What’s in a Picture?- Mill Street– Ray Paquette

Yesterday I posted this picture (on of my fave photos) in the story Who You Going to Call? The Constables of 1861 ( see photo credits below) – Got a note from one of my favourite local historians Ray Paquette, and well I have to share. So what was in that empty spot next to the Brown stone home on Mill Street in Carleton Place that is now an empty parking lot? Here are Ray’s words:

Originally the building was Don Switzer’s Chrysler dealership during the the ’50’s. The Switzer family lived in the former Brown residence. The dealership later became *Milt Phillips Motors where I worked while in grade 11 and 12 along with the office manager, Leo McDiarmid , the sole survivor of the four McDiarmid boys who went joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in WW I.

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal, 25 Sep 1959, Fri, Page 46

The Brown Bolton condominiums was the Ritchie Feed and Seed while Don MacGregor ran a body shop out of the site of Slackoni’s . The Carleton Place Hydro office was in a home on the site of the municipal park while the large warehouse on the corner of Mill and Beckwith was the site of Rubino Bros Produce.

I first met Milt Phillips when he was my neighbour on Herriott Street. At that time he was a Sargent in the Royal Canadian Army Pay Corps stationed in Ottawa. His family and mine are entwined through my sister who was/is good friends with his twins-Lynn and Lee. Sadly, my former boss *Milt Phillips passed away recently in his ’90’s in February. Ray Paquette

Author’s note– I learned a lot about Milt Phillips from Wally Cook when I was fighting to get the North Industrial Park name changed to the Dunlop Industrial Park. These men that were once involved in our running our town were amazing and should never me forgotten. I once asked Wally if they ever had closed/off camera town council meetings and he shook his head and began to laugh,

“Heck, we only had one because McKittrick was sick and we didn’t know what to do.”

Top photo credit–Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum photo-by Blaine Cornell–This is his Dad Herb Cornell with Ray McIsaac- Check out the corner after the old Taylor’s Garage. There was a building there where there is an empty parking lot now next to Spartan’s Pizza

Milton Phillips Obituary-

PHILLIPS, Milton Ernest Gordon
Passed to glory on Monday, February 20, 2017 at the Queensway Carleton Hospital in Ottawa in his 93rd year. Born in Smiths Falls to Gordon and Eva Phillips. Beloved husband of Doris (nee Dodds, deceased in 2012). Loved by children Susan (Dennis) Bjerstedt, Lynn (Bob) Barrett and Lee (Marsha) Phillips; eight grandchildren; and eleven great- grandchildren. Milton was a WW2 veteran and retired from the Ontario Government in 1987. Friends are invited to visit with the family at the Lannin Funeral Home, Smiths Falls on Friday, February 24, 2017 from 11:00 a.m. until time of Funeral Service in the chapel at 1:00 p.m. Interment to follow at Hillcrest Cemetery. As expressions of sympathy, donations to Billy Graham Memorial Foundation or any charity of your choice would be appreciated by the family.

Milt Philips-Contributor to Carleton Place industrial development remembered

Milt Phillips-“Milt Phillips and councillor Wally Cook paid a visit to the industrial company Santus in Chicago to determine some of the reasons why Carleton Place was not chosen as the plant site”.–Why the Hershey Chocolate Company Never Came to Carleton Place

Milt Phillips- Picture of Milt here in this story-Do You Remember? Memories of the Pengor Penguin

Milt Phillips- photo in The Name Game —The Dunlops and the North Industrial Park

Rubinos

Clipped from The Ottawa Journal, 11 Jul 1963, Thu, Page 40

The new fire hall on Mill Street was under construction in 1978. It later became the Youth Centre, and has now been torn down and is the site of the new Public Washrooms.
Note the absence of a clock in the Town Hall clock tower, and the two houses this side of town hall. The red brick one housed the Hydro Electric Commission for many years. —Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum

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