Kingston & Pembroke's Original Enginehouse

Its request refused to build on Fort Frontenac lands, the Kingston & Pembroke (K&P) instead settled on Place d’Armes in 1873. Its principal address was listed as Place d’Armes in 1885. The original station of the K&P in Kingston was built there. It later became the office building for the Frontenac Lumber & Coal Company. A spur was later laid here to serve the Montreal Transportation Company grain elevator. A small two-stall engine shed and turntable was nearby, in use between 1877 and 1883. 

Andrew Jeanes recently shared an excellent analysis of the above photo, made from a glass negative in the Queen's University Archives Vosper Collection. It shows one of my favourite parts of Kingston's industrial waterfront and its trackage. The photo may have been taken from a building on the east side of Barrack Street.

Andrew writes:

The photo shows the lumber yard of the Rathbun Company and the coal yard of the James Sowards Coal & Wood Co. at Place d’Armes and Ontario Street in downtown Kingston. 

Boxcar No. 444 belonged to the National Despatch Line, a private car operator that existed between 1869 and 1914. According to the June 1890 and June 1895 Official Railway Equipment Registers, National Despatch boxcars nos. 400-999 were all assigned to the Grand Trunk Railway, along with about 495 other boxcars in several number series.

James Sowards began conducting a coal and lumber business at the corner of Place d’Armes and Ontario Street in 1889, and the Rathbun Company moved its operations there from the foot of Queen Street in 1893. By 1907, the Frontenac Coal & Lumber Co. had taken over the Rathbun operation, so the photo must date from sometime between 1893 and 1906.

What’s really interesting to me is the building behind the boxcar with the large Rathbun Company sign and smaller Sowards sign on the roof. This was the original Kingston & Pembroke Railway enginehouse, built in November 1877. It was reported in the Whig as 70x53 feet, of frame construction, covered in iron and having a fire-proof roof. There was a turntable in front of this engine house from 1877 to 1883. In the 1908 fire insurance plan the building is labelled iron-clad “storage, cement salt etc."

In 1883 the K&P relocated to its new roundhouse at the foot of North Street, which was still there in the late 1970s. The old turntable at Place d’Armes was removed and the former enginehouse was leased for commercial purposes. The building survived until January 1920, when it was torn down along with a number of other buildings on the property. Today, this site is covered by the reconfigured intersection of Place d’Armes and Ontario Street and a portion of the Frontenac Village condo development.

An aerial view, circa 1915, shows the original K&P station and its engine house at opposite ends of the green line.

The buildings were located at the bottom left of this map:

A 1908 fire insurance map shows the station and engine house along Ontario Street:

Frontenac Lumber and Coal Company circa 1915 (below) Ontario Street at Place d Armes. Earlier, this was the first K&P station (Queen's University Archives, Kingston Picture Collection).

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."

Kingston History - Pushing the Envelope(s)

The British North America Philatelic Society held its annual national exhibition in Kingston this year, at the St Lawrence College Event Centre. Featured among the many framed exhibits were those profiling Kingston history in philatelic items. Here's a selection of photos of some specific exhibits on transportation/industrial subjects that caught my eye, albeit with pesky glass reflections from the exhibit frames:

Also on display were many frames showing prisoner-of-war mail to and from Fort Henry during both world wars. 
 

The Buses of Kingston, 1930-1962

Trying to get photographic context that shows Kingston, in somewhat-recognizable places, given the changes that have taken place over the years in our street scenes! Photos in this post, unless otherwise noted, courtesy of former Colonial Coach Lines mechanic and transit enthusiast Kingston's own John Carey. Posed on the hill just east of Kingston Penitentiary, two Kingston City Coach buses with Portsmouth-Princess route-signs (top photo - 1930 Reo; below - possibly Leyland).

Two views of what appears to be the same 29-passenger Leyland, parked outside the LaSalle Hotel, Bagot and Princess Streets (above and below). John noted that the old and newer parts (yellow brick) of the hotel were discernible above the bus roof. Cheese it! It's the coppers!

A Whig clipping from September 6, 1930 described the new buses: 

On a wintry February 23, 1934, a procession of three Leylands lined up for a charter outside Ban Righ Hall, on what was formerly Queen's Crescent:

A 1935 GMC numbered 352 posed in front of the Frontenac County Court House. Notice the patriotic flag-draped decorating job and '21st Battalion' on the front bumper. Perhaps this was for a major 21st Battalion Club service, held at the Cricket Field on May 7, 1935 marking the Silver Jubilee of King George V and the 20th anniversary of the battalion's departure from Kingston overseas for World War I. John noted that the Coast to Coast - Montreal to Vancouver - New York to L.A. lettering pertained perhaps to connecting routes grandiosely.

A 1934 GMC product, possibly a Model U, takes on passengers at Royal Military College:

Coach 39 was a GM Yellow Coach, built in Pontiac (Detroit), Michigan with a Buick or Cadillac engine. Converted to city use in Kingston, having wooden-slat seats, it continued in use until after World War II. John mentioned that he rode in this vintage bus many times coming home from St. Mary's school in 1945-46. Route-sign says 'Barriefield'. A route begun in 1946 gave Kingston City Coach the right to reach Barriefield, Vimy, the nylon plant and Norman Rogers airport. This coach was also used on an extra run to the Front Road nylon plant at the same time to pick up workers coming off-shirt at 4:30 in the afternoon. John remembers driver Alfie Ball picking him up at Clergy and Princess Streets, thence to Victoria or John's home on Mack Street heading out to the nylon plant. For a lark, he would turn the ignition off, then turn it back on! The Kingston Armoury in Montreal Street can be seen in the background behind this parking lot used for bus storage.

Photographed at Oscar Cook's garage near Ontario and Queen streets, a 1930 Reo:

Kingston City Coach's 1935 Macks were built in Allentown, PA and carried across the St. Lawrence River by Ogdensburg-Prescott ferry. As delivered with no back door, this page shows John's post-it notes with additional information pertaining to each photo. These photos came from Ted Baker, the most senior Colonial driver who started in 1930: 

Photographed at the Queen Street-side Colonial Coach Lines garage entrance (below) driver Merrill Weekes was also a noted vehicle enthusiast in this area in later years. A World War II veteran, Merrill left us in 2022 at the age of 99, and his obituary mentions that he usually had either a wrench or a steering-wheel in his hands! Bus 397 is a 1939 GM model 742, among the first equipped with a pusher 707 six-cylinder diesel engine with dual ignition.

Bagot & Princess Streets - August 24, 1948. An expensive Lincoln sedan rear-ended by a Kingston City Coach Ford at one in the afternoon. The Whig gave the incident about one column-inch, noting that the car was driven by C. Leounis of Binghamton, NY and that the bus's air-brakes may have led to the collision. 

The Topnotch feed mill's tower is visible in background, with Fort Frontenac's wall and limestone quarters  behind four 1937 GMC buses destined for Montreal, stylish but no longer in service during John's tenure as a mechanic:

A 1947 photo showing all-new coaches open for inspection in Market Square, likely taken from upper storeys of the Whig building. Is that the ferry peeking out from between the west wing of City Hall and the Prince George Hotel? These are model 3702-3703, model years 1945-48, powered by GM 4-71 diesel engines. John says, "They were real workhorses", and that "If there's a better bus built, GM builds them".

While viewing the photo above, John noted that the Prince George and the Frontenac Hotel, next to it, were rough beer parlours. The British-American Hotel was one street over on Clarence Street. His uncle Ace was in charge of the Brock Street firehall the night the B-A burned down, nearly losing his life becoming disoriented in the upper stories of the 60-room hotel on March 19, 1963. Photographer George Lilley's studio at 34-40 Clarence Street was fortuitously undamaged. Expanded in the 1960s, the B-A still had some fireplace-equipped rooms!

Two old Kingston City Coach Leylands posed along the Inner Harbour. John said that #44 (above - route sign Portsmouth) used to make the nightly run to Vimy and Norman Rogers, and that #45 (Portsmouth-Princess - below) was right-hand drive and did passenger runs in the city during World War II.

Another photo of Kingston City Coach Mack 54, posed at Market Square, route-sign 'Sightseeing':

Built in 1944, (i.e. 4400-series) GM 3608's came from Montreal suburban routes, renumbered, then used in service in Kingston. John noted that they were in service for a long time, with a six-cylinder gas engine. This photo print is dated Sep-1962, taken near the site of the former electric railway carbarns, with the Ontario Street Topnotch feed mill in background - after Colonial had left their garage. The city acquired 15 Brill buses from Colonial in 1962, paying $411 each to repaint them at Edwards Ford.

A 1952 Kingston Public Transit System Brill AEC English Diesel bus that began its service in Montreal. Revamped in 1956 with rear door added then sent to Kingston City Coach. John noted that these European engines required Metric tools to be ordered in order to work on them!

Buses and Broadcasts in Kingston - John Carey

 

On Monday, August 12 I had a two-hour sit-down at the commodious home of John and Tina Carey, here in my west-end neighbourhood. I could have walked there, though grey clouds threatened - topically, I could have even taken the Kingston Transit Route 15 bus to get there - only two stops away! Speaking of buses, that's why I was visiting John. He'd called me, having seen Kingston Transit coverage on this blog. John had an interesting life story to tell, though only the early part of his working years involved buses, with many more involving broadcasting.

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):

During our visit, John shared a three-inch binder full of Kingston transit artifacts and photos, its provenance providing an interesting introduction to our visit. The binder was compiled by John Lemmon, a bus driver who started with Colonial nearly a century ago, later becoming Safety Director. (John knew him, confirming his 6'3" stature, and kindly allowed me to share photos I took of the binder's contents during our visit. The binder containing the artifacts and photos is one of those 1970s vintage designs with self-adhesive holding acetate leaves in place, accounting for some of the shine on some of my images). While working at the Whig-Standard, a fellow employee who lived next to Mr Lemmon mentioned the binder of bus photos to John. Sometime in the 1990s, John's wife Tina (through a neighbour connection via church teas and sales) heard that the binder was going to be thrown in the garbage, providentially the binder came to John! 

Mr Lemmon's application for employment with Provincial Transport is first-up in the album. He was born in 1905, making him 30+ years John's senior. Check out those references! John noted that Ted Baker started in 1930 and provided some of the photos in Mr Lemmons' album. Ted was the most senior driver with Badge 1! Also in the binder was Mr Lemmon's Colonial badge:

Needless to say, I was amazed not only by the binder's contents carefully curated by Mr Lemmon, but also by John's wisdom in adding post-it notes to several of the photos. The captions matched exactly what John elicited extemporaneously from his sharp-as-a-hat-pin memory while guiding me through the photos.

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. 

Bus Stations in Kingston

After a fire consumed the street railway car barns along King-Queen-Ontario Streets, along with twenty cars in March 1930, Colonial Coach Lines, which had been solely in the business of providing intercity bus travel, morphed into a city transit service for Kingston. Included in the new bus service were some new city routes served by an additional seven buses brought from Montreal. Before that, Colonial ran routes to Ottawa, Brockville and Prescott. All photos in this post are courtesy of John Carey unless otherwise noted.

By 1931, a terminal was located at the north-west corner of Princess and Montreal Streets, touted as the only indoor terminal in Canada! Originally the King Edward Theatre, next door was the Windsor Hotel, reportedly a somewhat sketchy watering hole, which when torn down was replaced by the Fort Henry Hotel which in turn burned down on February 24, 1968.

Exterior view (above) looking across Princess Street, with Montreal Street heading north at right. In 1949, Colonial Coach lines bought out Oshawa's Collacutt Coach Lines, the latter operating Gananoque-Oshawa, mainly to take over their route towards Toronto. Colonial was Ontario-based, while Provincial Tranporation, later Voyageur, was Quebec-based. Interior view (below) showing built-to-last but austere wooden waiting room benches. Both photos were taken in 1939. 

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.

The garage stood on the site presently occupied by the CKWS (Global/Corus) broadcast centre and TV studios. The site was cramped to say the least, and a modern terminal with restaurant opened at Kingston's traffic circle in 1948.

Traffic circle construction had started in 1942. The McFedridge family lived there in the large limestone house known as Vauxhall. In a huge land deal, the 3.25 acres between Highways 2 and 33 were sold to Canadian Tire for a new store in 1959. 

The store was across Bath Road from the Colonial bus terminal. Three undated photos posted to Vintage Kingston Facebook group.

The new Colonial Coach Lines terminal opened on May 14, 1948, covering over 80,000 square feet. The waiting room measured 44x25 feet, and a Macy's Terminal Restaurants air-conditioned eatery with 'large windows and colourful furnishings' was under the same roof. The restaurant boasted about its fine coffee, its jumbo hamburgers (elevated to the order of a banquet!), Chicken a la King, and its Chicken in a Basket, a signature entree. Its Red Brand sirloin steaks were served right off the charcoal grill. The Jiggs dinner -corned beef and cabbage - cost a reasonable 75 cents in 1949.

(Whig-Standard clippings)

A 1947 aerial view shows finishing touches being put on the new terminal. City coaches are parked nose-in to Wilmot's Dairy.

Ground-level exterior views of the terminal. A 1947 GMC Highway Cruiser:

Buses lined up in front of the terminal circa 1953. All coaches shown were 3702 models, except for new 1952 Brills:

The terminal's cavernous maintenance garage measured 254x140 feet, with overhanging heaters. Day-to-day maintenance was done in Kingston, with major jobs performed at Provincial's main garage in Montreal. This view faces east toward the maintenance in-ground pits:

The traffic circle terminal's garage closed in 1960. The entire property was up for sale (below) sucessfully purchased by Samuel Springer on July 1, 1962. The garage's interior was ideal for a bowling alley, and was taken over by Cloverleaf bowling lanes which opened on January 10, 1963.

The new 10,000 square-foot Voyageur-Colonial bus terminal at 959 Division Street near Counter Street opened in late 1972, later becoming Curley's eatery and the Portuguese cultural centre. Voyageur moved to a new terminal at 175 Counter Street on November 29, 1992, still a bus terminal served by Megabus.