Fair’s set the standard
Part 4 of a look at the golden era of downtown department stores
The west side of George Street was marked around 1860 by four four-storey buildings that represented extraordinary optimism about Peterborough. Two were across the street from the Market Square, and became the basis for the Caisse Hotel, then the leading hotel in town; today, there is a great candy store on the main floor. In the block between Simcoe and Hunter, the two buildings were next to each other. The south building was the Dixon Block, and was long known as the James Stevenson building. This building housed the north end of the three business front for Grafton’s for most of that distinguished clothier’s 85 years on George Street.
The north building was built for Thomas Bradburn, and became home to his important grocery store. Then in 1883, Bradburn decided to go full-time into real estate, and this building, 383 George Street, was leased to Robert Fair, and was the home of Fair’s department store for over 60 years.
All four buildings were built using designs from Buffalo, New York. One of the iron pillars for 383 has been bared and the manufacturer’s mark is Buffalo.
Generally, a department store was organized around departments or areas of specialization: women’s wear, jewelry, shoes, men’s wear, candy, restaurant, and so forth. Each department had to show a profit within its operations, and contribute to the overhead of the total store. However, department stores also had the qualities of museums, and actually set the standards against which we still view museum exhibits.
People, mostly women, went to department stores to see the latest in fashions. The display windows and display cases were ideal for browsing.
Department stores also set the contemporary standards for the use of newspapers. Department stores reserved the most prominent pages of the newspaper, usually the full back page. The success of newspapers was directly tied to the success of department stores.
Thomas Bradburn (1819-1900) grew up on a farm near Ida, in Cavan township. He left to be a clerk in Bowmanville, owned by the Hon. John Simpson (1812-1885). He came to Peterborough in 1842 to work in one of Peterborough’s most important stores, owned by Oughtry Morrow. Morrow died in 1848, and Bradburn was appointed executor of the estate, and trustee for Morrow’s two children, of which R.A. Morrow eventually became well-known as the benefactor for the exhibition grounds, and for his home at Clonsilla, the hill-top house on Sherbrooke Street for which Clonsilla Avenue is named. Bradburn also married Morrow’s widow.
Thomas Bradburn was bestknown for the buildings around the market square near Simcoe and George, most of which combined commercial purposes with municipal government duties such as taxes, road and sidewalks planning, the fire department and the police department. The most significant also included the Bradburn Opera. Bradburn became Peterborough’s most important investor in local real estate, and after his death the properties were managed by the Bradburn Estate.
Bradburn turned from store management to realty interests around 1878. The Bradburns and Fairs were both farming families in Cavan township. In October 1883, Robert Fair, who had a general store in Centreville, on the road to Port Hope, leased 383 George Street from Bradburn. Robert Fair’s department store remained a fixture at that location until about 1951, 20 years after Fair had died.
Robert Fair (1854-1931) set the standard for Peterborough’s downtown department stores. Fair was Peterborough’s most innovative retailer. The late Marianne MacKenzie, former archivist and genealogist, said her grandfather W.S. Cocks designed the distinctive store logo, the lion and the golden horseshoe. The slogan, at the “Sign of the Golden Lion” appeared in Robert Fair advertising from the 1880s, and the large logo was mounted on the store front.
In the 1908 version of the Electric City, a tabloid produced by the Peterborough Review, Fair was already described as one of the oldest businesses on George Street, having then operated for 25 years. The business was incorporated as a company in February 1907, with Robert Fair as president. G. R. Browning was a director, and the secretary was Miss B. Thompson.
“The present premises are four stories in height, with a basement 25 x 120 feet in dimensions. On the first floor are general dry goods and linens. The second floor is devoted to ladies’ ready-to-wear goods and millinery, the latter one of the handsomest displays in the city. On the third floor are the dressmaking parlors, in charge of a fully competent dressmaker. On the fourth floor is the display of carpets, rugs and curtains, while in the basement are the linoleums and reserve stock. The store has a force of from 55 to 60 courteous and attentive clerks, and one of the most competent office staffs in the district. They import direct only the best goods from the world’s markets, and of exceptional uniform high quality. In its interior furnishings, handsome counters and show cases, modern devices for the display of stock, and for shelving it while not in immediate use, this store compares most favourably with any of its size in the province.”
Anne Heideman, the founding director of the Peterborough Centennial Museum, described the shopping experiences at Fair’s Department Store. I was amazed as she moved through the story as if she had a camera in her hand. She spoke of the quality of the gloves, and of the ornate stair case, and many other details. The business was the oldest on George Street when Fair died in 1931, and when the store closed around 1955. It was still arranged in 1931 much as it had been in 1908, with the business offices on the fourth floor.
According to his obituary, Robert Fair “enjoyed an enviable place in the city’s business life owing to his fine qualities of kindliness, honesty and absolute adherence to the highest business and social ethics.” Customers got dependable merchandise at moderate prices, and always service with a smile.
In 1908, Fair was chairman of the Board of Education “and is one of the most prominent figures in the commercial life of the eastern part of the province. He is a capable, conscientious business man, of marked executive ability, whose presence on any board or committee gives to it a moral as well as financial weight.”
Although, he was active at St. John’s Anglican Church and with the Masons, Fair seems to have lived a fairly lonely life. He was predeceased by his wife and only daughter. His sister Sarah lived at his fine Dickson Street residence; by 1921, he had lodgers, Agnes Lord, 33, and her son Alfred, 5, both recent immigrants from England.
The building at 383 George remained with the Bradburn family until David Bierk, a Peterborough artist with connections to New York and Los Angeles, persuaded him in 1998 that the building could be renovated to provide super spaces for artists’ studios and galleries. After 20 dumpsters of garbage, and the removal of seven layers of carpet revealed hardwood floors, the building was a fine success. Unfortunately, Bierk died in 2002.
Over the years between Fair and Bierk the Bata Shoe Company and Singer had stores here. In recent years, Flavour, a clothing store, has been the main floor tenant.