Monarch Battery - History

In 1921, the Monarch Battery Manufacturing Company made its first batteries in Kingston. In 1922, the operation moved from the 'Street Railway building' to the four-storey I. Cohen building on Ontario Street. At the time, Monarch was referred to locally as 'a Cohen industry' and Isaac Cohen was President. This 1926 ad, published at the time of lobbying for a fixed tax assessment, gives an indication of the company's early history, begun with a stock from another Ontario battery firm:

Monarch was listed in the 1927 Kingston directory, but no address given. Beginning broadcasting two years after CFRC that operated at Queen's (Canada's Famous Rugby Champions - Kingston's first radio station), Monarch's CFMC broadcast music from atop their building as an offshoot of the battery business. Their building (top photo) was located at 540 Montreal Street at Joseph Street, at the end of a 1500-foot CP spur through the Cohen property west of Montreal Street. (The building was later occupied by William J. Wing's machinist shop, then Pilkington Glass circa 1946. The spur was still in place in 1978, and the building is now occupied by Home Base Housing.) A June, 1928 ad includes some glowing ad copy! At the time, the company was also placing ads in the Canadian Jewish Review magazine.

Monarch Battery outgrew its premises on 540 Montreal Street and moved north to the Outer Station (former Reliance Moulding) site on Maple Street in 1937. Monarch frequently advertised in the Whig-Standard, especially proud of its move to the new site, with the new factory figuring prominently in this 1938 ad:

1939 Kingston directory cover ad (above ) and a 1946 Whig picture:

A July, 1946 strike by hourly workers, largely over a 20-cent raise, was covered by the Whig. General Manager S.J. Cohen was at odds with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America local. Men's wages were 54 to 71 cents per hour, with women's lower at 43 to 60 cents. This photo of the strike shows the neat lettering on the plant's side: 

Monarch Battery seems to have been a local success story. It's products were prominently displayed on billboards towering over upper Princess Street in 1952 (Queen's University Archives photo): 

The Kingston and Calgary Gould factories were bought by Winnipeg's Globelite Batteries in 1959. Globelite operated into 1963, when the company moved operations to a new plant built in Toronto. The property may have been taken over by Frontenac Floor & Wall Tile. The factory has been the site of Presland Iron & Steel since 1970.