The Lanark Village I knew (1945-63), for which I have fond memories: Getting climatized to the Village winters after our transition from ‘Toronto the Good’ in June 1945. Likely the winter of 1946-47 on Canning Street with my mother and brother, Tom, with Ben Willis’ home and farm in the background. The gentle and elderly Ben Willis would become a grandfather figure to me as I helped to care for his horses. Note the name of the sleigh, ‘Spitfire’ – great and effective marketing in the early post-WWII era!
Lots of outdoor winter fun in the Village in the late 1940s when nights at -30C were the norm! (Photo: my mother and I with dog, ‘Tipsy,’ making our way across George Street with the old Town Hall and Clock Tower in the background after yet another snow storm!
The Drysdale, Foster, Kear kids – and others, but not sure of name – enjoying winter fun between the house we rented at the time from Nettie Baird and the 1902 Zion Hall on York Street. Fortunately for me, living in the Village was truly an idyllic childhood after transitioning from ‘Toronto the Good’ on the 1st anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1945! For various reasons, I realized very early that my experience was not the case for all kids in the community.
Same location on York Street in front of Nettie Baird’s house on York Street. My brother, Tom, and I tobogganing with the older Blackburn brothers, Neil and Louis. Good times in the Village!
Same location and winter activity with lots of snow of building forts. In the background you can see the Clyde River frozen over and if you closely, a shingle mill on Canning Street that burned down the following year.
I posted this photo by local historian Laurie Yuill who has supplied lots of photos to me. Pete Kear then added some great photos on the Lanark Village Community Group (Canada) that needed to be documented . Thanks Pete.. it takes a village to do this so send your photos in. PM me.. call a museum, post them for the generations ahead of us. Thank you!!
The Kear boys in the spring of 1955 building a paddle-wheel raft on the flooded ‘flats’ of Ben Wills’ horse pasture with the Clyde River in background – those ‘fond memories’
The Lanark Village I knew (1945-63), for which I have fond memories: Photographic evidence of the origins of the Glenayr Knit’s 1st life as an actual producer of the famed ‘Kitten’ sweater from the late 1940s into the 1980s – the arrival of one of those massive knitting ‘frames’ from Philadelphia, if I remember correctly.
In the background, you can see the old ‘boiler house’ which into the 1950s was powered by coal. It also included a machine shop, where the amazing machinist, Bill Donaldson, worked wonders in maintaining the massive and noisy ‘frames.’ Also, in the background and to the right, is the newly constructed cement-block building housing both the ‘dye house’ plus the extended building for the massive ‘frames.’
Question: Do the ‘frames’ still exist, or were they sold off in later decades, broken up for scrap iron?
pretty sure the massive knitting ‘frames’ came from and were manufactured in the United States , certainly not Europe or especially Germany so recent after the end of WWII … still in ruins! As I remember, Bill Donaldson was so talented and crucial in machinery operations.
I know my dad Joe Purdon built his handle maker lathe for his oar machine from old kitten mill metal or knitting machines he purchased ,also build his paddle machine from these parts
Dad made hundred of pairs of oars and I made a lot of them as well
He passed away in 1982
He bought this I think before I started working there around 1978 79
Photographic evidence of Glenayr Knits’ 2nd life with the transitioning in the 1980s to a ‘mill shop(s),’ and no longer producing the ‘Kitten’ sweater in ‘The Village.’ This was largely due to increased off-shore competition as Europe recovered from WWII, the Canadian-American ‘free trade’ (FTA) agreement of 1988 and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1992, plus the growth in the 1990s of corporate globalization, which eventually did-in the ‘mill shops’ as a tourists’ destination, which sadly had a dire impact on ‘The Village.’
Peter Kear It’s great that your children got to see the Mill although it was silent then. It was always such a bee hive of activity when I was growing up…the focal point of industry in the village. So many area people were employed there including my mother Margaret Paul both in the factory and then the store for about 20 years. On Saturdays the pace was frantic with bus loads of shoppers arriving from far and wide! All of the stores in Lanark benefited greatly from this prosperity at the Kitten Mill, and this could happen again if the Mill can be restored and made into a classy, well run, multi-use operation. Let us all hope!
I still have a couple of the kitten bags,wont use them.Reminds me of the days when we had our resturant next door,the good ole days when Lanark was a busy place.
My Mom and Dad both worked at the Mill when they first got married. They then moved on to Hopetown to open a General Store. After raising 5 children my Mom went back to work at Glenayr. She loved working there and enjoyed the atmosphere of meeting the customers who traveled many miles to shop there.
Dad worked there when he was very young. In fact that is where they first met. Dad would always say ” I took one look at her and that was it” and Moms comment was always ” Oh Norval stop being so silly” lol I have a standing lamp that the staff at the Mill gave Mom and Dad for a wedding gift….It is great that we have connected again.
Yes my mother Hazel Mitchell started to work in the lower mill making socks and blankets for men over seas it was run by Wilf oak I have a picture of the ones that worked there at that time then she worked at the Kitten mill all told she work there for over 30 yes alot of Lanark people made a living. Read-Stories from the Old Kitten Mill
My dads boots were nailed to the ceiling in the mill I have fond memories of taking my dad his lunch and the men asking us to go to the restaurant to get things always giving us a few pennies to buy penny candy at adams store the next day
In June 2005 introducing my two kids, Andrew (back left) and Emily (back right), and their cousins, Mark and Sarah, to the history of Glenayr Knit and my story of growing up as a child and a teenager many years before. Interesting enough, my dad had passed away in his 98th year on the eve of the anniversary of the tragic Lanark fire, June 14, 2005, while at a nursing home in Ottawa. His funeral was held at what had been the original 1902 Zion Hall (originally a Congregationalist Church until 1925), now Lanark Baptist Church, a few days later
Remember this label? I can’t imagine how many Kitten Sweaters and other clothing came out of the Glenayr Knit. My mother, Margaret Paul started to work there in 1962 and retired from the store in 1988.
I am no longer a resident of Lanark, but you can’t take away good memories of a place through the years that have passed.
I remember so much about growing up in Lanark, and I hope that the old and new people of Lanark will save her heritage buildings by what ever means is necessary. I have always found that “When the response to an inquiry is “No, or, I don’t know”, that this is your signal to try even harder to find out, and get it done!”
Not to meddle or speak out of turn, but Councillor Ron Closs’s impromptu poll results concerning Glenayr Knit indicated strongly that folks want to save the old girl, and revive her for the future. There are Ontario laws that support saving buildings like Glenayr…just google and you will see. When our history has been erased, it is erased forever, and that is extremely sad to think about, isn’t it?
I speak as a caring, and concerned ex-resident of Lanark Village.
I agree with Blair. I worked there for quite a few years and would love to see it saved as probably many other former employees would like to see. It was a big part of Lanark as was Rothwells saw mill.
The mill – and its positive economic impact on rejuvenating and supporting the good people/families of the surrounding community – was the heart and joy of my dad’s existence from June 1945 until his retirement in the fall of 1972.
I can remember him talking and worrying about the future – especially in relation to foreign competition and the need to ‘modernize’ – of both the mill and the community in the late 1960s and well into the 1970s during my family’s visits home to ‘The Village.’ He saw it almost as a miracle that the mill had survived the onslaught of the horrific fire of 15th June 1959.
During our stay in Lanark in June 2005, we stayed at the amazing newly-renovated ‘Clyde Hall’ of the Caldwells – what a beautiful structured to restore after even a fire, and connected to a family so significant in the history of ‘The Village! Best wishes in the restoration of the Old Mill building, which will be a challenge no doubt!
, certainly not Europe or especially Germany so recent after the end of WWII … still in ruins! As I remember, Bill Donaldson was so talented and crucial in machinery operations.
lindaseccaspina 