Pumper Put-out to Pasture

Literally*. 

Though I don't purport to publish much Kingston Fire Department history here, there's no doubt that KFD had a significant presence along the waterfront. The Ontario Street Fire Hall's prominent hose-drying tower graced the city skyline just as much as City Hall's dome.

This Waterous steam fire engine was at one time the pride of the firehouse. Equipped with a 1,600-gallon boiler, the rig could pump water at 600 gallons per minute. Receiving its initial testing after its purchase in March, 1910 the $5,500 purchase price included a three-horse hitch and runners for winter use. Two horses were adequate in summer, but three were needed in the snow. A crew of two - fireman and engineer - would ride on board. 

Waterous dominated the Canadian fire engine market at the turn of the 20th century, having built an excellent reputation. With a factory in Brantford, their first motor fire engine was built in 1906. It seems that the steam fire engine would have arrived in Kingston by rail, depending on whether it could fit in a box car, possibly shipped on a flat car.

An interesting mechanical feature was how the boiler was started upon receipt of a fire call. At the Brock Street station, a gas-jet appliance was installed in the floor. As the steam engine was pulled out of the firehouse, a pilot light received the blast of gas and was ignited to a roaring flame. Then, kindling was ignited and steam already being produce on the way to the fire. Upon arrival, up to 40 pounds of steam pressure had already been produced.

The Waterous was out of work by 1924 when replaced by a motor pumper. Held in reserve until 1935 when sold to Mr. Cohen it ignited only an ignominious introduction to the next stage of its life. Rusting in Cohen's scrap yard when photographed in 1947, it began a new life when an industrious but anonymous plumber added a water intake pipe, a steam outlet pipe, and gave the engine a good cleaning. Upon lighting-up, 20 pounds of pressure could still be made. The emergency steam valve then cut in to release boiler pressure. All of this to what end, you may ask? 

The rig was enjoying a second career for an unknown number of years, being used to loosen aluminum grills inside battery cases. The grills were then re-sold. Early sustainability, helping the environment, a creative re-use for paid-off machinery, and generating a company profit all the while. 

(Watch for future KFD-based posts, if I'm able to light a fire under myself to do so. This post just might just make firemen cry in their beer. What if this relic had been maintained and preserved? Today's generations would not believe such a primitive machine ever existed for firefighting in the city!)

It seems likely the steam fire engine would have arrived in Kingston by rail (whether in a boxcar or on a flatcar is unknown). This unrelated photo, taken during a fire at the Grand Trunk shops in Hamilton in 1913, shows a different model of steam fire engine jury-rigged on an L&N flat car while fighting the fire. It appears the hose in the steam engine tender is supplying water being pumped. (Vintage Hamilton Facebook photo)

Three Library and Archives Canada photos of Waterous engines being shipped by rail:

*Or, You're Fired! Or, Before History and Innovation Thrived. There are many potential post titles possible. 

That's One Way to Change

Vintage views of Brock and Princess Streets show two-way traffic on these downtown thoroughfares. Most of us can only remember these streets being one-way. The top photo shows Kingston Transit System bus 6222 on one-way Princess Street in August, 1966 (Queen's University Archives photo).

During 1965, a major project was undertaken to 'pair' downtown streets, making one of each pair one-way in opposite directions: Princess east and Queen west; Johnson east and Brock west. The change affected 65 blocks on five streets. The changes were spearheaded by Alderman, later Mayor E. Valorie Swain, in his role of chair of the city Traffic and Streets Committee.

The transition was slated to take place on Sunday, September 12, 1965, with ads placed in the Whig. Radio, TV and print ads, even a police car blaring advice from its PA system and signage would make Kingstonians aware. A follow-up ad on September 21 said the system was already working well! All kinds of issues had been raised prior to implementation: the number and location of bus stops, confusion leading to collisions, traffic jams, and youths turning the one-ways into drag strips. Indeed, 100 speeding tickets were issued in the first two weeks after implementation!

Bajus Brewery - History

A brewery was first built on this site in 1794, purchased by Philip Wenz in 1826 then joined in business by his nephew Jacob Bajus, whose name the business was known by. In operation until 1922, the current 1835 stone structure replaced an original wooden structure that was torn down to make way for the construction of Wellington and Bay Sts. Stone additions were built in 1857 and 1861, designed by noted local architect William Coverdale. After the brewery ceased operation, the building was used as warehouse space for local businesses and residential space, currently known as The Bajus [Place Condominiums] that were added in 1986. My photo (top) was taken in April, 1980.

At the March, 2019 Associated Railroaders of Kingston meeting, I was pleased to meet Courtney Matheson Mahoney. Courtney's office at Malroz Engineering Environmental Scientists and Engineers is actually located in The Bajus! Courtney kindly provided an architectural appraisal and photos of this historic building. I'm looking forward to touring and learning more! 

Interestingly, Courtney pointed out that barrels and supplies were 'rolled' out of the building and across Wellington Street to the Grand Trunk freight shed trackage. Now, that is cool. Along with the 'cheese tunnel' located under Ontario Street to the K&P/CP, it's important to remember that not every industry had its own railway spur. There are other ways to load and unload freight cars! No doubt the GTR cornered the market on use of their freight shed team tracks, and was responsible for ordering and billing cars used by shippers/consignees - for a fee.

Thank you, Courtney for reminding me that there is so much more to learn! And I have. This revamped post now merges two existing posts with additional information I've found in my research.

In 1982, an old brewery stands neglected at the top end of Wellington Street. Once surrounded by the bustle of Kingston’s harbourfront, it’s now flanked by warehouses and few small businesses. Burnt timbers poke their charred heads out between the stones. Pigeons flap and roost around the beams. When this part of town buzzed with activity, this was the largest of Kingston’s many breweries. Steam whistles from boats and factories, and the smells from local industries filled the air. Today the brewery stands empty.

Streetnames in the area changed over the years. Letter Street became Brewery Street, later Rideau Street. Quarry Street became Wellington Street. Property and houses lived in by the Bajus family are now bounded by Bay, Wellington, Ordnance and Rideau Streets. In November, 1856 a bylaw was passed to widen Wellington Street to a full width of 66 feet to its then-new termination at Bay Street.

Philip Bajus took over the operation of the brewery in the 1860’s, upon the retirement of his father, Jacob. Jacob had joined his uncle Philip Wenz in operating the brewery in the late 1820’s. The lives of the members of the Bajus family were intertwined with the life of the brewery. Children helped with their livestock and carried logs to stoke the steam boilers.  Most men in the family worked as brewers. The Bajus family name remains connected with the building to this day. 

As modern industrialization spread, the brewery increased both its manpower and its production. Five men with a total payroll of $1,924 were employed, according to 1871 census documents. Sales of ale and porter that year were 57,000 gallons. The brewery even operated a wharf across the street. In 1885, all of the Bajus property across Wellington Street was sold to Samuel Anglin for his waterfront lumberyard operation.

The storm sewers on Ordnance Street were a source of complaint, with cellars subject to floods of up to two feet in basements in the spring. Though long advocating for a walkway, a new boardwalk was built in front of the brewery in 1889, with a request for an electric light placed before the city in 1891. Until electrification, ice needed for cooling was cut from the bay in winter and stored below ground level in the brewery buildings.

The Jacob Bajus homestead house was at today’s address of 69 Rideau Street. Grace Bajus, widowed upon Philip’s death in 1893 lived at 47/51 Rideau Street. This house no longer stands, and was located at the site of the Rideau Street Canadian Tire store. The operation of the brewery was in Grace Bajus’ hands until 1922, closing abruptly in 1923 with the rise of Prohibition. Sold to the Anglin family, it was used as a warehouse and for furniture and lumber storage, with the Michea and Jackson auto body and paint shop occupying one of the original buildings in the 1940’s and 1950’s. A destructive fire in September, 1974 destroyed the second storey of the central section.\

The brewery buildings, especially the limestone brewhouse towers, with barrels inset in the masonry, dominated this part of the city’s skyline until the late 19th-century. Local, provincial and federal heritage agencies studied the site and its suitability for preservation. Other interested parties requested demolition permits! The brewery lot, large stone houses, humble cottages and limestone sheds are examples of Kingston’s lost industrial world still standing. Only the height of the Macdonald-Cartier (OHIP) building in 1983 overshadowed its dominance.

A Dec. 7, 1918 Whig ad (above). I'll include photos of the Bajus Brewery in this section:

Don McQueen photos, 1981

Undated (above) and artwork (below) from Vintage Kingston Facebook group:

Comparing the old and the new, that is. My recent photo from a Wellington Street ramble:

And this earlier photo taken on May 21, 1961 (Queen's University Archives, George Lilley fonds, V25.5-34-151 )when Anglin's building were still visible (at right) and Rideau Terrace hadn't yet got its own streetsign. Much of the pole-mounted infrastructure has since been put somewhere else.

Where are we, Tuscany? This was formerly an upper-storey loading door, flanked by beer barrels. The twelve-star staybolts are notable below:

Casky close-up:

And the twelve stars became a marketing tool, giving Bajus' Twelve-Star Lager its name. I believe this was advertised on the loading door, where in 1964, vestiges of the word 'Lager' are still visible, painted on the boards:

Twelve Star Lager is perpetuated by Stone City Ales in one of their session ales:

Monarch Battery - History

In 1921, the Monarch Battery Manufacturing Company made its first batteries in Kingston. In 1922, the operation moved from the 'Street Railway building' to the four-storey I. Cohen building on Ontario Street. At the time, Monarch was referred to locally as 'a Cohen industry' and Isaac Cohen was President. This 1926 ad, published at the time of lobbying for a fixed tax assessment, gives an indication of the company's early history, begun with a stock from another Ontario battery firm:

Monarch was listed in the 1927 Kingston directory, but no address given. Beginning broadcasting two years after CFRC that operated at Queen's (Canada's Famous Rugby Champions - Kingston's first radio station), Monarch's CFMC broadcast music from atop their building as an offshoot of the battery business. Their building (top photo) was located at 540 Montreal Street at Joseph Street, at the end of a 1500-foot CP spur through the Cohen property west of Montreal Street. (The building was later occupied by William J. Wing's machinist shop, then Pilkington Glass circa 1946. The spur was still in place in 1978, and the building is now occupied by Home Base Housing.) A June, 1928 ad includes some glowing ad copy! At the time, the company was also placing ads in the Canadian Jewish Review magazine.

Monarch Battery outgrew its premises on 540 Montreal Street and moved north to the Outer Station (former Reliance Moulding) site on Maple Street in 1937. Monarch frequently advertised in the Whig-Standard, especially proud of its move to the new site, with the new factory figuring prominently in this 1938 ad:

1939 Kingston directory cover ad (above ) and a 1946 Whig picture:

A July, 1946 strike by hourly workers, largely over a 20-cent raise, was covered by the Whig. General Manager S.J. Cohen was at odds with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America local. Men's wages were 54 to 71 cents per hour, with women's lower at 43 to 60 cents. This photo of the strike shows the neat lettering on the plant's side: 

Monarch Battery seems to have been a local success story. It's products were prominently displayed on billboards towering over upper Princess Street in 1952 (Queen's University Archives photo): 

The Kingston and Calgary Gould factories were bought by Winnipeg's Globelite Batteries in 1959. Globelite operated into 1963, when the company moved operations to a new plant built in Toronto. The property may have been taken over by Frontenac Floor & Wall Tile. The factory has been the site of Presland Iron & Steel since 1970.

Reliance Moulding (and Several Successors) - History

Just north of CN's Outer Station, there are two major industrial buildings north of the freight yard and just outside city limits. Frontenac Floor & Wall Tile is just beyond the yard off Cassidy Street, and Reliance Moulding (in its first iteration) abuts just to the north on Maple Street. So far, I've been able to identify the following owners of the latter buildings over the past 100+ years and I expect to find more (*short-lived or stillborn enterprise):

• Reliance Moulding
• Frontenac Moulding and Glass*
• Collies Ltd.
• Janney Aircraft and Boats*
• Dominion Webbing
• Miller Clothing*
• Monarch Battery Manufacturing
• Gould Storage Battery
• Presland Iron and Steel

In 1913, Reliance Moulding Co. was given a tax exemption by the city, to get the company to establish their operation here. The exemption was extended to a term of ten years in 1914. The Reliance by-law received second reading in May, 1913.

In 1914, water main was being laid to the plant, to Frontenac and the Outer Station. The excavation alone cost $121! In March of that year, Mr. F.R. Phillips of Reliance addressed the Board of Trade regarding the company's move from Toronto to Kingston. Their Toronto lease was expiring, and they hoped to employ 40 workers here. The siding was being extended to the plant in May, 1914 and a transfer to the Grand Trunk spur to the tile works in November; the construction contract to P. McCoy. Agreement had to be made with Kingston Township to cross Elliott's road [sic].

In January, 1915 there was controversy about the cost of the Canadian Pacific (CP) siding built into the Reliance Moulding premises. The cost was $700 more than the $3,400 estimate! Not only that, but the City Engineer had not officially accepted the siding. (Later, in December, 1916 a Grand Trunk locomotive negotiating it derailed, due to a bad switch frog, subsequently replaced!)

With operation beginning on January 11, on a contract for 10,000 frames was literally the first order of business. The factory also made poles for signal flags for the war effort. Mirrors, picture frames and other mouldings were already being turned out after one month of operation. Thirty-five of the workers had come from Toronto. Orders were received from as far away as England. F.R. Phillips was the plant's manager. Reliance was reorganized in 1915 and closed in 1921. 

The Frontenac Moulding and Glass Co. took over from Reliance, operated by W.C. and F.C. Phillips. The siding was rented to the new company; the plant unoccupied at the time but the city wanted the siding retained for future potential use. In February, 1920 a drafted agreement was being discussed by CP and the city re: building a railway siding to the Reliance Moulding plant at Kingston Junction.

In July, 1922 the Dufton Woolen Mill of Stratford burned. Mr. William Collie came to Kingston and bought the Reliance Moulding building, installing machinery and operating the plant as of January, 1923. The operation was now called 'Collies Ltd', a large woolen industry. Employment at the plant was 23 men at $30/week, 12 women at $15/week, with $200,000 spent on machinery and $35,000 spent on land and buildings. Employment was expected to grow three to four times. Collies began production in 1922 but soon closed in 1924. Its machinery was second-hand and a lack of capital hastened its demise. The buildings would sit vacant for the next five years. Fire insurance map image, 1924:

In July, 1929 Janney Aircraft and Boats Ltd. bought the plant and property, receiving the customary fixed assessment from the city. President (Capt.) E. Janney, a flyer in Canadian Overseas Forces during World War I, and manager Charles Collins expected to build several airplanes and 100 boats in the coming year, making Kingston the grandiose-sounding 'future Aircity of Canada'! In December, there were boats being built and an airplane soon to be started. The boat construction area measured 40x250 feet, and the aircraft area was 60x80 feet. Raw materials would be received on the spur north of the plant. Manufacturing began in the fall of 1929. Sadly, a year later the plant was closed and contents were being auctioned for $1,400. Also sadly, Capt. Janney was in court on a fraud charge, pertaining to  four boats on order and motors ordered from Johnson in Peterborough. Interestingly, Captain Janney had served prison time in 1920 in Lethridge, AB for fraud, trying to float an aircraft company there!

In January, 1931 Everlastik purchased the Collie building, identifying Dominion Webbing as its Canadian branch operation. Everlastik was headquartered in Chelsea, MA where the company operated seven plants. Their representatives toured the Kingston plant by lanternlight! The plant was bought with cash, encouraged by the Kingston Chamber of Commerce. A fixed assessment, establishment of watermains and lighted road access were part of the agreement. By March, several carloads of machinery arrived, with 15 more to come. Motors were being rewound, with operation expected within a month.  Workers were setting up machinery on the second floor, finishing and painting the offices. The company had no orders 'over here' and no orders nor connections in the city! Their first shipment was completed in May, 1931. 

Mr. R. Brown spoke at the Kiwanis Club in August, 1931 on behalf of Dominion. The plant was producing elastic, braids and webbing, with advances coming from the new process of rubber vulcanization. Dominion Webbing closed up shop in Depression October, 1933 hoping to reopen when business conditions improved. A change of management may have led to the closure.

In 1935, the hope on the horizon was the Miller Clothing Company of Montreal and Toronto, expecting to move into the Dominion buildings. The company planned to buy much of its cloth from Kingston's Hield Bros., entering into a $6,000 fixed assessment agreement with the city. They planned to employ 125 workers and pay wages of $125,000 per year to get its operations started. Union objections to closing its existing Montreal plant put the kibosh on the move, even though work at the Kingston plant had already begun.

Isaac Cohen, president of Monarch Battery Manufacturing Company, announced in September, 1937 that Monarch has purchased the former Dominion Webbing building, vacant since 1933. At the time, the building's owners were said to be the Hamilton Cotton Co. and the Granby Elastic Co., and Monarch had outgrown its building on Montreal Street (1938 artwork showing the new iteration, below):

Producing unique batteries for tanks and radios during World War II, Monarch was succeeded by Gould Storage Battery in October, 1946. Gould was the Dominion branch of the American company National Batteries, with Kenneth Dawkins its first general manager. Gould's unique signage points the way to the plant, with Frontenac Floor & Wall Tile's adjacent plant in the foreground:

Gould built a 'new battery plant, boiler plant and office' for $250,000, claiming to be the only self-sufficient battery plant in the British Empire! Batteries were exported to South Africa, China, Holland, Newfoundland, and the East and West Indies. The company hoped to have new road access to enable future production expansion. Here are sunny-day views of the plant in 1950 (Queen's University Archives, above and below) 

Gould-National's factory was bought by Globelite Batteries of Winnipeg, in 1959, and closed in 1963 when Globelite opened a new plant in Toronto.

Presland Iron & Steel operated from the site beginning in 1970, owned by president Jack Preston. Taking over Cleland Iron Works on Russell Street around 1965, Presland supplied railings and fabricated steel to many local building projects, including the revitalized Grand Theatre in 2008. Still in business on the site, Presland recently added their expertise to the repurposing of the Bailey Broom Factory!

Trestle Third Time Lucky

I'd already made two tries at modelling the Sowards coal-unloading trestle on Place d'Armes. I was quite pleased with the results of the second version - it's a very visible structure upon entering the layout room, after all. While there are a few black & white photos that I included in my previous post, it's really challenging to get a sense of proportion or measurements of the prototype structure. The structures and piles of coal on the site were definitely huge, especially before the advent of oil as fuel for heating.

Visible in some of the photos are 'wings' on either side of the trestle. These wings are not present on trestles in warmer climes, where the trestle isn't enclosed as this one was. So I don't know what went on there, but it was definitely to be kept out of the weather. Perhaps the coal was bagged, definitely handled after unloading, there. After I'd added 'good-enough' paper wings before, I decided it was time to upgrade them, hence this third try!

I pulled off the paper wings, taking the structure to the workbench. I found some wooden trusses from a Cox lumber kit (above) and cut them down to act as wing supports. I then found a leftover plastic base (below) that I glued to the trusses. Since the office is on the far side, I only added one wing to the trestle - on the more visible side of the structure.

I found some 'building textures' online, printing a page of siding to use for the roof:

All that was left was to paint the trusses before replacing the trestle on the layout:

There's lots of room under the wings now:

 

'Steal & Run' - the S&R Story

 

Ask a long-time Kingstonian about downtown department stores of yore, and the one that always comes up is Smith & Robinson's, the much-revered and oft-remembered S&R (colloquially known as 'Steal & Run' or even 'S*** & Rubbish'! At its cornerstone location of Princess and Ontario Streets (George Lilley captured its imposing presence in 1960 - Queen's University Archives - top photo), it was well-known for a variety of wares. My Dad bought a suit there once, and we bought kids' clothes, candy & chips, toys, hardware items, well...anything and everything - always affordable. The store was a Kingston keystone, geographically and commercially, at that dividing line between north & south, town & gown, and the gateway to east & west sides of Kingston's harbour. In fact, if one stood on the roof of the Richardson grain elevator, with a lake vessel docked below you at the foot of Princess Street, the building was literally a stone's throw (especially if gifted with a good pitching arm!) from the water. Check out the roof-top water-tower, marking its location:

In its regular Friday Whig advertisements in the winter-spring of 1975, among the "5000 sweaters...leisure suits...quality leather coats...and suede jackets!" the store included a ten-part tiny block of its (then) 155-year history on a bi-weekly basis. Taken together, these well-researched tiny text-boxes give the entire history of the building and its evolution from a variety of uses into the 'Steal & Run'. 

More detail on the piano business in Kingston, some of it involving this venerable building: 

Built circa 1820, the curved corner section dating from 1840, the building was first a grocery store, then a shopping arcade before becoming a piano factory. John and Charles Fox moved their piano-making business to Kingston from New York City in 1862. In 1865 George Weber joined the firm, taking full ownership after Charles Fox died in 1869. Reorganizing in the late 1890’s as The Weber Piano Company, the firm produced Weber and McMullen pianos. In 1896, William Wormwith joined the firm, then reorganized it as the Wormwith Piano Company, building a full line of upright and grand pianos under the brand names of Weber, Wormwith and Columbia. Mr. Henry Richardson bought a controlling interest upon Mr. Wormwith’s retirement in 1919, reorganizing it as the Weber Piano Company, Kingston Limited until the Great Depression and the company’s demise in the late 1930’s. In 1939, the Lesage Piano Company purchased all assets, continuing the use of the well-established Weber and Wormwith names until 1961. The building operated as S&R department store from 1959-2009.

UPDATE: In September, 2025 the Smith-Robinson (S&R) building has sold for $17.8 million to Caraco Development.