HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1975-07-24, Page 28Willlatn•Strettsa
TOWnsendStreet ..
The P lcSe I
t f
Gerold l lin
''the present Napo Datums
.:Holiday Home."' at the southeast
Burner of, Ontario and W#iliam
Streets was builtabout 1870 by W.
Little contractor,, -as a Public
School. the grounds. of which
extended south to Townsend
Street,. So far as is [mown this was
the first building on the site but
the possibility of earlier buildings
is not ruled out. This was mit the
first public sehool in town but the*
history of prior setae's is very
poorly known.
As discussed relative ',to St.
Paul's Church (see 73) there is a
question as to whether- the _.
Canada Company built two
buildinge . e On Abe chtircb
ground, designated for rt:ltgiou
and edtecational purposesi bet-
ween i$ • and 1831. 71w is.fairly
certain at fabw-itng the SchMb.,l
Act of 1 * a wooden school was
built at the southeast • corner of
the eiaitrch grounds lot whether
this was on the present church,
grounds or beside the grounds to -
the east is uncertain. It is *nest
certain that by 1854 the wooden
school was replaced, apparently
on the same site. by a brick
school "that formerly stead
where the 'house of Mr. James
Smith now (1900) stands."
Most writings on the history•of-
schools in Clifton have claimed
that the next school after the one
associated with St. Paul's :was on
Townsend , Street occupying the
present two houses at 114 and 120
Townsend Street. However._ an
•anonymous article written in 1932
stades at 'the school after` the
rich.
school at thesoutheast
corn.+er of St. *Pours ."...
somewhat more conimodious,
was situated on Mbert Street lust
• opposite Fair's Mill. The first
teacher here was Or. d inion
who was subsequently succeeded
by Mr. Charles Moore who had
the distinction of teaching In
three different buildingP during
his term." No ocher i�nitrrrrxtaiton
`has been found on the school
'toppositc Fair's Mill'but since
in the article Mr. Moore, is traced
through to the school an ,.Town-
send Street. the existence of
which is well confirmed, the
article can be regarded as
reliable.. -
According to -the same article.
the next location' of the public
school was at the nctrthwest
corner of Cutter and VictoriaE
Streets "where thehospital now
state '. (See 23),. In 1$7S'thls #i d Schoolf.
4t' tt"+Itittin.of
is known to have been occupied teachers will Mtr, #:herb as
by Mr. McMurray's house a the Model Schen! teacher. Mr. ,7axnes
corner, and A.T. Salt's Turnbull was principal- of 'the.
restaurant immediately to the .
High School
chool heldin the same
warstin snippet .thoblub pdreinsgusrr,ably ebeddedngin.,li1834 bMyaMlloc. Wh.Rwsf •sagcb;
The next school mentioned in ... who held the position of
the article is the ane at 114 principal .., for nearly a quarter
Townsei d Street, Other .writings of a century,. In 1907.he was
claim that the house at In succeeded by Mr. John Hartley."
Townsend Street wos.,ots0 part of At the time :tbe article was
the school, but the latter house is written in 1912 Mr. C.D. Bouck
not Inerationed in the article. was principal. He was succeeded
Referring to .114 Townsend Street- by Mr. George Jefferson, of
the article. continues "This school
was opened with great ceremony
... Mr. Moore was stilt principal
and' had able assistants.in Miss
Eddy and 'Miss Bishop. He was
followed by Mr.`McFaul who was
again. succeeded by Mr. James
Scott ... In the early seventies the
present building (Le. at the
corner of William and Ontario)
took the place of the former
structure. Mr. Scott was suc-
ceeded by Mr. Malleoh who
resigned in 1883 having been
principal for 14 years ... In 1881,
the " school became a Model
recent memory, •
The school at the corner of
William and Ontario Streets, as
originally built. had separate
entrances facing Ontario Street
for the male and female cone
tingents., was heated by stoves, r.
and iia correspoaderfce with the
two entrances had separate sets
of outdoor privies at the rear
warmed only by the animal heat
of the users. All this was changed
in a . series of structural
alterations from 1893 to 189$ and
again in 1912 which saw the
E'r•• Public School about 1
my%' and girls' entrances.
1
after 'central heating bad been installed. but still with separate
- From main w�
(continued from page 3)
11). Immediately after it ce ►ed
wing the past office it became
srthur• Couch's butcher shop.
In later years it was. amongst
taw things, a bout and shoe shop
J. Watt's), a laundry (Mr.
('unsipney )' and u sewing
machine shop (William Moore).
hi the lute 20's or early 30's it was
+aken over by Glennie Cook as a
.swing machine shop to *bleb
bicycle sand radio saleu ; were
added. Mr. Cook started selling
loot dogs from the strop through a
small wicket opening onto the
street, on • Saturday nights.
Imogene Andrews being the
chief hot dog djispenser. The hot:
dog business apimrently out
paged the others parts of the
tusiness,.and Mr. Cook converted
his premises into a lunch counter.
From there' he moved to larger
quarters as described in the
,foregoing.. and ultimately took
over the Hotel Clinton.
The Hotel Clinton
At the site of the present Hotel
Clinton William and Isaac Grigg
built a biacksmith.shop in 1852. It
apparently stood until 1872 when
Isaac. Rattenbury. son of
William. -leaving the ~original
hotel at the Bank of Montreal
corner, set up a small hotel where
Grigg's blacksmith was.. His
business prospered and he
enlarged the building until it was
about the same size a`s the
present hotel but of frame con-
struction. This hotel was com-
pletely burned.• in the "foundry
Fere" of May 13. 1907 (see 28). A
contract was let"the same year by
Isaac's brother Joseph to
Thomas tvlackenzie for- con-
struction of the present building.
It was opened in May of 1908.
The hotel stables stood behind
the hotel; facing onto 'Ontario"
Street where. Lorne Brown's
'garage. now stands. The stables
were saved from the 1907 fire
largely through the efforts of
Fred Picket and thirty Fitz-
simmons limo stood with their
bares to the burning hotel
pl* lag n hose en the barn. Their
clothing repeatedly) ,caught lira
"(as did.' the hat 'of Mrs. A.O.
Pattison - extinguished by Mrs.
S.4-1. 'Smith) but 'the stable was.
saved. Some material from the
stables was used in the con-
struction of Brown's garage;
Just west 'of the stables on
Ontariii Street. on the present site
of the parking lot at Brown'sj
garage. was Jim Flynn's
blacksmith shop. It was built in
August 1873 by Thomas Tipling
and taken over in June 1891 by
Jim Flynn - "a steady industrious
young"mon." In the 1907 fire, the
blacksmith shop -was saved by a
bucket brigade which passed
water to Mr. Flynn who, perched
a ilaatit:`k+ept, the roof wetted. In its
later days, still kept by Mr.
Fl nn. the old building had a
prtarious Lean to westward
which was stays by an
arrangement of start props
thrusting eastward. The building
was demolished in 1939.
1 CENTRAL MACmNINE
1
Building 2. Vanast+ra
t eside'€3ase Fairy Outlet/
Sieve b Edgar Rathweli. Proprietors
For: .
.Custom Machine Work
Production Maclaine. Work
_ General Machine Repairs
•
Congratulatjons
to the
People of Clinton
on the Occasion of the
lOOth anniversary of the Founding
of the T�wn. Weio�k forward to
continuing to co-operate with our many
friends in the community..
Tuckey Beverages
Dottie
1t