Charles Nelles and the City Book Store
Charles Nelles faced a difficult dilemma. On Sept. 2, 1920, his City Book Store had been gutted by fire. Ten thousand dollars of his stock was lost. He had taken over the business from his father in 1891 and built it into a thriving concern. The loss was devastating. What should he do?
It seems that Nelles saw only one course of action: to return to business as quickly as possible. Indeed, he held a fire sale (no metaphor in this case) and renovated the store, reopening one month later. The move was a success — Nelles ran his bookstore until his retirement 10 years later.
Charles Lonsdale Nelles was born on Nov. 16, 1867, in York, Haldimand County. He turned out to be third of the eight children of John and Caroline Nelles, a descendant of United Empire Loyalist stock. In January 1879, the family moved to the Royal City and John Nelles bought out the bookstore established by John Anderson, which stood at 7 St. George’s Square, now the site of Royal Gold Jewelry.
Like many a restless youth, Nelles left his hometown to “push his fortunes,” journeying to Chicago in 1889. However, his destiny lay in the Royal City, to which he returned in a couple of years. In 1891, he took over the City Book Store from his father and closed off some of the less central profitable lines of goods such as baby carriages, children’s toys, musical instruments and sporting goods.
In 1898, he married Alice Pipe of Berlin (now Kitchener), Ont., in St. James’s Church, a parish that he had helped to found only eight years earlier.
In 1899, Charles moved the City Book Store to 81 Upper Wyndham St., currently the home of Afterlife Video Game Lounge. A Chamber of Commerce pamphlet of 1903 describes the premises as being of “ample dimensions” and “filled with books in every branch of literature,” especially the latest novels. Besides this, the City Book Store provided foreign newspapers, room mouldings, fine leather goods, office stationery and wallpaper. Indeed, the store was perhaps the largest dealer of wallpaper in western Ontario with nearly 100,000 rolls in stock. Though it may seem odd that a bookstore should sell so much wallpaper, it was not unusual at the time and was always central to Nelles’s business.
Charles Nelles was also an early adopter of picture postcards. Around 1901, he had photographs of local scenes printed up by Guelph printers for sale in his store. In 1904, he had a set of professional picture postcards printed by the Albertype Company of New York. The peak of this business was in 1905, when he sold between 20,000 and 30,000 postcards. He continued to sell postcards into the 1920s.
In 1907, apparently looking for a local change of scene, Charles Nelles was appointed manager of the Metropolitan Bank on St. George’s Square and put the City Book Store up for sale. An ad lists the value of the stock at about $10,000 and the annual income at $12,000. However, Nelles could not find any buyers with adequate funds. In 1908, tired of running both businesses, Charles resigned from the bank and returned to the book store fulltime. He continued on through war and fire.
In 1924, he moved the business to 123 Upper Wyndham St., currently Scott Coburn Optical.
In 1927, he was appointed Registrar of South Wellington County, a plum position. Perhaps this helped him decide to retire when he closed down his business in 1929, after 50 years of operation. He and Alice had no children to pass it on to.
In 1920, Charles and Alice moved to Hadden Cottage on Paisley Street, kitty corner from St. James’s Church where they had been married. He died in April 1939, only hours after Alice. His activity in its commercial and civic affairs exemplifies the gogetting, community-minded person of the middle class then burgeoning in the Royal City.