Kingston's Hanley Spur
Wednesday 9 October 2024
Kingston & Pembroke's Original Enginehouse
Wednesday 4 September 2024
Kingston's Ukrainian Community - New Plaque
Lubomyr Luciuk is a professor of political geography at the Royal Military College of Canada. Excerpts from a Whig article of September 2 in which he describes his childhood in the Swamp Ward are below. Especially interesting are his experiences at several of the waterfront industries - none of which still exist in the locations he remembers:
I’m not a north-ender. From the day I was born, and for all the years I have lived in Kingston, I’ve never made my home in what some people call “the swamp ward.” That’s the portion of our city roughly contained to the north and east of Queen and Division streets. In my time, we used a geographical descriptor, calling it “the north end.” It was a working-class and immigrant part of town, populated by many Irish, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian and other eastern European immigrants and their kids. The homes I visited were modest, they were always tidy, warm and welcoming. Most had large gardens, well-tended sources providing nutritious food, not all of which was intended only for family. Guests were always served something good to eat, an almost ritual observance. To this day, the redolence of a homemade cabbage soup simmering on a stove brings back memories of the simple but delicious food I ate in “the north end.”
We enjoyed exploring our neighbourhood as kids. We’d furtively hop the fence of an adjacent lumberyard to construct hiding spots amongst the piled timbers. Not safe, but fun. And, a bit further afield, astride Rideau Street, we’d foray into rather gritty industrial properties, everything from Rosen Fuels (which supplied our family’s Nelson Street home with coal) to the Anglin Company’s massive oil storage tanks. And, nearby, was the odiferous Davis Tannery. I got a summer job there in my senior high school year. I lasted but a day: the fetid smells and toil were all too much. Yet this experience taught me about how tough those who got and kept jobs there had to be.
On a list of Davis Tannery employees, I found the name of John (Ivan) Zubyck, quite possibly the first Ukrainian to settle in Kingston. Hired in March 1911, he married 20-year-old Ida Adrain, April 20, 1917. Although his marriage certificate identified him as an “Austrian” he was gainfully employed and a married man. Most of the other tannery workers I met arrived in Kingston much later. Among them were Mike Polomany (hired in December 1926), Ivan Zaplotinsky (who began working in February 1927) and Sylvester Kotowich (employed as of September 1935). Many boarded close to where they worked and were still living nearby when I spoke to them in the mid-late 1970s. They were true “north enders.”
Of course, depicting all this history on one plaque is impossible. Even so by unveiling a Kingston Remembers monument in Riverview Park, not far from where many of our people worked and lived and played – myself among them – we’ve tried to remind others that we were here and who we were.
A September 5 Kingston This Week article covered the ceremony that occurred in Riverview Park at 129 Rideau Street on August 24. A Kingston Remembers: Enduring Roots plaque (top photo) was unveiled. (The location is variously and somewhat confusingly described as 'downtown', 'north end' and even 'east end'!)
Lubomyr is quoted in the article, perhaps paraphrasing the above in his remarks, "I'm an old guy now. I grew up over on Nelson Street, but I used to play in the Ukrainian Hall that opened up here on Bagot and North Streets. This was a neighbourhood that I roamed. I'd go down to the Davis Tannery. I'd go to the Rosen Fuels yard and the Anglin tanks, and we'd go to a timber yard and build forts. This is the Kingston I remember, the north end, as a boy. This was the immigrant, working-class Ukrainian area. It's just a good memory."
Saturday 24 August 2024
Kingston History - Pushing the Envelope(s)
Also on display were many frames showing prisoner-of-war mail to and from Fort Henry during both world wars.
Sunday 18 August 2024
The Buses of Kingston, 1930-1962
Saturday 17 August 2024
Buses and Broadcasts in Kingston - John Carey
John explained that he initially became a bus mechanic because his father advised him, "Learn a trade or stay in school". John was not too keen on school, having attended 'Regi' because his mother insisted upon it. One day during the early war years, a neighbour took John and his father to the Colonial Coach Lines bus shop, and John thought it was something he'd enjoy doing. John enrolled in trade school in Toronto's Kensington Market - a former elementary school plus addition on Nassau Street. While there, John worked at Gray Coach's small service garage four nights per week to hone his trade, monitoring idling diesel buses overnight (oil pressure and 450 rpm).
On June 16, 1954 John started with Colonial as summer help in their Kingston garage. John was 16 years old at the time, so although he couldn't drive on city streets, he was able to move the buses around the service area. In December 1954, John formally started as an apprentice at Colonial, staying until 1960. In that year, Colonial closed its Kingston garage, located behind its terminal at the traffic circle, to consolidate operations in Ottawa.
John got to know noted Kingston broadcasting personality Brian Olney while in a band in the 1950s, spurring his interest in broadcasting. Beginning in 1957 John worked as a part-time radio operator for CKWS, and went full time for CKWS-TV downstairs at their 170 Queen Street building in 1960. After spending 14 months at CJOH in Ottawa, John worked at CTV Toronto from 1962-1965, then moved to Peterborough where he worked for CHEX for five years. In 1969, he returned to Kingston as sales manager for CKWS for the next four years. In charge of the Kingston Whig-Standard classified ad department, he went on to work at CKWS selling radio ad time, and then four years at CKLC collecting bad accounts, John explained it was necessary to move around in broadcasting at the time! Interstingly, John obtained his Stationary Engineer certificate from Kingston's St Lawrence College in 1982, studying in the mornings and spending time monitoring several Kingston utility stations.
John had known Dick Lumb for a long time. Dick's grandfather, father Mel and uncle Gord were principals in the local marine service firm Millard & Lumb. Dick was involved with re-tubing Canadian Pacific 1201 for the National Museum of Science and Technology excursions (operated by the Bytown Railway Society). As a result, they were given a unique opportunity. In 2003, John and his uncle Dick were able to visit the Canada Science & Technology Museum (Ingenium) artifact warehouse to visit 1947-built GM 3703 bus 4756 in restored Provincial Transit colours. John said, "Back in the saddle again, 47 years later!" (below and top photo):
I'm grateful to John for sharing so much information with me, regarding Kingston's seldom-seen public transit history. John is understandably concerned that these artifacts will be preserved for future historians as well.
Tuesday 13 August 2024
Bus Stations in Kingston
Passengers boarded buses on Montreal Street, then proceeding up or down Princess Street to Toronto and Montreal, respectively. Between runs, buses were stored across Queen Street, now a city parking lot. The PWOR Armoury's roof is visible in the background (top photo) in which one bus route-sign indicates 'RCAF'. Buses were serviced in the centre of the Princess-Montreal-Queen city block, accessed through an archway on Montreal Street near David's Lunch. Once through the archway, the buses would swing around, be filled up with gas, then exit again.