McKelvey & Birch and MacPherson - History

This 1876 British Whig ad for McKelvey & Birch on Brck [sic] Street (top photo) was certainly not their first. The firm was named for its founders - John McKelvey and Samuel Birch. Birch reportedly installed the first hot-water heating system in London, England! A Kingston presence since 1854 as advertised in the Daily News, the company's presence downtown was first at 75 Wellington Street, then 186 Wellington Street, then 69-71 Brock Street in 1869. (Initially with partner George Chown, the business was known as Chown & McKelvey for the three years until partnering with Samuel Birch in 1865.) Mr Birch died some years before Mr McKelvey's retirement in 1917. Imagine...bell-hanging and steamboat work were among their advertised specialties. The firm also sold Quebec and McClary heaters and stoves. One of their portfolio of services was snow-shovelling, as in this 1920 Whig ad (below). The Whig is the source of most items in this post.

The firm was sold to a joint stock company in October of 1916: John McKelvey, Daniel Smith, President C.A. MacPherson, Manager James Druce and Secretary William Warren. Treasurer was A.M. Clark. C.A. MacPherson was president in 1926, when the firm had 150 employees. 

Their subsequent Tank Factory was at 468 Rideau Street, a vacant building (Monarch Battery?) for which they paid $27,000. This building was also known as the John Litton property, bought in 1926. J.W. Litton was the contractor for the building, though this was NOT the Wettlaufer Factory referenced in some accounts. It was actually to be known as the Thomas Watson Co. (Manufacturing of tanks had begun in the rear of their Brock Street property in 1924 before outgrowing it. That location had one 5 HP motor and a few machines. For a short time, moving manufacturing also took place at a property on Princess Street.)  The finished products became so large and involved that they could not be moved out the door, so the subsequent move to Rideau Street was overdue. Mr. Litton impatiently waited for the  city to approve a rail spur, as it was hampering work at the factory. CP was authorized to construct a spur to Watson-Lytton [sic] by CP on August 29, 1922.

The building was a 100x70-foot foundry and a 170x70-foot machine shop. Concrete construction, reinforced with 60,000 lbs. of steel, the first storey was surrounded mostly by windows, and a second elevation with additional windows for more light and for ventilation. Foundry capacity was reported to be 12,000 tons for casting work. Anticipated completion of construction was for October 1, 1926. One-hundred workers were expected, with preference given to married men.

A major campaign for a fixed assessment of $10,000 was a political story in Kingston in the mid 1920's, such as this ad published on December 1, 1926 which reads like a bit of business blackmail (below). Initially producing crushers, mixers, screens and other iron and steel work, the firm was also in the construction business, building the Imperial Oil limestone warehouse and Ontario Hospital boiler house, among many other projects. Apprentice plumbers were paid $7 a week in 1923. The firm also supplied boilers to the Kingston Collegiate Institute.

And another campaign ad from 1931:

On August 11, 1933 the firm became C.E. MacPherson, a bookkeeper with the former owners. Their products were stamped with the company's name and location, purchased by companies from Newfoundland to the Prairies. They had six travelling salesmen across the country. The McKelvey & Birch name died away in April 1, 1936 becoming Crane Limited of Kingston, a branch of Crane Ltd. of Montreal. McKelvey & Birch and Crane were both suppliers of pipe for the construction of Kingston gas utilities in the 1920's. A 1938 Crane ad still gives 71 Brock Street as the address: 

When first occupied by McKelvey & Birch, a bit of creative retouching was done to this photo of the plant, published in a 1929 publicity brochure on Kingston: 

A 1955 photo of the Rideau Street plant: 

The photo is from this Whig ad, which gives details on the specialized equipment, products, their destinations and the plants then-40 workers:

A 1949 aerial view of the plant by George Lilley (from the Queen's University Archives) shows the plant spur at left, Rideau Street, then the diverging CP and CN branchlines at right:

Kingston Police have rolled up on a Volkswagen driver who collided with a utility pole on December 2, 1968. The photo as published was cropped tightly around the constable and the VW, with little of the background shown and no location given, but it looks like MacPherson at left! (Queen's University Archives photo):

An expansion in 1969 added 5,000 square feet to the plant for production and storage, with equipment from Germany imported to produce larger and heavier tank heads. The shop's 35 employees could see as many as 20 new colleagues as a result. A 1980 strike, the first in the company's 47-year history gives us this Whig clipping showing the end door and lettering on the building:

The article notes the death of the last MacPherson family member closely involved with the plant and its sale to TIW Industries in 1973. The building was demolished sometime between 1998 and 2004.