Wandering Wellington and Walkabout

Today's wandering began at 27 Place d'Armes, formerly the Millard & Lumb building. Heading toward Princess Street along Place d'Armes towards Fort Frontenac, I photographed the plaque with the remnants of the fort and the current Fort Frontenac in the distance. I'll wind up here - and there are a LOT of plaques to be seen!

I walked along the one-lane traffic west of the causeway, along the refurbished Fort Frontenac wall. Some geese paid absolutely no attention as I took their picture from National Defence property, looking east across the Inner Harbour (above). Heading a little north, I photographed the former oil-unloading dock through a chain-link fence (below) adding a 1964 Queen's University Archives inset image of rowboatmen from March, 1964, coincidentally my birth month:

Heading back up Place d'Armes, I noticed Today's Mystery. This cornerstone/milestone at the corner of the former Millard & Lumb building that is inscribed with the letters WD (see arrow above, closeup below) My initial thought was a survey benchmark. The letters are interesting, and indicate War Department, a British Ordnance Survey showing land owned (or formerly owned) by the War Department. There are others at the former (wall remnants) and current Fort Frontenac (northeast corner of Tragically Hip Way and Ontario St) sites.

Walking toward Frontenac Village condominium community, at the end of King Street East,  I was treading on the former Anglin coal yard. Now gentrified and clean, here's a different view of the oil-unloading area:

I couldn't get far enough back to duplicate this archival view of Esso's Imperial Collingwood docked in 1976 without trespassing on condo-land, so the coaldock will have to sit out in Anglin Bay for this image:

Heading up Wellington Street as far as Rideaucrest, I checked in on the Imperial Oil limestone warehouse at the foot of North Street, being renovated by Doornekamp. Nobody was working on the site today.

A south-end view of the former ground-level shed and base of the ramp that served the upper level:

Now in front of the Leeuwarden condominiums, I had a nice view back from whence I'd come, with Frontenac Village now forming the background. The end of Wellington Street and MetalCraft Marine are in the foreground, with one jogger just how liveable Kingston is!

A little farther toward the Leeuwarden entrance shows the dry-dock, watered-up but unoccupied:

Who can wander past the Bajus Brewery and not make a photograph or two?

That keg! That balcony! Wellington, oh Wellington, wherefore art thou, Wellington?

Trying to place the former CN Freight shed, I went one block beyond Place d'Armes. Regardless, with Barrack Street in the background, here's the 1951 flooding of Wellington Street in front of the CN freight shed:

Parking lots can also be wandered through, and I reached Queen and Ontario where the 'GAS the MODERN FUEL' lettering is just visible on the water side of the former PUC buildings on Queen:

A grain elevator-top rendition of days of yore is on the front of the Queen Street buildings, nearly eclipsed by chickory:

Install the city's longest streetsign and some passing truck will bend it like a boomerang:

The gate and plaques of Fort Frontenac brought me back to the beginning of my 45-minute walkabout. Another potentially-triggering but not-photographed plaque mentions the Crawford Purchase, made with the indigenous people on Carleton Island in 1783.

 

Scrapyards of Kingston

Scrapyards - now there's a topic that I'll bet rarely makes it to the docket of the Kingston Historical Society! But there's money (and history) in scrap - one man's junk and all that...

I'm in the process of relocating my HO scale scrapyard. Now, more spacious! With a longer rail spur! So I'm taking full advantage of archival photos. Indeed, large swaths of the near-north end of Kingston were occupied by scrapyards and still are. Though we often think of scrapyards as 'the graveyards of the rusted automobiles' of Arlo Guthrie's telling, there's been a rebirth in steel and other metals used as re-melt. KIMCO and other auto scrapyards located along McAdoo's Lane do a brisk business.

COHEN

Arriving in Kingston from Lithuania in 1898, Isaac Cohen began his scrap business on Princess Street in 1899 in partnership with a Max Susman. Their Kingston Rag & Metal Co. buildings were reached via a passageway beside Oberndorffer’s cigar factory on Ontario Street. The largest dealer in scrap metal between Toronto and Montreal, its warehouses were situated close to the docks for shipping by water or by railway. Eventually moving to the rambling property on the west side of Montreal Street, south of present-day Railway Street, variously listed as 606 Montreal Street (1923), 540 (1941) and 594 (1943) per city directories. The site is currently listed by the city as a contaminated brownfield site..

Results of extinguishing a fire in the Cohen scrapyard (battery recycling) site on February 2, 1968.

Wider shots of the scrapyard listed as 594 Montreal Street, part of a City of Kingston planning report:

This may have been the Cohen scrapyard:

Steel and scrap were inseparable. A 1967 Cohen ad:

Imagery from the city's Kmaps website shows the transition from scrap metal to steel sales between 1953 and 1978.

KIMCO

Hyman Rosen arrived with his family from Lithuania in 1911. An early scrap operation (formerly occupied by Oberndorffer/McGowan's Cigar manufacturers) became Rosen Coal Supply in 1937 on Rideau Street. A 1920 newspaper ad:

That site would become Kingston Scrap Iron Metal Company, though a city park and tennis courts now occupy the site. Later relocated to Counter Street in 1975 as the burgeoning KIMCO (Kingston Iron & Metal Company) operation under president Irving Rosen in 1976, joined by Gregg Rosen in 1979. Gregg was killed in a boating accident in September, 2023. Irving continued with the scrap business, while Hyman's son Harry concentrated on the fuel business. The gates and 1965 streetview of Rosen's at 140 Rideau Street:

Two photos from Stones Kingston (above and below).

KIMCO bought the assets of I. Cohen & Co. of 594 Montreal St. in December, 1991. At that time, Cohen's property south of Railway Street was 3 acres and the president was H.A. Cohen. A Whig ad marking the opening of the Kingston Shopping Centre in November, 1971 mentions KIMCO but includes the older logo:

Similar versions of this Kingston Iron & Metal ad ran from the late 1960's to the mid-1970's:

Another ad from September, 1982:

In latter years, Harold's Demolition scrapyard was even set up mere feet from the entrance to the Woolen Mill!

(Unless otherwise indicated, photos in this post from Queen's University Archives)

'Pollution' on Kingston's Waterfront

No, I'm not talking environmental awareness here, I'm talking modern art! 'Pollution' by artist Yvon Cozic. Installed from artist's plans by Foley Construction, a 40x50 foot plot was cleared in early June, 1974 and installation complete in July, across King Street from Kingston General Hospital. Two lime green eight-foot diameter sewer pipes spewing forth multicoloured effluent, the sculpture was a gift from Quebec government valued at $50,000. One of three public art works along the waterfront: Pollution, Time from the Ontario government by Kosso Elou, and another by Ted Bieler from the federal government along the Portsmouth Harbour breakwater, all installed to mark the city's tercentenary. A 25-foot gift  many Kingstonians wish they could return. However, the city parks, recreation and property committee had already voted 4-3 to receive it on November 28, 1973. 

In September, 1974 someone lit a mattress on fire in one of the pipes. Creatively repainted as 7-Up and Coke cans on November 5, 1975, police were called but did not stop the painting. Charged on November 20, 1975 and fined $50 each in January, 1976 were research physiologist Frazer Baker, biochemist Michael Paul and physician Ronald Baker, identified as KGH employees! Their handiwork, which took three weeks to prepare as stencils, was painted over by some other citizens a few days later, then officially by the city's Parks Department in April, 1976 (Whig photo, above) at a cost of their $150 total fines. They got off lucky - the maximum fine that could have been levied by Judge P.E.D. Baker was $1,000 for defacing public property!

An unofficial poll in the Whig found that 140 interviewees wanted the pop can colours kept, 30 wanted it returned to its original colours, an 10 wanted it removed! One columnist in 1974 suggested that the sculpture would be better-suited to emplacement at the former Belle Park dump, thereby reminding us of the more positive implications of its theme. Belle Park was actually the preferred site by the city committee, with the final site fifth as well as being the second choice of the sculptor, who preferred City Park.

The Whig's Jack Chiang creatively framed a laker heading downbound on November 24, 1977 (above).

Kingston Shipyards' R.W. Sutton

R. W. (Bob) Sutton was the General Manager of the Kingston Shipyards - pictured at the Kingston Shipyards with Mr Gilmore, naval architect and partner in German & Milne Naval Architects (top photo, undated). Born in Toronto in 1909, after beginning his marine career as an oiler on the S.S. Turret Court of the Tree Line Navigation Co. during the 1928 shipping season, advancing to Chief Engineer on the S.S. Ashbay into 1930, then the Dufferin Shipbuilding Co. and proceeding into marine engineering, earning his Stationary Engineer certificate in 1942: 

Beginning his career with Canada Steamship Lines at Collingwood in 1944, he was in charge of new construction before becoming General Superintendent. He then transferred to Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company in 1949 as General Superintendent there. 

He was sent to Kingston in 1953 to be the new general manager. Previous manager T.G. Bishop retired at the age of 73. Even at that time, Mr Sutton was advocating for an enlargement of the operation by purchasing land to the west enabling the workers to take on larger projects with less congestion overall. An aerial view of the Kingston Shipyards, taken by prolific local photographer Wallace Berry at the time of the launching of the lightship Cataraqui in September, 1959:

Mr Sutton became one of the city’s prominent community leaders. His energy and friendliness extended beyond the shipyard, to Kingston itself. Serving on the Public Utilities Commission from 1958 to 1966, including three years as Chairman beginning in 1960. As such, his signature appeared on Kingston Public Transit System bus tickets which took over from Colonial Coach Lines in 1962.

With the Seaway completed, Sutton continued to seek out things for the Kingston Shipyards to do, determined to keep them open. He repaired ships and modified the hulls of existing lake vessels. He hoped to build plastic boats with few employees and inexpensive equipment. Sutton’s hopeless struggle to keep the yard open and earnings was futile. A plan to extend the dry dock 200 feet to accommodate larger lake vessels would have cost nearly $2 million. At the time, total annual payroll approached $700,000 and 150 were employed, though the payroll had been two-an-a-half times higher just ten years prior. Despite believing there was a bright future for the Kingston Shipyards upon his arrival just 15 years earlier, it closed in October, 1968. Ordered razed, two buildings survived the 1973 demolition to become the home of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes.

Returning to Thunder Bay as General Manager on June 1, 1968 then Vice-President of Canadian Shipbuilding & Engineering in 1972, before retiring in 1974 and returning to the Kingston area to build a home on the south shore of Hay Bay. He lived there until turning 100, living into his 102nd year.

AUGUST 2026 UPDATE: I had a friendly email from Jim Barrie with his memories of Mr Sutton, or as he knew him simply, Bob:

We were close friends and neighbours for 25 years. Bob kept his papers by his easy chair and frequently had a story and photo to remember his life’s work. Our last visit to the marine museum was 2010. I introduced Bob to a gentleman working on repairs to the north end of the dry dock. Bob explained to the man he had to blow up the end of the dry dock with dynamite to accommodate a larger ship. Bob was born in England, his father died in WWI, and his mother in the ensuing flu epidemic. Bob, his brother and sister were sent to Toronto by the Barnardo Home Child program. Bob ended up north of Toronto in a barn, the back of a home, cutting railroad ties and pulpwood, till he was of age to reunite with his siblings.                                                     

The bulk of Bob's estate was put into the Sutton Trust by the Kingston Foundation. The trust supports the Kingston Boys and Girls Club and the Shrine Children’s Hospital in Montreal.

(Photos and artifacts in this post from the RW Sutton Fonds, Queen's University Archives)

Lightship Cataraqui

Built: 1959 by Kingston Shipyards, Kingston ON as Hull #74, Lightship #3 Cataraqui, propulsion: 1 Fairbanks-Morse 4-cyl diesel single propeller, Canadian Locomotive Co. Ltd., Kingston ON

Photos taken by well-known Kingston photographer Wallace R Berry, posted to Vintage Canadian Coastguard Facebook group

Another  selection of photos taken by Wallace Berry on launch day, September 4, 1959. (RW Sutton Fonds, Queen's University Archives): 

Aerial view (above) and dock level:

Superintendent R.W. Sutton with Speaker of the House Roland Michener. Mrs Michener christened the lightship:

1960-61 Prince Shoal near Tadoussac, then held in reserve

1964-69 Lightship No 4 at Bay of Fundy Lurcher Shoals

1969 Lightship Lurcher decommissioned Lightship No.4 (Canada's last lightship) arriving at Saint John CG Base for decommissioning in October 1969. This vessel was later converted to become the CCG training ship CCGS Mikula.

1991 Superstructure removed to CCG Mikula shown in drydock refit in PEI - possibly Souris, Training Ship (for CCGC Officer cadets)

M/Y Kormoran (ex- 950, ex- CCGS Mikula, ex- Lightship #4 LURCHER)

Sold: 1995 as 950 (reported elsewhere as decommissioned and sold to Newfoundland commercial interests in 1994 

1995 departed Lewisporte NL Sept 26 for 2-week voyage to Florida, converted

After 1995 as yacht Kormoran by Gary Grimme of Pompano Beach, Florida and registered in Belize

Dial 'M' for Employees

Sitting down with Might's 1943 Kingston City Directory today and opened up a sample (Scottish surnames!) of the 216 pages of the alphabetical list of names (of adults). This listing comprised name, employer, occupation, home address and telephone number, if available.

What struck me was the democratic demographic : vice-presidents to labourers from a variety of downtown neighbourhoods, all listed together. I've included the names below of those 21 residents on these two pages who worked in the waterfront industries.

• McCorquodale, Dugald Kingston Shipbldg foreman, 16 Market
• McCorquodale, Duncan Kingston Shipbldg dry dock supvr, 94 Bay
• McCourt, John Kstn Shipyards ship plater, 20 1/2 Earl
• McCraig, KN Candn Loco fitter
• McCue, Edward Kingston Shipbldg labourer, 359 King
• McCully, Ella Candn Loco clerk, 190 Colborne
• McDermott, Alfred Candn Loco clerk, 102 Raglan
• McDonald, Alex CNR car foreman, 537 Albert
• McDonald, Archibald Candn Loco clerk, 753 Johnson
• McDonald, Donald Candn Loco grinder, 169 Bagot
• McDonald, Eileen Candn Loco stenographer, 78 Clergy West
• McDonald, Gordon Candn Dredge & Dock, 438 King East
• McDonald, Jas Kingston Shipbldg emp, 163 Macdonnell
• McDonald, John Vice Pres & Gen Purch agent CLC, 311 University
• McDonald, Mildred Candn Loco clerk
• McDonald, Murdo Frt tracker CN, 438 Johnson
• McDonald, Saml Candn Loco insp, 56 Bay
• McDonald, WD Candn Loco inspector, 200-204 Ontario
• McDonnell, Urben Kstn Shipbldg, 497 Barrie
• McElroy, KA Candn Loco  reamer
• McElwin, Clarence Candn Loco machinist, 138 King East

Here's the entire two-page spread (as always, click on image for a larger version).

Book Bringing Back Memories

I received this email from Eric Potter today. It meant a lot, coming from someone who has 'been there, seen that'. Of course I'm referring to childhood  memories Eric had of the long-gone industrial hey-day of Kingston harbour.  My thanks to Eric for his heartfelt words - from one Eric to another!

Stories can be fictional or they can be fact-based. Sometimes, fact-based stories can seem fictional even though they are not. In this case, the stories I am about to relate to are not fictional but real, and they happened in the city I grew up in: Kingston, Ontario. The stories are based on actual memories contained in a book by Eric Gagnon called Stories on the Waterfront - a Curated Collection of Memories and Photos of Kingston Harbour. Having obtained and read an earlier book of Eric's in my collection called Smoke on the Waterfront, when I saw this follow-up book was coming out, I just had to get it. Boy, I am sure glad I did.

You know there are many books on Kingston out there to read or collect and many are very good. There are lots of photo books by distinguished photographers with great photos, and they show Kingston in all its glory. But for me, reading through this latest book Stories on the Waterfront brings back many memories of the smaller details of daily life in Kingston 70 years or so ago. Many of them I had honestly forgotten, but when I read this book they all came back. I could identify with the story or the photos. 

To me as a small boy, the waterfront in Kingston was a magical place with the large ships, industries, the railways, the trucks and the hustle and bustle of a busy place. This book brought all that childhood fascination back. The photographs were all new to me. I had never seen them in print before, though the "I was there", and the "I saw that", or "I did that" all came flooding back. Was it worth the price of the book? You bet - and then some. If you have ever lived in Kingston during the era covered in this book, I highly recommend this book to you, and can state that you will not be disappointed with what you will see and read. It is chock full of historic well-produced black and white photos that are well chosen to go along with the clearly written and very informative text. It is a great followup to Smoke on the Waterfront.

There is only one problem with this book and that is there needs to be more like it to follow. Whether that happens or not is totally up to the author but one can always wish. Again, I was in Kingston during the time that most of what you see in this book was present, or occurred, and I know how much I enjoyed the second trip down memory lane courtesy of Eric Gagnon and his wonderful books. A lot of what you see in this book is now physically gone and is only captured in words and photos. If you are a current or expat Kingstonian like me who wants to relive some of their old memories, or learn more about Kingston's interesting history in an era not covered by many, then this book is for you. I highly recommend it. 

Thank you, Eric for helping me to relive some fond memories of my time growing up in Kingston.

Eric Potter

Lindsay, Ontario

Zoo Train in Kingston, 1953

On September 1-2, 1953 a three-car British African Zoo Train arrived in Kingston, sponsored by the Optimist Club. On display near the CN Wellington Street freight sheds, the train was the brainchild of explorer and wildlife collector Howard Y. Bary. The train appears to be on the third track in the yard, with the two tracks serving the freight sheds in foreground. The 'ZOO' cars have a fishbelly design, seen in baggage cars of Santa Fe and other railroads. While circus trains were known to roll in to the Wellington Street yards or Outer Station to unload their animals, this one was different.

Starting its transcontinental circuit in 1950, the zoo train made many stops in the US and Canada. For instance: Decatur, IL in June, 1951; in 1952 in Wichita, KS in April and Casper, WY in May and Saskatoon in July; and in 1953 just prior to its Kingston visit, in Owen Sound on August 21, sponsored by the Kinsmen Club there. Also sponsored by the Kinsmen of Englehart, ON, the train was on display there on September 18. 

Interestingly, in April, 1952 a Pennsylvania Railroad baggage car transporting a lioness to the zoo train display in Trenton, NJ was set out on a siding in Wilmington, DE when the lioness chewed through four wooden cage bars and terrorized the conductor!

In the display cars were several species of monkeys, a young male lion from Kenya, a two year-old tigress named Pamela, an emu, four toucans, a concave hornbill named Rufus, a Peruvian llama, a tapir, a European genet and a giant paca - like a beaver without a tail - a hundred year-old turtle and four small crocodiles. A total of 38 animals called the zoo train home. Methusaleh, the largest reticulated python ever captured, at 31 feet in length and weighing 340 pounds, was also on display.

The train was hailed as an educational exhibit, not a circus or menagerie. Not a single kernel of popcorn nor one bottle of pop was sold. Only admission was charged upon entering the train. Cars were fan-cooled, though some animals were noted to appear drowsy. African sculptures and masks adorned the walls. The Whig noted the location as the Haymarket on Place d'Armes, open from noon to 10 p.m. each day. An advance publicity article was published in August 27.  Although George Lilley photographed the train for the Whig, the only photos that appeared in print showed the animals therein. The train had just been featured in Life magazine. Here are some close-ups of the original Lilley negatives:

Burlap sacks of Purina feed at the end of the exit car (above) and a gantry crane on the nearby yard trackage. The iddle of the 'gantry' had disappeared due to reflection in the image, but actually spans a yard track for loading or unloading heavy cargo. Behind it is the Millard & Lumb building:

Curious onlookers mill near the train's coach, at the end of the two baggage cars, with a CN boxcar on an adjacent team track. Floodlights on brackets extend from each car for night-time visitor safety.

Born in 1896, Mr Bary was named in a Boston Globe story, as an animal-procurement operative! In Pennsylvania's Hanover Evening Sun he was an explorer, animal importer and circus executive. He had at his dispoal a climate-controlled plane. Mr Bary often made the news, having been the manager of the 60-car Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus in 1937. Then, threatening to give a shave and a haircut to one of his animal trainers after a work dispute in 1938. (The man hadn't had a shave nor haircut in his life!)  A year later, Mr Bary sued Universal Pictures for copyright infringement over a circus-themed film. In 1941 he was referred to as the chief of the foreign service for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. In 1949 he opeated an indoor circus at the Tulsa Livestock Show. In 1950 he was in Georgia as the president of the North American Circus and Zoo Corporation. In 1957 he was an advance man for the Ringling Brox and Barnum & Bailey Circus. An eight-year litigation over the zoning of his Buckingham, PA zoo was finally settled in 1960. At that time, Mr Bary was an associate of the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus. He really got around.

(Photos in this post from the George Lilley Fonds, Queen's University Archives)