Taber & McCrea The People’s Store Adin Daigle Collection
127-131 Bridge Street Carleton Place Circa 1870
The first storey storefronts of this building have been modified from the original glass windows for easier viewing of merchandise–hence the different colours of brick. 127-131 Bridge Street has housed a number of different businesses including pharmacies, clothing stores, grocery stores, and poolrooms.
The Hughes family bought the pharmacy from Dr. Preston in 1905.
W. J. Hughes Rexall Drug store was located on the corner and Thomas Lloyd Hughes born in 1897 along with his brother Harold until they each decided to run a smaller store at the opposite ends of town. Lloy’s store was on Moffatt Street and Harold on Lake Ave West. For 50 years they were in groceries together and then the store was sold to Thomas’s nephew and for 12 years Thomas drove a butcher wagon. There was a dark room at the rear of the store where Mr. Hughes tested your eyes for glasses. You could buy a roll of film #116 for a Brownie Box camera for 25 cents and for $1.25 he would send it away to be developed.
The folks in Carleton Place will always remember the Rexall Drug annual 1 cent sale and every local household stocked up on cough medicine, cough drops, peroxide and all sorts of liniment. Some of the clerks that worked there were: Olive Dick, Ruby Voyce, and John Briscoe and Wilbert Robertson.
Harvey Asselstine attended the Ontario College of Pharmacy in 1929. In 1944, he returned to Carleton Place and bought the drugstore at the corner of Bridge and Franklin, from W.J. Hughes who operated it for 38 years. Betty Findlay and Mary Cook both worked at Assestine’s Pharmacy. In the rear of Asselstine’s drug store the CPR Telegraph operated during the 1950s. Asselstine expanded his drug store and bought out Hughes Grocery. In 2006 the Athen’s Corners Restaurant was located there.
Taber and McCrae operated a Men’s and Boy’s clothing store within Struther’s Block, which later became a pool hall (next door) operated by Mel Barclay. Charlie Giroux, who only had one arm took over the pool hall then Ab Dowseth from Smiths Falls operated it for a short time but when McCann and Porter gained ownership they moved the pool hall to the old Bank of Commerce.
Jeremy Stinson— That corner was, for much of my childhood, the home of the Blossom Shop. Back before the one way street.
Mr. Maguire’s new store is going to be a very fine one. The show windows are large and deep, the upper lights being of prism glass. The wood work is to be marbled gree. Messrs. Taber & Co will have a handsome premises
Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum November 1, 2021 · Welcome to November! In 1910, Taber’s Dry Goods produced this somewhat odd postcard promoting their “Dressed Dolls Exhibit”. W.W. Taber Clothing was located on the east side of Bridge Street between Mill and Franklin.
For years local history documenter Marg Whyte said the following:
Mr. Dowdall purchased the brick building at Bridge and Emily and moved his business. Walter Stanzel later lived here and operated his taxi business. It was well known all around town that Mr. Stanzel had a pet skunk and and a pet raccoon as well. No word if they came for rides in his taxi!
True or False?
Allan StanzelI—— I know for a FACT he never had a pet skunk they did however have two pet raccoons one was very tame and the other not so.
1957 – The Raccoon of Bridge Street- Photo- Allan Stanzel
Here’s a picture of my great grandfather Stephen from 1907. They had won the riflemans cup.
Among these defenders were more than fifty men of the Carleton Place Rifle Company. The Carleton Place Rifle Company was formed at the start of the first expansion of a trained and permanent volunteer militia of the old Province of Canada, made to meet the risk of possible war between the United States and Great Britain at the outset of the American Civil War. Like those of neighbouring localities and others throughout the province, it replaced a venerable succession of local but normally untrained and unarmed companies of the original sedentary militia. A view of the participation of this community, then an unincorporated village, in Canada’s first major development of its own military forces is given in the pages of the locally published weekly newspapers of that day.
When war threats and consequent militia expansion came in 1862, local demand led to the formation of the first trained and equipped militia company to be based at Carleton Place. In January of that year, in the words of the local Herald editor:
“At a meeting of some of the inhabitants of Carleton Place and vicinity, held at Lavallee’s Hotel on Saturday evening last, it was unanimously resolved that: – ‘In view of the unsettled state of affairs between the British and American governments and the possibility of war, it is expedient that a rifle company should be formed in this village and neighbourhood, to aid in the defence of their country.’
A muster roll was then opened and signed by those present at the meeting. Several others have since added their names, making in all upwards of sixty.”
This number, including some young men of nearby farms, appears to equal nearly half of the total number of men of ages 18 to 40 living then in Carleton Place.
The gazetting of the Carleton Place Volunteer Militia Rifle Company came in December, 1862, with James Poole as captain and John Brown as lieutenant. Within a month it was equipped and undertaking military training. The Perth Courier in December stated:
“Volunteer Rifle Companies are organizing in all parts of the country. In Carleton Place a Company has been Gazetted under Capt. Poole. The volunteer movement if properly encouraged will soon result in twenty or thirty thousand well disciplined men. Let it be made imperative on every Militia officer to be well drilled, and Canada would soon have her militia on a footing that would be ready for all emergencies. At present the supply of Drill Instructors is sadly inadequate.”
The newly authorized company was first paraded in greatcoat uniforms on New Year’s Day, when its captain, news editor James Poole, wrote:
“According to notice given, the members of this company assembled in front of the ‘Herald’ office on the morning of New Year’s Day. After being dressed in the coats and accoutrements forwarded by the Government from Quebec, they were drilled by Robert Bell, Jr., nephew of Robert Bell, Esq., M.P.P. for the North Riding. They paraded the streets several times, and from the manner of performing the drill, dictated by their youthful teacher for the time, have given great promise of future utility, should any unfortunate occasion arise.”
By mid-July it was announced:
“In a few days the new clothing will be ready for distribution, and Carleton Place will be able to turn out one of the best looking Rifle Companies in Canada. The Company will continue to drill as usual every Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening.”
Another summer notice stressed the need for target practice, as judged by the captain of the Carleton Place Company, who published the names and scores of marksmanship of each of some sixty militiamen:
“A rifle shooting match was held near this village on Saturday last, the 15th instant, between the Carleton Place Rifle Company and the Infantry Company from Almonte. The Riflemen were requested to be in uniform at the armoury at six o’clock in readiness to march to the station to meet the Almonters.
The Riflemen were uniformed in the regular Rifle dress – dark green tunics and grey pants, with red facings, dark belts and shakos to match. The Infantry wore the scarlet tunics, gray pants, white belts and shakos trimmed to suit. The shooting was conducted under the able management of Sergt. Cantlin. The shooting on both sides was bad, and much below the average, there being but a few men in either company sufficiently practiced with the rifle. The following is the score of points…”
(Totalling Almonte 107, Carleton Place 106).
A mid-winter inspection of these two companies in February, 1864, as reported by Captain Poole, showed the required drilling which lay ahead:
“The Almonte Infantry and Carleton Place Rifle Companies were inspected on Saturday last by Lt. Col. Earle of the Grenadier Guards, accompanied by Brigade Major Montgomery. The attendance of both companies was much below what it should have been – The Almonte Company mustering only 27 including officers, and the Carleton Place Company 43. The Colonel was well pleased with the condition of the arms and accoutrements of the men; but did not compliment them very highly on their proficiency in drill, which was owing to their very irregular attendance during the fall and winter.”
The American Civil War ended in the spring of the following year. Within six months the Fenian Brotherhood in the United States was building its resources for its expected conquest of Canada, and in November, Canadian troops were posted for several months duty at border points from Prescott to Sarnia.
In Lanark County, contracts for erecting drill halls were let early in 1866 at Carleton Place and Almonte. Construction of the Carleton Place armoury was aided by the promise of a £50 grant by the municipality. It was built by William Pattie on the Beckwith Street site of the recently demolished skating rink bordering the park which then was the village market square. Supported by its hand hewn beams, it remained a useful memorial of the perils of the 1860’s until destroyed in the town’s great fire of 1910. Its use was granted at times for other community purposes ranging from the Beckwith Agricultural Society’s exhibitions of the 1860’s and the ambitious annual choral and musical festivals of the 1880’s to a series of Bishop R. C. Horner’s Hornerite revival meetings. Almonte’s armoury was built for the combined purposes of the militia and the exhibitions of the North Lanark Agricultural Society.
When Fenian preparations in March had indicated they then might be about to attack, and ten thousand Canadian volunteers had been called for duty, no invasion occurred, although two minor ones were attempted. Captain Poole’s Carleton Place newspaper reports of this time said:
“The rumors of a Fenian invasion have created a great stir through the country. The volunteers are called for service and have responded nobly. In our own village the company is filled up and is drilling three times a day. The men are billeted on the inhabitants and have orders to be ready at a moments notice.”
Postponement came in two weeks, when it was reported (March 28) that:
“The prospect of a Fenian invasion of Canada is so far distant that the government feels justified in disbanding a portion of the volunteer force. An order for the disbanding of the Carleton Place Rifle Company was received on Monday evening. The bugle was sounded, and in a few minutes the whole company were at their posts. They naturally thought that marching orders had been received, and were rather disappointed.
The new drill shed is to be completed by the first of September. We would again express our gratification at the manner in which the company have conducted themselves while under arms.”
Forces on each side of the international boundary continued to prepare for a coming encounter. Other views of the Canadian preparations will follow in the next section of this story of the times of Confederation. — Howard Morton Brown
Photo of Allan Stanzel with one of the largest beets in Carleton Place 1976
Thanks to Carleton Place Collector Aidin Daigle he posted these collectables of the Summit Store that was once on Bridge and High Street. So I have posted a few notes about where they came from.
Marj Whyte wrote:
Across High Street was a brick building once known as The Sibbett’s Summit Store (Sibbet’s Grocery & Liquor Store–Lloyd Hughes). Later it was ran by Lorne J. Campbell and then D.A. Roe became the owner and it was also Baird’s Food. The back part was the first shop run by Max Moshovitz. At this time they lived on Flora Street and he went around the country with a horse and wagon selling his wares to rural people. When they moved their store to Bridge Street there was a dry cleaning store run by William McKimm. Later Gordon Langrty set up his first dairy on these premises. The whole building was then owned by Jack Howard who had moved from Forrester Falls. Most of the front building was made into apartments and Beulah Gordon had her hairdressing salon on the corner.
Food Costs– The Herald– – May 1884. The Summit Store is the Spot. Your choice for #1.00: 6 cans Salmon, 6 cans Lobster, 8 boxes Sardines, 11 lbs Prunes, 12 lbs. new Valencia Raisins, 13 lbs. Bright Sugar, 4 lbs. choice Japan Tea. Five dozen Labrador Herring for $1.00, or $3.00 per half barrel. Also Fresh Halibut, Mess Pork, Fresh Herring, Tommy-Cods, etc. Early Rose Potatoes. Green Apples – Glassware and Crockery, Boots and Shoes. –Howard Morton Brown
The license commissioners for the district of North Lanark met on April 23, 1920 with Commissioner James Murphy in the chair, and Commissioners Simpson and Forsythe and Inspector James D. Robertson present. The result of the meeting, so far as Carleton Place was concerned was that there would be no increase in the number of tavern licenses.
The application of Messrs. Carroll and Morris for a new license had been rejected, and also one for the Messrs. Sibbett and Prescott for the renewal of their store. A few retailers added quite loudly that it was wrong that if anyone wanted to buy a quart of liquor for a threshing or a barn raising and that they should be expected to go to a hotel keeper and ask him to sell a quantity he was not allowed to sell. Liquor was considered an important article for such occasions they said. Also one of the applicants for a shop license that was turned down said it should not be a necessity to go to another division of the town to set up business to get a license.
Rob Coleman just posted this in the comments about men’s beards.. “Looks like my great great grandfather’s style. Here he is with my attempt at recreating it. He was from Bruce county. not sure if it counts. My great great grandfather Coleman (from Carleton Place) had pretty awesome facial hair but I have not tried to recreate it. Keep sending those photos in we love them.,
Mayor Coleman said Carleton Place was an important market town with Bridge Street sees a parade of farm vehicles and animals on their way to market. Cattle had a hard enough time moving down to the CPR station in those days–I can’t even imagine if that happened now. Aug 8 1913 Fifteen head of cattle were killed on the C.P.R. Track about a mile south of Carleton Place after being struck by a train at an early hour this morning. A herd of 175 cattle had been driven into town by the Willow brothers yesterday and placed in the stock pen for shipment. Some time after midnight cattle broke through the fence ad proceeded to travel down different track routes. A freight train traveling near the 10th and 11 th concessions of Beckwith struck the largest herd and before the locomotive could slow down fifteen cattle were killed or so maimed they had to be destroyed. Two head were also killed on the line west and three east of the station making for a total of 20.
In 1946 George Coleman was Carleton Place’s mayor and the population was just a tad over 4,300. Coleman’s Grandfather operated one of the first grist mills and almost won free land and water for the mill by entering in a competition which required the grinding of one bushel of grain in a given length of time. His Grandfather was unsuccessful and according to the mayor, he was the first Coleman to ever fail, so George said his Grandfather ended up buying the land and water rights. Once upon a time an elderly Scotsman by the name of John Fraser who used to walk around our fair town brandishing a large sword. When asked if sword play was one of the off season sports of Carleton Place he answered,
“Not at all,” John said, “I’ve got this sword from England. The other one I recieved a short time ago I made into tow fine butcher knives, and this one will go the same way.” Photo from the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum
Rob Coleman with Carleton Place roots sent this to me at the Lanark County Genealogical Society this morning.Oldest picture I have. Great great great grandparents. Born around 1780 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Settled in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.
Darla Fisher Giles added the above picture- Thanks Darla!! This is a picture of my house and Dalton Coleman, where he grew up in Carleton Place. It was taken during Home Week in 1924
This photo of 283 William Street, Carleton Place, was taken in 1923. This was the childhood home of Dalton Corrie Coleman.Coleman worked as private secretary to Senator George Cox in 1897 and as editor of the Belleville Intelligencer before joining the CPR in 1899. He advanced rapidly and before turning 40 was put in charge of CPR’s western lines. In 1934 Coleman became Vice President of CPR, and, as the health of president Sir Edward Beatty deteriorated, increasingly took over his duties. Coleman was appointed president in 1942 and chairman in 1943. The company was then engaged not only in railway work but in war production, shipping and air traffic. Under Coleman, Canadian Pacific Airlines was organized. He retired in 1947. Coleman Street in Carleton Place, site of our CPR railway station, was named in his honour. http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx…
Angie BallantyneMy grandparents Naomi Loton and Gordon Langtry used to run that dairy and lived upstairs. I have an old milk bottle!
The question was: Go back in time.. What are you going to buy at the Dairy today on Bridge Street?
Kevin St JeanI believe paul dulmages dog shopped there
Jo-Anne Drader NelsonWas the dog a black lab ? I remember seeing him all over town when I was young. He just went wherever he wanted. Very nice dog.
Terry LathamCould have been Duke he used to wander all over town. Stop in for a visit at some places. All I had to do is stop and ask if he wanted a drive home and he would jump in my truck if he did. Or just walk away if not.
Cathy DulmageHe stopped there every day for a treat from Mr Veenstra. Also he stopped at the bottom of Argyle St to drink from the stream every day and many other places
Paul HodginsI remember Duke in the water going after orange balls that sank but he would dive down and get them every time Amazing dog Duke was
Gail Sheen-MacDonaldMilkshake for my bother, sister and me, an ice cream cone for my mom and a quart of buttermilk (uggh!) for my dad.
Kathy DevlinA bag of penny candy or maybe be a popsicle
Mark Pyegrade 7 Carambeck,walk down and buy sweet tarts…
Linda; from Gord Cross—More Memories of the Maple Leaf Dairy–Ray Paquette2 hours A lot of your younger followers would probably be unable to identify the people pictured on the steps, I can only name three: Ray Morrell, Isobel (Nesbit) Bryce and Joann (Waugh) Cullen….
Jo-Anne Drader NelsonIn line on a Friday night to buy a bag of mixed candy. Fred must of had a lot of patience. Every kid picking out each candy. 4 mojos ,2 blue whales etc …. Lol
Toby RandellGrowing up, as soon as you walked in on the right was a wall of penny candies. That was the go to, but a close second would have been an ice cream cone.
Jane ChurchillPenny candy and chocolate milkshakes; picking up smokes and Coca Cola for my mom when I was only about 5 or six years old
Karen Frances RintoulJane Churchill I remember going and getting Velveeta mac & cheese and the popcorn you shake on top of the stove and then going to your place. I don’t even know how old I was.
Heather DormanFuzzy peaches from the 5cent candies because I’m a high roller I once tried to buy candies with my moms silver dollar and he called my mom
Yvonne RobillardOmg, moved here 1983 but visited from 1980,didn’t recognize the dairy, but did get ice cream there from fred veenstra!
Sandra DakersYou’d be surprised what a big bag of candy you could get for 10 cents
Beth NolanMy grandparents lived o Heriotte Street..my grandfather and I went to the Dairy after supper and got ice cream cones for each of us, for my grandmother and Uncle Allan….I use to run down to buy milk if my grandmother needed some…..then I’d go to Millers stable on the back street to see the horses
Carly DrummondWe used to rent Super Nintendo games from here & get their cheap candies!
Keith DrummondI grew up living a block away from the Dairy since I was 2 (1965). I don’t recall seeing all of you there but Fred was the only owner I knew of. Twenty five cents did go a long way back then.
Wesley ParsonsFlavored toothpicks and 10cent chocolate popsicles
Rebecca ChampagneAs a child I would go here countless amount of times. I remember buying Garbage Pail Kids cards. They all came with a stick of gum. I would also rent Nintendo games there as well.
Alana FlintMaple Walnut Ice Cream and Salt ‘n Vinegar Chips for dipping in the ice cream!
Cody Smithson$1.00 pepperoni stick and a $1.00 can of pizza pringles. Fred never charged me tax and would always have a fresh news paper for me to take back to my grandfather.
Lyann LockhartAny candies that were 2 for 1cent and 3 for 1 cent. Mojos , green leaves , gum balls and caramels but they were 2 cents.
Allison VaughanDidn’t go there often but recall getting candies there
Laurie Stearns-SmithA little brown bag filled with as many candies as a quarter would get me. It was surprising how much you could buy.
Bill LemayMy dad smoked Buckingham cigarette s choke a horse
Zoe Whitney-HandI used to buy .25 cent candies and milk for my parents, it was recently renovated into two newer apartments on the bottom where the store was and the original two up top
On Monday morning, about 2 o’clock, Mr. F. Hollingsworth waa disturbed by some unusual noise, and on getting up and lookout of his window observed a man standing in the passage way between his place and the tailor shop of Mr. Colin Sinclair. The stranger hearing the rustle moved off, and Mr. Hollingsworth retired again, thinking nothing more of it at the time, but on the store of Mr. Sinclair being opened in the morning it was soon evident that strangers had been there.
They effected an entrance through a back staircase into a room where Mr. Sinclair keeps a heater for his irons in the summer season. Here they cut hole beside the lock in the door leading to the workshop, and opened it from the inside, the key being in the lock. From the workshop they descended to the front store and repeated the same operation again, for the door at the foot of the staira was also bolted from the other side.
The burglars here appropriated a suit of clothes, two pieces of cloth, all the silk handkerchiefs they could find, some ties, and nearly all the cuff buttons and shirt studs, also a hat, and possibly more articles not yet missed. They retired by the same way they entered. There is no clue or suspicion as to the daring thieves. This now is the third burglary within as many weeks within our quiet town, and it is about time some action was being taken in the matter. The brace used in this instance was identified by Mr. Graham as his. It.was stolen from his shop, an entrance being effected by a back window.
1886-07-23-01
Sinclair store is now Sinclair Park where the Roy Brown statue is.
I had never heard this name before and as I checked out out Ancestry this business was in the late 1940s in the Levine/Comba Building ( across from the Post office) and was owned by Reginald Clake.
He and his wife Ada lived in Moore Street in Carleton Place.
So if you look at the photo he lived in this general area below
Ed Giffin–My brother Terry played with Bernie Costello for many years around CP whenever there was a dance particularly at the Legion. Terry played the drums. I recall that Bernie lived in an apartment above or close by where your Dad had his dry cleaning business. I remember visiting that apartment and seeing an upright piano there. I had no idea at the time that Bernie had started playing because none of us kids ever took music lessons. Bernie always played road hockey on Beckwith Street with us. He always liked to play goal.
I kind of lost track of Bernie in school, I guess because they constantly moved me back and forth across town to Victoria or Prince of Wales from Central School. I don’t recall Bernie ever being in high school. I just seemed to have lost track of him by then.
I remember Charlie, his dad, worked in Clake’s Grocery store. It was located at the corner of Bridge and Albert across the street from our lunch bar.
So who owned this business A & S Leach in Carleton Place and where was it? It was run by Abner and his oldest sister Sophia Leach who was 15 years older than him.. Their father was a widow ( his wife was Alice Salter Leach and died in 1871)and the two siblings ran the store. In 1891 Sophia Leach was 30 and unmarried probably because she looked after the rest of the family as she was the oldest. She died in 1898 at the age of 37 and that is probably why the store closed. The whole family is buried in the Franktown Cemetery.
The Leach siblings took over the Peden Grocery business in January of 1898 which is where Hastie and Tatlock used to be on Bridge Street, which some call the wrong side of the street. ( don’t ask).Peden also made carbonated drinks there.
Seven months later in October Abner Leache filed for bankruptcy ( Sophia died August 1898) and Lang & Company from Ottawa bought their stock. Lang & Co were basically in the pork business and London House was briefly a clearing house where they bought bankrupt stock and resold it. It was located on Wellington Street in Ottawa.
This to Carleton Place readers, should be of general interest showing that wild doings were enacted in the old times as well as at present. Who would expect a revolver to be fired off in the streets of Carleton Place at the present day? The item is from a copy of the ( Carleton Place Herald) of 1867:
“Shooting Affray in Carleton Place”
On Sunday last in the sober little village of Carleton Place there was almost enacted a tragedy on the highway that would have out-rivalled in boldness that of any deed that has been committed by any of the notorious Dick Turpin stripe. Two young men scarcely out of their teens, were driving furiously through the village, when some person took upon himself the responsibility of bringing them to order, when one of them drew from his pocket a loaded pistol and fired it at the person who was trying to bring them to, but without effect.
The scamps made off as fast as they could, and we understand, the person who fired the shot has since made himself scarce in this neighbourhood. But why, in the name of Justice, should young men in these townships go armed with pistols, or any such dangerous weapon, we know not. He hopes that the ‘state of affairs’ in our neighbouring villages has not necessitated any such preparation on the part of strangers, as to go armed with such a deadly weapon as a loaded pistol or revolver. But we sincerely trust that such conduct as above described may meet with that rigid punishment of which such a treacherous act deserves.
Trivia- Who was Dick Turpin?
Turpin was executed for stealing horses in 1739 at York and he would have been forgotten to history had it not been for Harrison Ainsworth’s popular 1834 novel Rookwood. In it he describes Turpin galloping north in the dark: “His blood spins through his veins; winds round his heart; mounts to his brain. Away! Away! He is wild with joy.” The highwayman character etched in Rookwood, as well as local narratives, poems, and ballads that sprung from it, granted Turpin a notorious posthumous status.
Merrill Fisher, a good friend then and now, sent me these pictures of the dairy. Can anyone name all those on the steps of the dairy in 1955? Joann Voyce
Isabel Nesbitt Bryce, Joann Waugh Elva Ford Ray Morrell possibly a Giffin
Julia Waugh GuthrieJoann Voyce , just seen this picture and noticed Aunt JoAnn right away. I love these pictures . Carol KwissaYes my aunt Joanne Waugh -Cullen on Isobel’s left shoulder and I also recognized Elva Ford
Susan Thompsonthe woman on the left hand side looks like my aunt Maryanna Giles Dunlop Sylvia GilesYes Maryanna Giles-Dunlop front row left and her friend Isobel Bryce next to Her!!! Sherri IonaLook at the sign above the door! Smoking advertisements were so prevalent.
Larry ClarkI knew the 2 guys in the doorway (not the one holding the cone) Dave Splane comes to mind for the one on the left but probably not right!
I have so many memories of ‘The Dairy’ as we kids of the 1950s called it; it was around the corner from our home on James Street and we either shopped there or at least walked by it every day. The following are some random memories as they come to me:When Dad first came home from WWII, he didn’t go immediately to the promised job at Findlay’s Foundry, but worked delivering milk for the dairy for some months. Our milk was delivered daily from The Dairy, but occasionally Mum would send us over to buy a quart of milk; I clearly remember carrying the empty glass bottle with 2 dimes and a penny in it to buy the milk, which at that time was not homogenized. Mum either poured the cream off the top for another use or vigourously shook it to give us wonderfully rich whole milk.On Sundays following attending Church at Memorial Park United, we stopped off at The Dairy to buy a brick of Neapolitan ice cream, our staple dessert on Sunday noon. Very occasionally, we would walk over to The Dairy with a bowl and come home with it full of scoops of dipped ice cream for a special treat (we had only an icebox, so couldn’t store ice cream).In the 1960s, my sister Kathryn worked at The Dairy and brother Wayne and I expected extra large ice cream cones from her, and I am sure she gave them to us in fear – not of losing her job, but of us. Peggy Mace and I stopped at The Dairy almost daily on our way back to school after lunch to buy penny candy; Mrs. Saunders was working there and was very patient with us as we carefully and slowly selected our treats. While we were there, a well-dressed man (I think I know who it was but hesitate to say as I am not certain – but definitely a town business man) came into The Dairy every day and drank down a glass of Alka Seltzer; now that must have been some kind of a lunch he went home to! Our childhood neighbourhood territory was small, but our lives were enriched with businesses like The Dairy and the people who owned and worked there.Dale Costello Great memories, and stories of Maple Leaf Dairy. We were big time in CP with two dairies. Many a chocolate shake hand made by Ray Morrels mom. My Uncle, Lorne Aitken delivered bottled milk, and I helped on Saturdays– You can get Wendy’s book at the Carleton Place museum
Ruth Anne SchnuppI remember they had the biggest cones for 10 cents !
Kathy DevlinI remember taking empty pop bottles in to cash out for a bag of penny candy, pixie stix, licorice , mojos, green leaves
Jim McKittrickGreat summer jobs for 3 years 1 in the dairy and 2 summers delivering milk for Bill R ( 1965 66 and 67 )
Sherri IonaNana would send us off with a 25 cents . . . . Popsicles, ice cream, milkshakes. . . . What memories!
R.D. LackeyAmazing place as kids loved going there rent games 5cent candy’s a place like this need to come back
Carol McDonaldI worked after school and weekends and some summer days when Mrs Saunders would take holidays for Bill and Ethel Rintoul and babysat their kids some evenings. Buttermilk was served by the glass , big ice cream cones were served to a line up of people especially on Sundays and many milkshakes all different flavours, penny candy, very busy most days!
Jan McCarten SansomDoug B. McCarten ..I remember ice cream cones and milkshakes, and especially time spent with my best friend Katherine Langtry, watching cartoons Saturday mornings in their home upstairs .. wonderful memories !
John ArmourI got my milkshakes everyday (even through winter). Mrs. Nephin made the best ones.
Sandy FredetteDon’t know when it was originally built, but do know it’s being renovated now… my grandson is helping out on the project.
Jane CarnegieWent there daily on my way back to school for penny candy…would ho back after school with pop bottles to cash in for chips and more candy!
I remember walking home and stopping in for penny candies! Got BUSTED shoplifting when I was just a little kid! Parents got called and I had to go back and apologize! Life lesson!!!Renting Nintendo machines and games for the weekend! That place was LEGENDARY!!!
Meghan PookThe Dairy! We’d sneak off of Carambeck’s yard during lunch and buy 5¢ candies. I remember the heavy fridge door made of wood with latch style handle. That’s where the small cartons of chocolate milk were. The older gentleman who worked there usually reminded me of a cross between Mr. Dress-Up & Mr. Rogers in appearance but always struck me as stern. Probably b/c he was dealing with a gaggle of random school kids streaming through buying less then $1 worth of product. I loved the miniature brown paper bags we used for the candy. I loved the way the bell sounded when you entered. I loved the way it smelled in there – like dust and tobacco and something sweet. Good times.
Meghan PookThe Dairy! We’d sneak off of Carambeck’s yard during lunch and buy 5¢ candies. I remember the heavy fridge door made of wood with latch style handle. That’s where the small cartons of chocolate milk were. The older gentleman who worked there usually reminded me of a cross between Mr. Dress-Up & Mr. Rogers in appearance but always struck me as stern. Probably b/c he was dealing with a gaggle of random school kids streaming through buying less then $1 worth of product. I loved the miniature brown paper bags we used for the candy. I loved the way the bell sounded when you entered. I loved the way it smelled in there – like dust and tobacco and something sweet. Good times.