Maxwell House Coffee Week, 1948

Coming by the trainload and the truckload! And our city's consigned coffee boxcar is shown! The Whig had two full-page ads on March 11, 1948 advertising Maxwell House coffee. City merchants (above) and from the wider area. (As always, click image for a larger view.)

Watch for am upcoming post on Amherstview's history. I wonder if the bottom-left ad for the Amherst-View Grocery and Tourist Camp is one of the earliest uses of, in this case, 'Amherst-View' and where this campground may have been located. Sounds like it had a view of Amherst Island.

 

Drones over Downtown, 2022

In their 2021 year-end video, the Doornekamp companies piloted a drone over their Kingston projects. Labelled screenshots show 2021 views and snowy 2022 views. The drone footage not only shows each project, it also gives a unique perspective on the area and context in which each one is located.

 

Millard & Lumb - History

Both men for whom Millard & Lumb (M&L) was named were foremen at the Canadian Locomotive Company. Opened on December 15, 1924 and betting on the new-found process of welding, replacing riveting, the firm served the local marine industry for decades. The day they left CLC, their boss was so skeptical about the future of welding that he gave their new venture six months' future! 

In 1930, M&L welded 7.5 miles of contiguous pipe into the cooling system of the Kingston Curling Club with 2,000+ welds! This 1934 Archives of Ontario image shows M&L through the main entrance of Fort Frontenac:

A major part of M&L's work was commercial boiler repairs. During the Depression, the firm built asphalt plants for a Cleveland firm, thought to have required a railway spur to the plant to load the completed equipment. From the thirties to the fifties, employment was as high as 50. Laid-up ships made winter work for the firm. The Seaway and marine modernization doomed that line of work. 

Two Queen's University Archives photos - undated (above) and 1949 aerial (below):

The nature of its work had changed to steel fabrication for local large customers like Alcan, CFB Kingston, Celanese and Queen's University. Instead of fabrication from the ground up, importing, servicing and providing parts for established product lines like Braun high-capacity washing machines was a major part of M&L's work.

In 1974, a Whig want ad promised potential employees an hourly rate for qualified welders of $4.50 plus benefits. In 1985, the firm employed 25. It was faced with a number of challenges, including installing air purification equipment to improve the work environment for welders and fabricators, and a developer who exerted pressure on the firm to move for Frontenac Village condo construction. Twelve employees, four of whom were office workers and eight of whom were long-term workers in their fifties and sixties, were to end work on November 30, 1988, staying till December 23 to finish contracted work. Then the doors closed. It was the last industrial property to leave the downtown waterfront, in an otherwise commercial-zoned area. The triangular-shaped three-quarters of an acre of land was valued at $750,000.

As of May 1, 1944 Fred, Joseph and Melville Lumb acquired the late William J. Millard's interest in the company. Melville, President, died in 1984 at the age of 76. He was one of the original members of the Kingston Marine Fraternity, a group of local companies that promoted Kingston as a marine centre before the Seaway was completed. Then, J. Gordon Lumb (?Joseph), Frederick's son and Melville's brother, died in 1986 while President. Melville's son Richard was president when the firm closed.

The M&L building still stands at the corner of King Street and Place d'Armes, its prime three-quarter-acre site having sold in 1988 for $750,000, now looking considerably less-industrial. It's surrounded by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan building, arena, Frontenac Village and Fort Frontenac. The 7,800-square foot building  was purchased and developed by Photis Liappas in February, 1989 and redesigned with a second storey.

Classic lettering greeted motorists entering Kingston along Highway 2 via the Causeway in 1967 (top photo).

Modelling Dyeco - a Structural Flat

                                       

Dyeco is a little-known industry located at the intersection of River and Orchard Streets along the Inner Harbour. I hadn't really planned to model the industry, but I came to the realization that my Anglin tank-car unloading facility was really in the wrong spot, and that Dyeco would be a more appropriate industry to have beyond the River Street bridge. (A secret/stealth second track goes under my River Street bridge, and I'll now need to rebuild it since this industry will be staying!)

I printed off 1935, 1925, and 2019 photos of the industry for reference. I realized that the long side of the building along Orchard Street is where the CP spur was. A rummage through my scrap building drawer found two walls that would fit the bill (above). I cut a hole for the unloading door in the right-hand section, and blocked off window holes, adding door and windows to the left-hand section:

I painted both sections, now glued together, with a light brown, then dry-brushing bricks over the light brown mortar with a light rust hobby paint, then a darker red-brown. The brick colour is perhaps a little dark. A paper door was added to the unloading opening. Pilasters from a leftover Woodland Scenics (DPM) modular wall kit were also added, though my brickwork was in no way as involved as the prototype. After all, it's a backrop, and they're not supposed to have too much detail to draw the eye. I also started marking in the brick-wall lettering that I would be adding:

I used a white gel pen, and a black fine-tipped marker to rough in the lettering. Any mistakes could be covered up with another coat of reddish-brown, if necessary! I didn't think the second, smaller-font line could be well done (of Canada Limited) so I left it off. I did, however, add the baseball-style Dyeco logo, moving its location to the right, and weathering all the lettering. Perhaps on the prototype it was gone by my nominally 1970 modelled era, but I enjoy seeing and painting this type of original, old-timey lettering, so here it is!

I added side end walls about one half-inch deep, glazed the windows with acetate, then smokestack and pipes on the roof top. The smokestack is only half-circumference, blending into the wall better and not leaving a shadow in photographs. The completed structural flat with a few details is shown below. I still need to emplace it, bring the spur closer to the building, and scenick the area. It was a fun two-day pandemic project!

Dyeco Limited - History

"Kingston people know curiously little about this new factory which has sprung up so quietly on the city's industrial site", proclaimed a May 7, 1925 article on the newly-built Dye & Chemical Company plant. "A plant, so small and unknown" was a manufacturer and distributor of natural and synthetic colour for the food industry, plus chemicals for pulp & paper and dry-cleaning industries, the company's presence in Kingston was established under city by-law No. 41 passed on December 13, 1923. The by-law stipulated that the company spend at least $50,000 in Kingston within two years, and it was to be situated on a five-acre lot and was incorporated in 1924. In October of that year, the contract for construction of its initial brick buildings was taken on by McKelvey & Birch with a crew of fifty supervised by Major A.E. Goodwin. Production of textile soaps, food colours and pharmaceutical preparation to begin in mid-1925, and the deed transferred from the city in October of that year. (Queen's University Archives: top photo - 1949 aerial view; below - rear view of the building in 1952).

The plant was located here not only due to the nearby waterfront, but also because of the proximity of Queen's University, hoped to prove valuable to the company's experts. A big library, and scientific consultants! At the time, Canada's dye consumption was $2 million per yeat, and the policy of the city's industries committee was to encourage industries to locate here by providing the following: a free site, an all-important railway siding, and an exemption from taxes except school taxes, based on a fixed assessment of $25,000 at that time. The company planned to erect fireproof buildings, after recent fires, including the Davis Tannery. Local residents were assured that there would be no unpleasant odours or other inconvenience to the immediate neighbourhood (take that, tannery!). In addition, the plant would "take its place among the foremost industrial plants of a technical character in Canada".

Dr. F.W. Atack, the company's President, was an engineer and a major figure in the British dye industry during World War I. An author of textbooks on industrial chemistry, he held patents used in British, American and German chemical plants. Dr. Atack asked the city to continue the use of the siding along Orchard Street, 250 feet past the limit of River Street in October, 1924. He also asked the city to extend a road 150 feet in that direction. A 1925 photo (above) showing the CP spur in front of the three-storey brick building, and a 1934 photo, showing the same side of the building, both from the Whig:

During World War II, Dr. Atack chaired Kingston War Services. The plant had several secret war contracts, producing paint to detect the use of mustard gas. A $40,000 addition was undertaken in 1951. Daniel Atack took over from his father as President in 1961. 

Daniel Atack's August 27, 2019 Whig obituary noted that he was a proud and lifelong Kingstonian, spending his early years living at Bellevue House, where in later years he loved to take his grandkids and great grandkids so they could see where he grew up. After graduating from KCVI, he was on to Queen's University to study Chemical Engineering. While he enjoyed his studies, he would tell you the most important thing he did at Queen's was meet Marion, the love of his life, over a dissected turtle. They were married after graduation and headed off to Bathurst, New Brunswick where Dan worked at Bathurst Power and Paper. After two years in Bathurst, Dan returned to Kingston in 1951 with pregnant wife in tow, to work for Dyeco Limited, where he eventually became President and Chairman of the Board until he sold the company and retired in 1989. 

W.A.J. Atack was Manager of Manufacturing in 1963, having been with the company since 1955. In 1976, the company sold 400,000 pounds of specialized dyes for Canada's major food producers, with 75% going to Montreal and Southwest Ontario, and was one of three producers of caramel in Canada.

The company's office in March, 1952 (above - Queen's University Archives photo). The company's name was officially changed to Dyeco from Dye and Chemical Co. of Canada Ltd. in 1979, though Dyeco was the trademarked name of its products as early as 1928.

The above 1947 Whig help wanted ad shows that there was no human resources department! The plant was never likely to have a large workforce - there were 28 employees in 1955 and 1976, 26 in 1984, and 40 in 1988.

Dyeco was sold to Milwaukee-based Universal Foods in 1989, at which time Owen Morgan, formerly Manager of Marketing and having worked at Dyeco since 1951, was president. Daniel Atack stayed on after his own retirement as Chairman. Duane Ramsay was chemist, manager, then First Vice-President. The firm also had a significant share of the $10 million Canadian food-colour market at the time of the sale, with most products exported to the U.S. In 1991, Dyeco was extracting dyes from 150 tonnes of annatto seeds annually, imported from Peru Dyeco management was concerned that encouraging nearby residential buildings could lead to residents wanting the plant to relocate.

It could be said that Kingston people still know curiously little of this plant, today operated by Sensient Technologies. Sensient, based in Milwaukee, is a global developer and marketer of high-performance, technology-based color, flavour and fragrance systems, with global operations serving customers in more than 150 countries with annual revenues surpassing $1.5 billion.

It looks as if Dyeco's original building will see its centenary. It's still alongside the Urban K&P Trail, photographed during our walk in August of 2019 (below).

Shipping by rail: Duane Ramsay added that coal was received on the CP spur until just before 1961, when the boilers were switched to oil as fuel source.

April 2022 UPDATE: A view of Sensient Technologies from Orchard Street: 

1st CSR Freedom of the City - June, 1975

On June 21, 1975 the 1st Canadian Signal Regiment was granted the Freedom of the City of Kingston. After beginning the ceremony by marching to City Hall from Royal Military College's parade square, the parade was ceremonially stopped by the Chief Constable just before City Hall. This ancient custom allowed the duly-permitted military formation to pass through the city with drums beating, beyonets fixed and colours flying. But first, speeches! The furled, encased colours can be seen just above the third soldier's head (top photo).

His Worship Mayor George Speal inspected 315 members of the regiment on its march-past. The flying colours can be seen just above the crouching civilian in the street! A few steps later, the photographer, who was also my Dad, L.C. Gagnon, snaps the same scene in black & white on his Kodak Instamatic cameras, one loaded with B&W, the other with slide film. My brother David kindly scanned many of his slides and provided me with digital copies.

The band of the 709 (Toronto) Communications Regiment provides the music as the march-past continues.

After circling City Hall and the market square block, the parade then went up Brock Street, across Montreal Street, then down Princess Street before returning to the base. In these two photos, they pass our family's vantage point at Market Street on King Street. Note the Kingston Transit bus:

The regiment marches proudly down Princess Street...

...followed by the scarlet-coated band and another Kingston Transit bus:

Such civic-military ceremonies not only enlivened the downtown. They also reinforced the strong ties between the units based in Kingston and its citizenry, with a nod to historical customs reaching back to the early years of the British military presence in Kingston and before.

Car vs. Train at Cataraqui - August 31, 1951

 

Once again, photos meet news! George Lilley photographed his fair share of car vs. train collisions. Usually at night, with flash equipment! This Queen's University Archives image (top photo) caught my eye because of the interaction of police, a member of the locomotive crew, and bystanders. Looks like he's giving a statement. 

Documenting the scene at all angles, it's Lilley's last photo (below) that made the Whig on August 31, 1951. Non-fatal, the article below gives the details of the 10 p.m., August 30 incident. The Heyman vehicle was stopped at the Princess Street level crossing (now an overpass) in Cataraqui. The Eves vehicle collided with it, pushing it clear of the tracks, and the Eves car's two occupants were directly in line of an onrushing steam-powered westbound freight train barrelling towards them at 50 mph. Imagine the sheer terror! The car was demolished, carried one-third mile down the track, impaled on the cowcatcher of CNR 5158. In fact, its coupler struck the driver's side door directly!

Reproduction and newsprint ink did not do justice to Mr Lilley's photography. This photo (below) shows CNR 5158 at left, the unfortunate auto (not the fortunate occupants, though!), and an eastbound diesel-powered freight with CN 9046 (only one month old!) on the other track. Perhaps this train was the one used to un-impale the car with chains.

It was great to have this photos-to-news correlation. The article adds additional information. The statement-giving CN engineer was A.G. Bishop of Belleville, almost back to his home terminal when misfortune struck. Lucky Roy Eves was married the next day; his passenger sister two weeks later! The 'people' photo was so cropped to fit into the newsy page that it lost lots of its drama. 

Interestingly, Mr Lilley returned to the scene the next day, taking a couple of contextual photos, giving us a nice view of a steam-powered westbound freight passing the current site of Kingston's VIA station. That wooden house is on the north side of the tracks, apparently near the Counter Street crossing, also now an overpass!

I enlarged the view of the negative (above) to show the train to advantage. The wider shot is below:

Books in Bath!

Local authors, local booksellers. After seeing a 'Naturally L&A' TV commercial for Bath's Books on Main on Global Kingston, I was pleased to visit their store today. Andrew and Aline, the owners, have kindly agreed to stock both my books on Kingston's waterfront history in their Local Authors section. Local authors' books are sold by consignment, with the book creator receiving 80% of the sale price. 

The bright and airy shop included a sunny reading nook facing Main Street/Highway 33 - definitely a good spot to curl up with a good book.

I haven't tried dealing with behemoth booksellers Indigo or Amazon. I'd much rather deal with local folks at Bath's Books on Main and downtown Kingston's Novel Idea.

And no, nobody has ever told me they've read my books in the bath. But now, books in Bath is a very real thing!