 1917, 1922:

1897 and 1916 Whig coal ads:

Walsh coal ad, 1908:

Sowards pitches in to celebrate Kingston's centenary, 1946:

Anglin Whig ad, 1972:

Rosen coal ads, 1950:

Crossing the Harbour in Winter

At first, the above photo might look like a lakeboat in ice, end of story. Captioned March, 1950 the Canada Steamship Lines vessel Weyburn is being towed through ice, perhaps by the tug Salvage Prince. In the background can be seen the buildings of Royal Military College. (Queen's University Archives). Christmas trees dot the ice road from the mainland to Wolfe Island. 

Brian Johnson is one of five captains of the Wolfe Island car ferry Wolfe Islander III. Today, Brian combines his marine career with writing. Fascinated by stories and legends of the Thousand Islands area he has written for the Kingston Whig-Standard, Telescope magazine and the Great Lakes Boatnerd Website. Brian is also the founding and current president of the Wolfe Island Historical Society. A close-up view shows at least seven workers watching the progress of the tow: 

The 250 foot-long, coal-fired Weyburn was launched in Midland in 1927, plying its trade on the Great Lakes until 1961. Nearly swamped during a November storm later in 1950!  Serving notably in package freight service from the Lakehead to Montreal, Weyburn was laid-up at the end of the 1961 season at Kingston and did not operate again. Interestingly, sold in 1963 to Maryland International S.A. (Mexico) for off-Lakes service and left the Great Lakes, registered Panamanian.  Sailed from Houston TX for Pakistan with cargo of grain; engine failed and towed from Bermuda to Ceuta, Spanish Morocco and repaired.  Tried to cross the Indian Ocean to Cochin, India in a monsoon, forced back and towed to Karachi where she was laid-up and sold for scrap in 1966.

This December 17, 1925 Whig article explains the operations in the top photo:

The open channel was used by tugboats taking lakers from as far east as the LaSalle Causeway to the Kingston (Collingwood Shipbuilding Company in article) Shipyards. Such tows provided work for the shipyards during the long months of winter lay-up. It's doubtful that the hay market was as strong in 1950 as it was in 1925. The tree-marked ice road led to the mainland, where the hay was loaded into boxcars most likely at Place d'Armes for the 'out-of-town market'.

Christmas on the Waterfront

 

Undated corporate Canadian Dredge & Dock Christmas cards showing tugboats and dredges at the Kingston yard. Note the switch over time from grey to black hulls. (Queen's University Archives CD&D fonds.)

A 1978 Christmas letter from the head office in Toronto.

Nearby CD&D, the Bayswater vessel Baygeorge is unloading the last cargo of the season at Kingston, undated.  Note Christmas tree on the unloading boom - it was common for ships to decorate for Christmas. Between coal piles at right is the end of the Sowards hopper car unloading trestle. (Brockville Museum 016.04.22)

Inner Harbour Photographs by Scott Haskill, 1986-87

Scott Haskill studied at Queen's University, taking more photos of the Inner Harbour than I did! Scott shared his photos of the arrival in Kingston of Royal Train in 1984, and subsequently sent me his fine photos along the Hanley Spur. This one really caught my eye and led to the modelling of the Whig-Standard warehouse in the previous post. The 'front yard', later a parking lot at the Woolen Mill at right was a fenced scrap yard at this time. A cropped view:

Scott took these photos on April 23, 1986. I was interested to see the CN rails still burnished bright and obviously in use to spot at least one car of newsprint for the Whig! CP at the right? Not so much.

I wonder if these tanks were from the former Shell Oil facility. Scott noted that these tanks were right at the water's edge, near where CP's North Street roundhouse had been. The Imperial Oil limestone warehouse (below). Interestingly, the fenced tank car unloading compound is still there. The stopblock indicates the end of CN's Hanley Spur, here since at least 1980.

Looking the other way,  Canadian Dredge & Dock buildings used to be skirted by the CP track. The OHIP rises like the Hanley Spur-killer colossus that it was!

Looking down North Street from Rideau Street. The fence surrounds Anglin's, pointing the way to CD&D: 

Inside the Anglin compound, with one of their red-and-yellow fuel trucks and fuel stand:

Looking down the garden path at 97 Rideau Street, with CD&D in the distance. Townhouses line Rideau Street here now.

Scott's photos taken September 19, 1986. A view inside the CD&D compound:

Looking back north along the former CP:

Fence around Anglin's yard:

Hallowe'en! October 31, 1986. Ghosts of the Inner Harbour?

The Imperial Oil warehouse is still here - CN tracks are not.

One more photo, taken along the former CN Kingston Sub alignment just east of the Outer Station, taken by Scott on April 19, 1987. The remnants of the Hanley Spur connection and Elliott Avenue crossing visible in the distance. This old speeder shed was often photographed, a former sentinel of the mainline.

Many thanks to Scott Haskill for sharing his photographs for this post.

Modelling the Whig-Standard Warehouse

Since I added the National Grocers warehouse to my Hanley Spur layout, I'd thought of adding the Whig-Standard newsprint warehouse. There were only two limitations - I didn't know where it was and I didn't know what it looked like! I assumed it was the long, low annex located behind the CP car and the CN one spotted at National Grocers in this 1970 photo. This is along Rideau Street, south of Cataraqui Street.

That turned out to be a misapprehension on my part, once Scott Haskill emailed this photo:

What a huge wow factor! Not only does it show a car spotted there, it actually shows the warehouse, and to boot, Scott photographed the scene on April 23, 1986! This is one year or so after I assumed regular service ended on the remaining CN Hanley Spur. (Black roadbed at left shows CP's Kingston Subdivision to be gone. As well, CN's spur rails are still shiny! Lettering on the Whig warehouse door says The Whig Standard, the lower lettering perhaps saying 'Newsprint Warehouse'? In the mid-seventies, the Whig was receiving 250 tons of newsprint per month from Domtar and MacLaren mills in Quebec. This warehouse was built sometime between 1970 and 1978, based on Snapshot Kingston aerial photos. Scott sent some more photos - watch for an upcoming post. Receiving this photo from Scott sent me into a scurrying scratch-building frenzy! Current newsprint loading guidelines. 

From the City of Kingston's Snapshot Kingston map site, this 1984 air photo shows a CN boxcar spotted at the Whig warehouse (National Grocers building at top of photo, CN track visible though not CP:

Here's the registration notice by the rowing club, published in the Whig on June 14, 1977, showing that the warehouse was already built:

Developer and rower John Armitage contributed this memory: In the spring of 1977, Michael Davies allowed the fledgling Kingston Rowing Club to store its boats there. Normally we walked them down the alleyway, turned right on Cataraqui Street and launched at Orchard Street park. One day paper rolls blocked our exit so we improvised. We ended up going through the overhead doors, in one side of the railway car out the other side of the railway car and down the water. Later, the club moved to a permanent clubhouse waterside.

Dimensions of the warehouse: Butler steel building with burnished gold siding, 40x120 feet, with a 10x12 roll-up door trackside, and a 10x10 roll-up door facing north at the end of a lane off Cataraqui Street, for truck loading. I'm guessing the warehouse construction took place in 1976.

The yellowish steel warehouse can be seen in this photo that I took earlier this year (above), whereas the National Grocers annex is visible (above) and loading door detail (below, looking north to National Grocers). The CN/CP roadbed is used for auto access, and I haven't walked down far enough to see that Whig warehouse - because I didn't know that's what it was - but I will!

I'd shinnied up to an open window to take a photo inside the annex - now used for robotics training and other uses - nice and clean, not grungy at all!

April 2022 UPDATE: I snapped a few photos of the warehouse, from the trackside then the lane off Cataraqui Street: 

I had to keep in mind the space available, about 10 inches between the (non-prototypically) curved NG/Whig spur and the layout edge.

I decided to use the ever-popular Pikestuff warehouse pieces - prototypically used as a backdrop on my Vermont layout. I would use the Pola factory as the annex, and printed doors for the warehouse:

I didn't have the width of the prototype, so I altered the structure with a transverse peak. A warehouse roll-up door is in each end. The siding is painted mustard-yellow and weathered:

The top photo shows the printed roll-up door. I've left the building reversible, with no door in the other end and may include an interior in future. Stand-in newsprint rolls are on the pavement. In place on the layout with National Grocers at left and the Woolen Mill smokestack in background:

Trackside view along CN with the NG/Whig spur at left, with CP boxcar spotted:

Looking the opposite direction, with the CP boxcar moved out of the way. The Pola annex links the two industries:

The dumpster-in-the-bushes broadside view of the Whig warehouse:

Harbour Tour, November 1982

My Dad and I made our regular Saturday-morning rounds downtown. We often checked out the waterfront for visiting vessels. In November, 1982, att the ferry dock near the foot of Queen Street/Barrack Street, we came across two ferries from Quebec. The Charlevoix (foreground) was rated to carry 27 cars, the Saguenay (background) 21 cars. History of the Baie Ste Catherine-Saguenay ferry service. The above two vessels served from 1958-1980, when they were replaced by the newly-built Armand Imbeau and the Jos. Deschenes.

Wolfe Islander III Captain Brian Johnson adds the following: The 'Frontenac II' today, 'Charlevoix' replaced 'MS Wolfe Islander' as the spare/backup ferry for both Wolfe and Amherst Islands. It only ran if needed during spring refit times or if the other regular ferries were down for any reason. The Saguenay was sold to Detroit interests.

The tug McAsphalt at Canadian Dredge & Dock:

The ferry Amherst Islander docked ahead of McAsphalt:

The dry dock is flooded, with Canadian Coast Guard CG157 in foreground, then Amherst Islander and McAsphalt:

At the Kingston grain elevator along King Street, the Canada Steamship Lines' T.R. McLagan was loading grain. This view looks across the Richardson/Crawford dock:

From the bayshore right along the two-lane King Street:

Across the causeway, 'RCAF 731' Avro CF-100 has been stuffed and mounted on the north side of Highway 2 at RMC. Much less visible now among new recreation centre buildings: