Brock Street: From industrial to commercial
Third in a series looking at the history of this city street
Between Water and George, Brock Street became by turns industrial and commercial. The building on the south-west corner, which was under construction in 1864, was the site of a major carriage factory, and later of the Canadian Canoe Company. In its last years it was a Brewers Retail outlet.
On the north side of Brock were several buildings which were residential but converted to commercial and office space in the 20th century. The rest of the north side was the site of one of the most iconic combinations, the Little Windsor Hotel (often known by other titles, including Pig’s Ear) and the Morrow Building. The hotel dates from the early 1860s while the Morrow Building and its addition were built in 1880 and 1882. The Morrow Building was a dramatic, but small, example of the Second Empire style characterized by the Mansard roof and the fashionable fenestration. The building’s main tenant was the new post office and was part of a strategy to move the downtown north. The building, with the Cluxton Building at Hunter and George, set the standard for modernization in the downtown.
On the south side, there were two buildings that were longtime fixtures of the downtown. On the corner of Brock and Water, the Francis Birdsall building was built to meet the standards of George Fitzgerald, the proprietor of the very successful carriage manufacturing business, known in the 1880s as Fitzgerald and Stanger and later as Fitzgerald and Co.
The two principals were
George Fitzgerald (1847-1915) and John Stanger (1853-1933). Both were life-longer carriage makers. Fitzgerald was born in Smith Township, where there were several Fitzgerald families, some who had emigrated from Ireland in 1825. Stanger was born in the Orkney Islands and came to Canada in 1868, and lived his last thirty years at 311 Stewart Street.
The Fitzgerald and Stanger factory then at Aylmer and Charlotte was burned to the ground in September 1882. Francis Birdsall built a new building to Fitzgerald’s standards.
Surprisingly, the Torontobased historian, Charles P. Mulvany, who was compiling his history of Peterborough town and county was in town on September 19, 1883. Here, he witnessed a “dangerous fire” that broke out behind the Kineely (Kennealy) House at George and Brock and spread from the neighboring Water Street livery stables of Hopkins and Montgomery and on to the large Fitzgerald and Stanger carriage factory at the corner of Water and Brock. As Mulvany observed, “by the exertions of the Fire Brigade, the conflagration which it had seemed impossible to check, was wholly overpowered.
The factory was rebuilt quite quickly, and was designed to have two factories in the same building. One half of the building fronted on Water Street
(473 Water) and the other, at 131 Brock Street. The part facing Water Street was the home of the Canadian Canoe Company from 1892 to 1904 and is welldescribed in Ken Brown’s history of the Canadian Canoe Company. The Fitzgerald and Stanger factory fronted at 131 Brock Street and may have occupied both halves at various times.
In 1888, David Marshall was a carriage trimmer for Fitzgerald and Stanger.
Tobias Fitzgerald had a carriage manufacturing business on Charlotte Street that he sold to the Porter Brothers. Sam Fitzgerald was employed by Porter Brothers. William was a builder, and Tobias was working as a carpenter and running a livery stable. While Tobias was mainly associated with a Charlotte Street livery business, he seems to have been active in carriage making.
Peterborough had several carriage makers over the years, and all attracted workers with technical and artistic skills in carpentry, wheel making, and painting.
Fitzgerald and Company was still active into the 1930s even after Fitzgerald’s death and was still at 131 Brock Street; Charles Adair was the manager in the 1920s. The company had changed with the times and by the 1920s its main activities were the making of bread and milk wagons, including some in Oshawa. The business was acquired by H. B. McGinness by 1937 who continued those activities and expanded into the making of vacation vehicles. Eventually the extensive factory was on Lansdowne Street east of Ashburnham Drive.
The other half of the south side of this block was occupied by the Commercial Hotel, which at the time of the 1883 fire was called the Kenneally House. During the nineteenth-century, hoteliers frequently leased rooms and lobbies from others. Kenneally moved from this corner of Brock and George to the newly built hotel owned by the Chamberlain estate that became most famously known as the Empress Hotel, at Charlotte and Water.
Tradition says that in 1825 Robert Reid declined the offer of the half acre lot on the south-east corner of George and Hunter Streets as the property had a low-lying swamp. Over the years landfill raised the land some seven feet above the 1825 level.
In 1826 Thomas Harper acquired this land and built a fanning mill and his home. In 1840, the fanning mill was moved a block north to Brock and George. Giles Webber worked for man named Lawson, making fanning
mills (old Commercial House building, standing at corner of Brock and George Streets).
The fanning mill building became a hostel known as the Frame Hotel and Palmer's Hotel before 1850. During the 1850's it was Lawson's Hotel. In the 1860's Mr. Lawson leased it to Peter Huffman and it was known as the Huffman Hotel. By 1869, the owner was George Crown. At some point, because of the changing level of George Street, the first storey was added last.
The building at 440 George Street was best known as the Commercial Hotel, but the first Commercial Hotel was built in brick by Thomas Chambers in 1847 at Water and Hunter, now the site of the Commerce Building.
Long after it had ceased to be a hotel, the building at Brock and George lasted until the 1950s when the current low-level building, originally with a circus tent roof, was built for Sandy’s Department Stores. In its final years, the main tenants were the Downeyflake Coffee Shop restaurant, McFadden’s jeweller, and Schwartz’ Ladies Wear. It had ceased to be a hotel by the end of the nineteenth century.
On the north side of Brock between Water and George were characterized by landmark buildings at George, and the start of a classy residential street that ran north on Water Street eventually from Brock to Parkhill. The residential area was enhanced by the active landscaping efforts at Victoria Park in the 1880s. The ISL building, now anchoring this corner, includes three buildings that went along Brock Street.
The best-known of the former buildings was the ubique store run by the colourful Johnny Butcher (d. 1941), described lovingly by Anne Heideman in Land of Shining Waters. He was a tall man who always wore a fedora and smoked a bent stem pipe. He may have run Peterborough’s first five and ten cent store, the go to store for Christmas shopping. To Anne Heideman, the arrival of chain stores spelled the end of such wonderland stores as Johnny Butcher’s. He then moved to 134 Brock Street where his merchandise was stuffed into two floors and the basement. Often he had things no one else had. One person bet he did not have a pulpit, but sure enough he did have one hanging in the shadows at the rear of the store.
The Morrow Building and the adjacent New Windsor Hotel (known in recent years as the Pig’s Ear) are the most important buildings on this stretch of Brock Street. George Street was the business heart of the city even here. Elwood H. Jones, archivist, Trent Valley Archives, can be reached at elwood@trentvalleyarchives.com. Trent Valley Archives has a membership campaign that features me hosting a tour of the Trent Valley Archives. The current issue of Heritage Gazette of the Trent Valley is available at Trent Valley Archives, 567 Carnegie Ave. For details see www.trentvalleyarchives.com or phone 705-7454404 and ask for Heather.