A fire that broke out about 4:30 last Thursday afternoon seriously damaged the Almonte Bakery on Queen Street. Firemen fought the blaze for over an hour before it was brought under control. The fire, which broke out under a stairway at the rear of the oven, gutted the baking area and kitchen and caused considerable damage to an upstairs apartment and the roof. A garage adjacent to the rear of the shop was also damaged as was the house next door belonging to Mr. and Mrs Frank Vetter.
Firemen of the Almonte Fire Department, however, kept the blaze from spreading. Cause of the fire was not immediately known. Made temporarily homeless by the blaze were Mr. and Mrs. Robert Aitkenhead Sr., proprietors of Almonte Bakery and daughter, Mildred Aitkenhead. Mr. Aitkenhead was taken through a window on the second floor by his son Bob when they were trapped by the flames.
Marion and Mildred Aitknhead and Ruthie Burnside April 9 1930 20 Frank Street Carleton Place
Aitkenhead – The Almonte Bakery Ontario,Queen Street 1969 (Look at the building across the street)
He was assisted by Boyd Jamieson and Gordon Donaldson who rushed over from the Co-op store with a 32 foot ladder. Mr. Aitkenhead had not been feeling well and was in bed when the fire started. Only quick thinking on the part of all concerned averted a tragedy. He was treated at Almonte General Hospital for smoke inhalation and released.The family’s pet dog was dropped out the second floor window into the arms of a bystander. She quickly made tracks for parts unknown but was at the door again the next morning. No estimate of damage is yet available but at the present time Mr. Aitkenhead plans on re-opening the business as soon as repairs can be completed.
The Aitkenhead family have operated the bake shop for the past 24 years. Although the history of the building is somewhat clouded, it has been both a bake shop and a private home at various times in its past. The Vetter home next door which was also threatened is one of Almonte’s older landmarks, its age being well over the century mark. April 1971
This was the store and express headquarters of the late Jasper Jessel Hitmore, on the north side ef Wellington street near the corner ef Lyon in the block which will become new government building and courts. In the 1870s this house is one of a type which represented Wellington street as it used to look between the forties and seventies. In the picture are seen (left to right) James Wigmore, Mrs. Jasper Wigmore. Jasper Wigmore, “Dad” and James Currell, who worked for Mr. Wigmore.
Ottawa in color on lower Wellington street around Pooley s bridge was a regular beehive of Industry. Moreover, it is the story of bread that essential of life. In Ottawa prior to the Introduction of dough machines. It Is the story of the old Ottawa, bakers.
The narrator is Mr. George J. Aitkenhead of Omaha, Nebraska, started his apprenticeship as a baker with his father in the 1870s went to Ottawa in the early 1880s, where he engaged in the same with R. E. and J. C. Jamieson, one of the leading bakery firm of period, whose place of business was on the south side of Wellington street, just west of Pooley Bridge. In later years Mr. Aitkenhead was in business for himself on McLeod street. George Aitkenhead was born in Glasgow, Scotland when young Aitkenhead (he was twenty-four then) landed in Ottawa with but $2 50 in his jeans and no immediate prospect of work. For several days he tramped the streets the Capital in search of employment, having in the meantime secured temporary lodgings at the home of Mr. Joseph Pageau on Lett street. Finally, after many discouraging calls, tempered with many kind ad- monitions not to be discouraged, he landed a job with the Jamieson firm.
Aitkenhead Bakery deliveries- lower end of Wellington street Ottawa from the Aikenhead photo collection of which I preserve.
He worked in the shop twelve hours a day for seven dollars a week. Young Aitkenhead found that Canadian and Scottish bakery methods were considerably different and that the laws pertaining to the same were also different. In Scotland the bakeries had only been run in the daytime. He found that here, on the contrary, all bakers worked at night. He was obliged to report at twelve midnight and remain on the job until noon the next day.
When Mr. Aitkenhead left Scotland, the bakers were still kneading the dough with their hands. He found the practice the same here in that respect (machinery did not come in till about 1887). But things were different in styles of bread manufacture. For instance in Glasgow and other parts of Scotland, pans were not used and the loaves were laid side with the side of each loaf being greased with lard to make it part easily. The result was a series of loaves, with crust only on the tops and bottoms. In Ottawa the only loaves that were anything like Scotch ioaves were the so-called “split loaves,” or twin loaves, which had crust all over except on the parted side.
Then, too, the bread ovens in Scotland hsd stone bottoms. In Ottawa the bottoms were made of brick. Many people in those days liked bread baked on oven bottoms (not tins and as a consequence the bakers turned out what was known fancy or scone bread). The “twist” loaf, pointed at each end, and the cottage” loaf were popular styles. The “cottage” loaf might best be described aa a small round loaf on top of a large round loaf.
One of Mr. Aitkenhead’s recollections of the lower end of Wellington street the 1880s and nineties is one which my come as a surprise to the younger generations. In those days the high cliff overlooking Wellington street south of Pooley’s bridge sheltered a collection of buildings– allof which were frame.
These buildings housed Samuel Johnson’s blacksmith shop. Robert Lennox’s carriage ship, the family of John Atkinson and last, but by no means least, that dear old person of revered memory John Lucy, who kept a stationery store, Ottawa division of the C.P.R.; and the corner of Lett and Wellington was the home of Fred. W. Carling, then a clerk in the employ of the Carling Brewing and Malting Company, whose works were on the southside of Albert street, adjoining the old Orand Opera House.
Aitkenhead homes- lower end of Wellington street Ottawa from the Aikenhead photo collection of which I preserve.
In those days William A. Jamieson conducted a drug store on the south side of Wellington, at the corner of Commissioner, which was well patronized by the farmers on their way to and from the market. Next to Jamieson ‘s drug store was James boots-Marshall’s shoemaker shop, Post office of which was the meeting place of the, sound advice to all and then Jamieson’s bakery and next to the bakery was the home of Dr. H. P. Small. A few doors up the street Tom Kennedy kept a small hotel and the balance ot tne block tended to stray from the straight and narrow path.
These houses used to make Wellington street form a dangerous bottle neck at Pooley’s bridge, so a good many years ago City Council bought the property, swept the buildings away and widened. Many of the old buildings which stood in the block on Wellington street between Commissioner and the bread shops move to different locations.
Craig Shouldice–The first Aitkenhead to come to Canada was David Aitkenhead, in 1886. He was married to Elizabeth McInnes and had 10 children, 4 of whom died young. Two of his sons were George as mentioned here and Robert, who opened the Aitkenhead bakery in Almonte. I think David was the original owner of the Ottawa bakery. I have a picture somewhere of him standing in front of his delivery van and store. George married Rhoda Donovan, his sister Margaret married Rhoda’s brother John Donovan.
Cathy Geuer visited India, an Indian doctor advised them to do something they enjoy, and to be their own boss. They took his advice to heart, and thus was born the Dalai Lama Bakery. “ We thought about it, and believed the idea would go over well in Almonte,’* says Ron, who rises every morning at 5.30 to begin baking bread. “ We figured baking would attract people to the store, and then they might try other things we have.” The Dalai Lama Bakery, at 108 Queen Street, began operations in mid-September, 1977. The building was a former boarding house, much in need of repair. ” It was a shambles,” says Ron. The couple fixed up the interior, panelled the walls and opened shop. The store is named after Dalai Lama, the pope of Lamaist monks in Tibet, who Ron once met while on a trip to India. Bread-baking goes on until late morning, as 4oes bagel and cookie-baking. An average day’s baking produces 40-45 loaves of bread {60-65 in winter), six dozen bagels and 12 dozen cookies
“ Every day is busy,” says Cathy, and the baked goods are always sold out. A steady stream o f regular customers drop In for their daily loaf of bread, or weekly supply of the Dalai Lama’s “ munchie mix” . Customers bring their own containers and are encouraged to look around the shop. • ‘ Except for one bread and bagel oven and four cookie ovens, no machinery at all is used at the Store. “ It is so much more work to do it all by hand, but it makes a big difference.” according to Ron. As well, everything baked or stocked by the Dalai Lama store contains no synthetic or refined ingredients. No white flour or refined sugar is used, – wholewheat flours and honey are used instead. The store still has the odd customer looking for w hite bread however. “ We think all the additives, etc. are just garbage,” says Ron. Organically-grown foods and ingredients make such perfect sense ”he adds.
Ron and Cathy carry this philosophy over into their personal eating habits. They are both vegetarians, eating no meat and very few dairy products. Ron, “29, has ”been vegetarian for about’ eight years and Cathy, 30, for about two. They also abstain from alcohol. The family, including two year-old Susanna, and Jude, aged four months, lives above the shop. Ron says he likes running a family business. “This way we know what is in the store, and what to recommend” . He adds, “ It takes time to build a business” . And it takes a great deal of hard work. Ron and Cathy do all the baking themselves. This summer, however, they had extra help from a summer student. But with every shelf and corner occupied with bags, bins, jars, etc. the store is becoming crowded. “ We grew out of this space long ago.” says Ron, who hopes some day the shop can move into : larger quarters. Last winter, in conjunction with Algonquin College, Ron and Cathy taught a vegetarian cooking class for eight weeks.
They hope to do it again this year, although it won’t be subsidized by Algonquin this time.
“ People come in often and ask us about their health,” says Cathy “ and want us to suggest
foods to help them ’’. Customers certainly have a great variety to choose from in
any case.
Besides the trays of bread, bagels and peanut butter, oatmeal or carrot/raisin cookies and
a scan of the shelves reveals dried beans, peas and lentils. “moussy” non-alcoholic beer, eggs, wholewheat pasta, mustard, oils, jam s, sauces, baking supplies, nuts, seeds, coffee substitute, herb teas, dried fruits (including four kinds of raisins), rice flours, honey, granoia, spices, olives, and even cook books and magazines.
The store also supplies granola to other stores in Ottawa and the Valley, and will bake cakes to order. And what do you do after eating all this delicious food? Well brush your teeth of course, with special all-natural (no sugar) toothpaste – available at the Dalai Lama.
Located on one of the busiest intersection in Ottawa, the Transportation building almost remained unchanged; only its ground floor was modified and became one of the main entrance to the Rideau Centre. Photo- Ottawa Archives- from PastOttawa
Ottawa’s “Transportation Building” at Rideau and Colonel By, seen from the from the southwest. In the bottom, the old Elephant and Castle.
The building opened in 1916 by JR Booth’s son, CJ Booth, and has many federal civil servants over the years — I think the NCC was in there at one time. Still good looking.
The building served as Ottawa’s City Hall between 1931 (when the City Hall on Elgin burned down) and 1958, when the new — now old — city hall was built at Rideau Falls.
Ottawa – 1966 – the Transportation Building at Rideau and Sussex. It was the site of the Ottawa city hall, after the former city hall at Elgin and Queen burned in 1931. It served as such until the new city hall building was built on Green Island. (1958) City of Ottawa Archives CA 000155
August 27, 2016 · Here’s a major Ottawa corner in January of 1910. This is Rideau and Little Sussex, which is now the southeast corner of Rideau and Colonel By. Sinkhole to the left.This building once housed jeweler James Tracy, the drug store of William Roger, and the Dairy Lunch. Kind of a mini Rideau Mall.The corner would be transformed in 1916 with the construction of the Transportation Building (once the home of the NCC, and once also the home of City Hall).(LAC PA-042564)
The Fest Family
In 1887 on the site of the Transportation building southeast corner of Rideau and Little Sussex streets, there stood a 2and one half storey tin-roofed, solid stone building. That old building, a relic from the 1850s, was occupied by Mrs. William Fest. Her shop was the candy and pastry centre of Ottawa in the 1880s.
Everybody in the 1870s- 1880s in Ottawa knew the Fests. Fest’s confectionery store, at the southeast corner of Rideau and Little Sussex streets, was known to everybody in Ottawa, It occupied the same position in the public eye that Scott’s confectionery on Sparks street did in the 1860s and 1870s. The Fests came to Ottawa from the county Donegal in the late 1860s and opened a confectionery store in the 2 1-2 storey stone building where the Transportation building now stands.
Mrs William ( Pender) Fest in the early 1880s was an indefatigable worker. The Fests attended St. John’s Anglican church on Sussex street. In church work Mrs. Fest was always just as busy as she was in her store. Mrs. Fest was noted for her equable and calm disposition. She always had a cheery word for her customers and was a good judge of human nature. Whenever a new girl came to the store to serve, Mrs Fest would say, “Now, my dear, eat all the candy you feel like eating, but do not take any home. If I find you taking any home I will have to discharge you. It will not be necessary for you to wait till I am out to eat. You may do it when I am present.”
The result of such talks was that Mrs. Fest’s girls, or parcel boys, used invariably to start in to gorge themselves on candy (mostly when Mrs. Fest was not around). The further result was that they always got sick, their stomachs turned upside down and candy became repulslve to them. Thereafter the Fest candy became as safe from attack as though it had not been there. Mr. Fest was seldom seen by the public. He was always too busy at the back making cakes and candies.
Transportation Building — It was incorporated into the Rideau Centre and is heritage designated.
Joy Eastop WatsonNCC was definitely in there, My mom worked for the NCC for 26 years & I remember looking out those big 1st floor windows when the Santa parade went by in the 70’s… Those were also the days when you could open the window and smoke in the office.
Andrew DeBeaupréWasn’t it also known as the Dominion Bridge building before WWII? NCC was there in mid-70s
David TwolanI miss the Elephant and Castle. Great pub.
Ottawa – 1966 – the Transportation Building at Rideau and Sussex. It was the site of the Ottawa city hall, after the former city hall at Elgin and Queen burned in 1931. It served as such until the new city hall building was built on Green Island. (1958) City of Ottawa Archives CA 000155From Ottawa City Directory 1870-1871 Simpson Book CollectionFrom Ottawa City Directory 1887-1888 Simpson Book Collection
Where was the first Darou Bakery? Was it on Bell or Mill Street?
Second location
Photo from Doug Caldwell
So Doug showed me this photo on Saturday and said he had no idea where the second bakery was.. It didn’t take me long to figure it out.
Darou’s second bakery was in the Capital Optical building on Bridge Street which later became Woodcock’s Bakery. One of the senior Jamieson’s confirmed it with : Darou’s was in that building before Woodcocks!
I write about community and the history these folks gave us. Sometimes great little stories pop up while you are researching. I was doing a typical geneaology page for the Darou’s and Dunlops who had Darou’s Bakery on Bridge Street in Carleton Place when I came up with Minnie the Hooker’s story. Everyone needs to be remembered so now Minnie is with great joy and happiness.
Where was Darou’s?
Ray PaquetteBeginning at the bottom of Bridge Street in Carleton Place, on the west side: the Texaco station, the Salvation Army Citadel, Levines, Hick’s Grocery, Charlie Jay Shoe Repair, Mae Mulvey’s Candy Shop. Central Grill, Galvin’s Men’s Wear, Carleton Grill ( and the Colonial Bus Lines stop), the Roxy Theatre, Harold Dowdall’s Barbersop, Denny Coyles Esso, Ned Root’s Shoe Repair, Stanzel’s Taxi, Dr. McDowell, Darou’s Bakery. Doucette Insurance, McAllister’s Bike Repair, Oona’s Applicances/Bob Flint TV, Hastie Bros Plumbing, Bruce McDonald Optometrist, Foote Photography, the public restrooms, the Queens Hotel, Woodcock’s Bakery, Lewis Reg’d Ladies Wear, Okilman’s, and Patterson’s Furniture. I probably forgot a business but I’m sure other readers can “fill in the blanks” or take exception to some of the names on the list. More to come when I crossover to the East side of bridge…
34 Bridge Street Carleton Place The Little Red Brick House This brick building was built circa 1900 and was the home of Thomas Stevenson and his half sister, Miss Brisland. They took up residence in the early 1930s and first operated the little store next door later known the Central Candy Store, but it was called Thomas Stevenson Grocery. When they extended the store to make living quarters, they sold the little red brick house. Prior to Mr. Stevenson living here one of the Burgess’s and *John Darou lived here. The parents of Jack the Kiddand *Velma Bryce, Mr. and Mrs. Bracewell, lived in this building as well as Alex and Viola Watson and Mrs. McEwan.
116 Bridge Street Circa 1870 116 Bridge Street was the home of the Darou’s bakery for approximately sixteen years. Darou’s bakery was later operated by Minnie who was the daughter of the Darou’s and Earl Dunlop. It was under the ownership of the Dunlop’s up until 1957 when Nat Nelson purchased the building and operated a delicatessen with his wife bought the building. The Bridge Street store used to be the home base for Nate’s Delicatessen, which was run by Nelson’s parents. Paul took over when his dad died and operated a photography shop. Paul Nelson cherished, long time member of the Carleton Place Community, passed away Monday, February 28, 2011.
Nobody can accuse Minnie Dunlop of misspending her youth. Sure, she shoots pool a couple of times a week and may go dancing once or twice or play bingo. But after all, Minnie is almost 82 and times have changed. Minnie, who lives in a senior citizens’ high rise on MacLaren Street, looks quite comfortable with a pool cue in her hand. “C’mon baby, c’mon baby,” she says, urging the brown ball to its intended destination. “They call me Minnie the Hooker,” she says, and quickly adds an explanation: in snooker, you “hook” your opponents by leaving them without a shot. Not every ball makes it, of course. Snooker is a demanding game and Minnie didn’t take it up until last fall. “My oldest son is 53,” says Minnie, “and when he found out he said ‘Mother, don’t tell me. I never thought I’d live to see the day you’d be playing pool’.
The Dunlops operated Darou’s Bakery in Carleton Place until 1953 and lived across the street from a pool hall. If you read below her husband was also the mayor of Carleton Place at one point. ( Read-Tales From McCann’s Pool Room – Rob Probert) Minnie remembers hauling her sons home by the ear after rescuing them from the evils of pool-playing. Now she shoots in a seven-team house league and enjoys it immensely. “I like anything where there’s competition,” she says. “I bowled until this winter but it got too cold to go out. With pool, I can play right in the building.” With partner John Beaulieu, Minnie leads the other six mixed teams in the league, organized . by fellow-resident Maurice Trudeau, Ottawa’s senior citizen snooker champ last year. Next year, Trudeau hopes his league can play off with representatives from other seniors’ buildings. No doubt Minnie will be there.
Jamie DunlopThere were stories about how my dad and brothers and sister worked in the bakery when they were growing up. They delivered bread by horse and cart when they were kids. It was quite a shock to see Minnie on Facebook playing pool. I have the Citizen picture and article from when it came out in the 80s(?). She was no shrinking violet for sure. Thanks for the interest.
Diane JudgeMy Mom’s parents were Ida and Charles Darou, owned the dairy in Lanark, my grandmother Ida would order meat & food from there, and they delivered to the Darou home , next to the machine shop, which they owned as well.– read John A Darou 1905 Lanark Village
Upper George Street, Lanark, shop of John P. Leslie, wagon maker. The shop did buggy repairs, general, built new wheels, etc. and was also an agency for the machinery shown in front. Mr. and Mrs. Leslie lived above the shop at the time. Next is the home of James Darou and next the Labelle home–.
Janet LockyerI remember some Darou’s of Lanark, in the late 1960s, dad build a cottage on the Clyde river, near the bridge dump. Jim Darou and sons had a cottage down at the point and Jim and my dad sure managed to get into some fun situations.. Thanks for giving me these memories back, had a chuckle remembering. There was one time that my dad, from the city, went off with Jim Darou to get corn for a corn roast. Jim been the leader of this expeditation, said why pay for corn, he knew where they could get it for nothing. Off they go, hours later they return, muddy, dad pants were torn up and they are laughing away. Jim took dad to a farmer’s field, surrounded by barber wire of course. They climbed the wire got lots of “free” corn. We boiled it up, smothered it with butter and salt and nearly broke our teeth trying to eat it. Dad and Jim just laughed and laughed watching us trying to eat COW corn. There really is a difference between the corn, one for humans and one for cows.
Paul MilotteI remember it being called the Cow bridge as well. If memory serves me right it was used to let Cows cross the river as part of the old Plant farm. It was a huge dairy farm back in the day and the Darou family dairy business bought milk from them. The main building of the Plant farm is the old Caldwell mansion that is now a bead and breakfast. Anybody remember the Red barn behind the main house? I think the same family converted the the old mansion into a nursing home after the farming operation had stopped.-Primitive Bridges –Where was this Bridge?
Archibald McLean was one of the last surviving veterans in the district from the Fenian Raid. McLean’s bake shop was operated in 1862 by Archie McLean and for several years he was the oldest resident of the town who had been born in Almonte.
Almonte Brass Band– Photo-Almonte.com
Archie was succeeded by his brother “A.J.” commonly known as “Sid” who died only a few years ago. He was the old stand-by in the early Almonte “Brass Bands” and later with his sons Alec and James. Sid played the kettle drum and all the boys competed for the honour of carrying the musicians’ music into the N.L.A.S. grounds during the fair.
Next to McLean’s Bake Shop was Stafford’s grocery and liquor store and further down John McKinnon’s grocery and liquor store. In April of 1954 McLean’s bakery and confectionery business which had operated in the town of Almonte for over 65 years on Mill Street had come to an end.
The store and residence long owned by Albert J. McLean has been sold to William J. Green. Mr. McLean, Sid as he was familiarly known, established his baking business in a frame building on the corner of Mill and Brae Streets years ago. He later moved and erected the brick’ residence and store occupied by the family ever since he opened for business in 1907.
Two sons, Alex and Jim, became associated in the business after they left school. Jim recalls the days when he delivered bread with a horse and sleigh. The streets were not plowed then and he had to trudge many blocks through snow drifts with a basket on his arm to distribute the loaves and other products of the bakery to his customers.
Bread sold then at six cents a loaf or 17 tickets for a dollar. The new tenants of the Mill Street house and store were the William Green family. Mr. Green was a retired insurance salesman. Mrs. Green and two sons, Don and Morris were engaged in the upholstery business which would be carried on in the lower section of the newly-acquired property.
5368-79 Archibald McLEAN, 28, baker, Almonte, same, s/o Alexander McLEAN & Catherine LAWSON, married Ellen RALPH, 28, Joliette Que., Almonte, d/o Richard TAYLOR (sic) & Eliza, witn: Richard SHILSON & Margaret BOWES, both of Almonte, 13 March 1879 at Almonte
Thanks Debby Curry for sending this. I noticed your post today, thought i would share this, if you would like to post. This is my grandfather’s family.
Food was just as expensive for the early settlers as it is now. Baking was often delivered personally to homes by bakers or pastry cooks. Families could prepare their own bread and cakes in their own ovens, or have it baked professionally in a bake house. Cakes were cooked in closed, cast iron ranges by the 1850s. Originally ranges were all coal-based, but then gas versions became available, but were considered very dangerous. The family coal budget was one of the issues that led to making these choices of what to buy from the baker, or make yourself.
In 1835 B. F. Heath of Smiths Falls was listed as opening a bakery at the end of the bridge opposite Ward’s Mills at the corner of Beckwith and Water Street (Chambers Street). It was said that Mr. Heath made bread, biscuits, crackers and other confectioneries that any sweet tooth might demand. It wasn’t cheap-getting supplies, it was difficult, and various grades of flour, classes of butter, and different kinds of sugar, and eggs needed to be fresh and fruit needed to be of the best quality. So bakeries came and went because of the intensive labour, costs and lack of supplies.
To the south of the grist mill in Smiths Falls was once Durant’s Pool Room. The one-storey
frame building which was owned by Mahlon Durant was built in 1909, and an addition was put on later on the back end of the structure. Durant worked for the CPR until he lost an arm in a railroad accident in 1910 and had to retire. Mahlon became a tobacco merchant along with a confectionery store until his death in January of 1932. The building remained there until 1925 when the Old Home Week Committee wanted the land for a park site.
South of Durant’s Pool Room was a bakery. The original construction date is unknown, but Alexander Wood had planned such a building before his death in 1895 and the building must post-date that event. It was a one and one half storey frame building with a small addition on the south end.
The bakery was connected with the grist mill, and for a time it was operated by Mrs. Wood. It was possible the building was removed at the same time as Durant’s Pool Room. Beside the bakery was a double house and across the road from the bakery was a blacksmith shop. No one knows when Mrs. Wood closed down, but she too likely closed for the same reasons as her predecessors.
The bakers and confectionery makers came and went like the wind through the 1800s, but soon Davidson’s Bakery opened in 1890, and brought the use of baking machinery to the area which made baked goods at an economical cost. Once upon a time Davidson’s was the largest commercial bakery in eastern Ontario, and it was a place Smiths Falls local residents could have a lifetime career. They served the area until 1994 when beloved delivery driver Mr. Johnson delivered his last load of bread.
An empty bakeshop on King Street was used by by Kezia Lewis and Margaret McMullen in 1910 who then persuaded the local Methodist church to organize a Sunday School for the young children of the area who were destitute. In 1914 the former bakeshop was vacated and Wesley Hall was built to accommodate the children on the the corner of King and Empress Street. The teachers from Elgin were recorded in the media that because of the Sunday School run by the women some poorer children had a better chance at life.
July 15, 1966
In the 50s and 60s Flann’s Bakery was once a high point in Smiths Falls. Mrs. Flann was oriignally Evelyn Edith Patterson of the Patterson Funeral Home family in Carleton Place, and some locals still remember her today. Darlene Findlay from Darlene’s Café and Bakery on Main Street W. had high hopes in 2009, but once the Smiths Falls Hershey Candy factory closed Findlay was selling fewer of her famous lemon meringue pies and closed.
But tradition continues, and now Smiths Falls has a couple of locally owned bakeries: C’est Tout and Noal Pantry are keeping the area sugar coated and making sure that the local population can have their cake and eat it too.
September 1925 Perth Courier – MRS. JANE LAURIE retired from business. Laurie’s Ginger Beer, in the stone bottles, was once one of Perth’s popular drinks. Mrs. Laurie passed away in a few months after retiring.
The 1871 federal census lists James Laurie, a 33 year old baker, born in Ontario, of Scottish descent. Upon James’ death, it appears that his widow Jane assumed the proprietorship of the business.”Mrs. Jane Laurie’s Bakery and Confectionery was located on Gore Street in Perth. The three-storey white brick building was erected in 1886 as a store with residence above.
Baking and candy making were done in the basement, where the bake ovens were situated. The store was elegantly furnished with mahogany shelving and counters, topped with solid walnut. Adjoining the store was a neat restaurant in which oysters, ice cream and fruit were served in season, together with bread, cakes and pastry.
A favourite lunch consisted of buns and chunks of local cheese, with a bottle of Mrs. Laurie’s Old English Ginger Beer. The Laurie business was established in 1858 and was operated by Mrs. Jane Laurie and her daughter, Mrs. Margaret MacCormack, for 67 years. Following her daughter’s sudden death in 1925, Mrs. Laurie sold the business. She died later that same year, on November 11, 1925 at the age of 90 years.-Primitive Stoneware Bottles of Canada
Jane Laurie – A Sweet Merchant The buildings in town record the name of many of the major retailers … Shaw, James Brothers, Code … but what must have been one of Perth’s unique stores is not even recognized with a plaque. Jane Laurie opened “Mrs. Laurie’s Bakery and Confectionery” in 1858. She would soon bring her daughter into the business and it would remain open for 67 years until 1925 when she sold the business. Jane was still in the store working in her 90th year. The stories she must have witnessed, the history that passed by the door to her shop: the wide-eyed, nose-pressed-to-the-window children who one year were buying penny candy and who went on to do great things for Perth and Canada. This would be a special story and a unique window on our heritage.
Mrs. Laurie’s Bakery and Confectionery, Gore Street. The three storey brick building was erected in 1886 as a store with residence above. Baking and candy making were done in the basement, where the bake ovens were situated. The store was elegantly furnished with mahogany shelving and counters, topped with solid walnut. Adjoining the store was neat restaurant in which oysters, ice cream and fruit were served in season, together with bread, cakes and pastry. A favourite lunch consisted of buns and chunks of local cheese with a bottle of Mrs. Laurie’s Old English Ginger Beer
lindaseccaspina 