Photographing Work on the Waterfront

In an earlier post called "Watching Work on the Waterfront", I was inspired to build a scene of several workers at Canadian Dredge & Dock, on Wellington Street, working on an unspecified project. Returning to the layout room after a long, enjoyable summer, I did some layout-level photography. Specifically, exploring several angles around this scene. 

Kingston's Hanley Spur is most definitely a model railway, but it also comprises a compendium of discrete scenes. These scenes are built around trackside industries, or portray life in Kingston's Swamp Ward neighbourhoods, as well as those from Wellington to Montreal Streets. 

I like the perspective that actually placing my point & shoot camera (hey, should try with a smartphone - note to self!) on the layout and manoeuvring it around to various angles. This not only lets us view these scenes not from the traditional drone/helicopter height, but helps us sharpen our modelling and scenery skills. 

These guys are working on Canadian Dredge & Dock tugboat Traveller in the drydock, that unnamed project and also show the company's stores buildings and heavy industrial equipment.

Woolen Mill For Sale

A piece of the Woolen Mill on Cataraqui Street, about 3,237 square feet is for lease. Although I've modelled the exterior, these are rare interior photos of what used to be the Boiler Room climbing gym:

and brochure information: 

Another 'Dear Photograph' Tour of the Waterfront

Was it really a year ago? The day that I wandered the waterfront snapping archival photos in today's context in the style of Dear Photograph. Last week, having just come from Kingston's PumpHouse Steam Museum, my first stop to the east was the dry dock along Ontario Street. Holding some photo prints of images from the Queen's University Archives, it was neat to position each photo (taken in the 1940s, 1950s or 1960s) to fit today's scene. My first stop was the Ontario Street dry dock. The Wolfe Islander, 1951 (above) and HALCO's Cove Transport, 1964 (below):

                                        Motor yacht Chanticleer in the dry dock, 1967:

The former Canadian Locomotive Company office building sat at the corner of Ontario and William Streets, now the site of parking behind Empire Life:

This row of buildings has been occupied by a variety of tenants over the decades, but it's no longer a Meat Market like it was in 1950, and its annex is no longer standing.

At the foot of Brock Street, I had several images of The Way Things Used To Be, which in Kingston sometimes means The Way Things Still Are Today. Not in all cases though, and these historic grain merchants are long gone, replaced by the hotel on this site. A central waterfront location, once desired for easy grain-handling to and from ships, now used to house tourists.

Looking up to Brock Street over the 'cobblestones' to City Hall (above). CN and CP reached the locomotive plant and shippers in the vicinity of City Hall. Their tracks headed north at the foot of Brock Street, where the angled backs of buildings belie the tracks' former location:

It was soon time to return to my parking spot at the PumpHouse. I managed to keep myself and the photos dry! The former Kingston & Pembroke station hasn't changed much, but that Ford city station wagon is no longer parked in front!

A Milwaukee Road boxcar was behind the station in the mid-sixties. The Milwaukee Road itself has long since gone bankrupt! CP moved its operations away from City Hall to make way for Confederation Park and the Centennial celebrations.

As I walked back, I reflected on the grey day, its grey sky, the grey of limestone and concrete and those long-ago images with their own shades of grey, black & white.

Muse-ology

Summer is not model railway season. It's outdoor season. So that's why there is very little modelling being blogged about. But now winter is here. Kingston went from Shorts Weather to Sweater Weather in less than a week. Cold beer has been replaced by Pumpkin Spice Latte. So just before I return to the basement layout, it's Connection Season. Hot on the heels of the Kingstonist interview, I'm trying to get my layout out of the basement, virtually. As long as pandemic precautions are in place, it's tough to justify a visit. Plus my wife says the basement is too messy and I'd probably have to vacuum or something. But I'm thinking about creating a model of the K&P station on Ontario Street.

In all cases, whether it's local media, Queen's University Archives, ARK or local book readers, it's interesting to see where this process is leading. It's worthy of muse-ing.

 

When Kingstonist Calls

Back in August, I got a message from Tori Stafford, Editor at Kingstonist.com, Kingston's premiere online news source. Tori was interested in profiling my work on the Hanley Spur layout. It took a little while, with various intervening events, but Tori got me in touch this past Wednesday with Kingstonist journalist Terry Bursey. After a short and enjoyable phone interview with Terry, and supplying some photos, this nice online news article was the result. Click here to read the article.

My family has subscribed to the Kingston Whig-Standard for decades, and when I look back through my files, it's clearly evident that its local coverage is a shadow of its former self. Online sources like the Kingstonist have effectively filled that vacuum!

Chinese Laundries in Kingston

 

Perusing some online Queen's Journal editions in Qspace of the turn of the last century, the advertisements aimed at the young men of Queen's were interesting. A wide variety of enterprises like bookstores, travel opportunities and even laundries were advertising. One recurring ad was for the Hong Lee Laundry on Princess Street (1903 top ad, 1900 below):

1903 Queen's Journal advertisement:

Three 1908 Queen's Journal ads:

Here's an even older one, from 1881:

An excellent story on the Chinese laundries was posted in Stones Kingston - Exploring Kingston's Social History. The site contains many other informative accounts of Chinese history in Kingston. Though I've already modelled the City Steam Laundry, a storefront laundry might also be a subject for structure modelling in my layout's future!

At least one - Lee's Laundry existed on Division Street at Earl Street, near the Queen's campus. In this 2009 image, the laundry name still shows, though renovations have erased it by 2020:

Brownfields Interview with John Gerretsen

I've been making my way through search results for 'Kingston' in the Queen's University QSPACE database. The results comprise a plethora of documents on diverse topics ranging from the 19th century up to today - urban planning to three sermons on the parable of the prodigal son! Many of the recent documents are case studies and essays written by students in various faculties. This one on brownfields included an interview with John Gerretsen, Ontario's Minister of Environment. 

ASSESSMENT OF BROWNFIELD REMEDIATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN KINGSTON: BLOCK D AS A CASE STUDY by Jacquelyn Norris. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science, Honours Queen‟s University 2008. 

 "1960s – Used to be two main industries – Canadian shipping yards and Canadian locomotive

company – since mid-1950s fully familiar with both operations

- Involved as a councilor and a member of provincial parliament

- Waterways main method of transportation

- Kingston was going to be the capital of Canada, public limestone buildings built all over

the place

- Never materialized

- Harbour still used for transportation of goods

- Big change in Kingston when decision was made to have the main channel of St. Lawrence

seaway on other side of Wolfe island, need for transportation diminished, transportation

changed, rail, road, etc.

- Industries were terminated (mid-60‟s)

- Bill Teron – influential builder in Ottawa area, bought both sites, convinced council of the

time that he was going to build into a residential developed area, Block D and two blocks

beside, Harbour Place and Shipyards close to marine museum and steam museum.

- Approval where harbor place is and landmark, city of Kingston got the land immediately in

front of city hall, now city park

- Bill Teron makes arrangements with the city, whereby he is going to turn industrial into

residential land use

- Nobody understood the magnitude of developments

- Nobody had seen what 100units/acre meant then

- Became chairman of CMHC, put everything he owned in blind trust, so that accusations

could not be made that the decisions made for CMHC would directly benefit him

- Came on the scene in 1972-3 developers came along that had bought it from Teron, wanted

to make some changes to the original agreements made with council at the time (1960s)

- Utilized the best information that they had, everybody seems to forget about Block D

- Can remember in the 70s, people would not venture past Prince George hotel, derelict area,

homelessness etc.

- Early 1980s landmark and harbor place get built – built as part of separate agreements

negotiated with Teron, the units per acreage is the same as what Teron had originally

negotiated – council was not heavily involved in that process

- Too much development? Concerns at this point

- Block D lay fallow for so many years – blind trust – Maurice Rollins Construction of

Belleville and Sonia Neilson Realty of Kingston, people came up with new proposals for

development – the zoning wasn‟t appropriate for the site 

62

- 1981 – tried to buy block D for the City – regrets not purchasing the property, could have

called for a development proposal that would have better integrated public uses along

waterfront with private use on the property

- Put an offer in Neilson-Rollins counter-offered, only about 300-400K difference (1.7m –

2.0m) – turned down on vote

- What is built there is much in line with what the original zoning that Teron got. Some

don‟t like high-rise buildings

- Waterfront belongs to the public, not to anyone individually – as much public access and

ownership of waterfront as possible – there are certain elements of that in Block D,

although the Admiralty place is wonderful – was a square warehouse, built into beautiful

building it is today – probably built in early 1980s – marine museum next to it and then

steam museum associated. "

German Prisoners Kingston Ont., 1917

This captioned photo was posted to the Kingston Love Facebook group with the handwritten caption in this post's title. But where in Kingston? Far left gasification tank; middle wooden and stone structures, right a coach with a large crowd and sentries in foreground. 

I think it's plausible that these POW's are being escorted to Tete du Pont Barracks or directly to Fort Henry. The Grand Trunk had better connections to eastern Canada, so the single track may be GTR somewhere in the area of Place d'Armes/King/Barrack/Ontario Streets. Efforts to pinpoint location underway. Thanks to Marc Shaw for sharing this photo and correlating with fire insurance maps and aerial photos, plus city directories of the period!

Update: Three years after publishing this post, knowledgeable Kingston historian Peter Gower posted that these are not German prisoners, but aliens who had been kept in Fort Henry and are on their way to Kapuskasing. They will just have come off of the new Causeway and so are very near Fort Frontenac.

Until we pinpoint, I'm adding images that may assist:

Fire insurance map, 1908 (above) and 1920 aerial view of the area (below):

If I could get the buildings confirmed, I think it's possible the single Grand Trunk track crossing Barrack Street near the gasification tank could be the location. Then a short escorted march down Ontario Street toward Tete du Pont or Fort Henry across the Causeway!

Walking Montreal and Rideau Streets, August 2021

What better way to spend my waiting-time at Krown Rust Kontrol than to try to discover some new angles along Montreal and Rideau Streets? It was a warm day, and I ended up hoofing it all the way to Cataraqui Street. Crossing Montreal Street, I stood on th S-shaped entrance road to Village on the River, photographing the former Chown warehouse, now the service building for the Village complex. This is the spot at which the Hanley Spur approached the mainline. Grand Trunk Terrace (top photo) and former Outer Station/Pig & Whistle losing its roof and soffits:

The former Bailey broom factory at Rideau and Cataraqui Streets looks ready to be inhabited by latte-drinking, networking shared-spacers!

The new north wall - siding over brick, large windows that I resisted the temptation to peer in thereby not leaving greasy nose-marks on this otherwise modern-looking repurposing!

The National Grocers building looks on sternly yet approvingly:

An open door formerly used to unload boxcars on the CN spur. Resisting another temptation to rubber-neck in there, I knew that the door looked 'vintage' but the interior was more modern!

Cataraqui Street side of the 'Bailey'. A multiple-unit residential building remains to be built just north on Rideau Street:

That time-honoured view down Cataraqui Street at Rideau Street. The Woolen Mill and National Grocers are the remaining buildings of this former industrial quartet since the Rosen Fuels fire:

Heading north on the Urban K&P Trail (parallel CN and CP tracks, formerly), I noted that the multi-use sign has been grown'over by its tree-host!

Nicely landscaped by the city, the west side of the Trail behind buildings fronting Rideau Street has been blocked off by construction fence (below). Rambling encampments and folks lounging around the Integrated Care Hub were accompanied by random paths into the woods, odd smells, and litter between here and Montreal Street. I met a family of cyclists but few other users in this area.

The road less travelled? The Trail continues toward the Railway/Montreal intersection, while the needle disposal box on the former CN alignment marks an unofficial trail that passes behind houses along Montreal Street past the Village on the River complex:

The former McKenna's grocery store, perhaps no longer recognizable with its metal cladding and oval doorways in stonework. The side elevation gives it away!

1950 view, Queen's University Archives photo: