© 2020, Christian Cassidy
During the restoration of the Fortune Block workers came across a ghost sign on the west-facing back wall of the building. When the adjoining building was constructed many decades ago the sign was protected from the elements and managed to survive mostly intact!
After some trial and error searching various names in newspaper archives it turns out that it is an advertisement for Charles Harrington - Butcher and Grocers.
Harrington family, 1901 Census of Canada, (Library and Archives Canada)
The family came to the Selkirk region of Manitoba around 1891 with at least seven children in tow ranging in age from 1 to 13 and had at least three more children after arriving here.
The family first appears in Winnipeg in the 1894 Henderson Directory, meaning that they moved here sometime in 1893. They owned a house at 423 Pritchard Avenue at Salter, now demolished, and William's occupation is listed as a carpenter.
Market Building, ca. unknown (Winterbos on Flickr)
By 1895, the Harrington family was running a meat and provisions shop called Harrington and Co. at stall 13 of the Public Market building behind city hall. A 'Christopher' and 'T. H.' Harrington ran it. Both lived at the Harrington family home on Pritchard, but it is unclear what their relation was to the family as they would have been too old to be Charles' siblings.
The following year, Charles, now 17, began working at the stall.
Around 1899, the family branched out by opening a grocery store called Harrington and Co. Grocers at 188 Higgins and the market stall became exclusively a butchers. (It may have been that the market did not operate year-round). The following year, a second store at 1079 Main Street near Aberdeen opened. Charles is listed as the owner of the Main Street building and some of the family lived above the store. At this time there is no listing for Christoper or T. H. which suggests they may have moved on to another city.
J. P. Lauzon's stall, next to Harrington's (CoW Archives)
By 1903, the Harringtons' the stand-alone stores closed and the enterprise was back to just the market stall now run by Charles with his father's assistance. A 1904 Tribune feature that profiled some of the stall owners noted that Harrington was one of the younger men in the trade and had a fine variety of meat, including beef, chicken and black bear “for those who have a taste for it”. It went on to say: "The stall is creditably decorated and everything looks neat and clean.”
It was around this time that trouble began brewing between stall owners, almost exclusively butchers, and the city. In 1904, the city tried to evict them so that the market building could be converted into city offices. The butchers, led by J. P. Lauzon, fought the eviction notices and won, though the victory was short lived. In the spring of 1905, the city issued new eviction orders and the butchers had to find new locations.
The storefront Harrington took over in 1905
Archives of Manitoba in City of Winnipeg Historic Buildings Report
Archives of Manitoba in City of Winnipeg Historic Buildings Report
Benjamin H. Holman came to Winnipeg in 1882. Originally from Napierville, Quebec, he worked as a butcher in a number of places, including Colorado, before coming here. Soon after his arrival he started a butcher business with H. Price on Main Street. By 1884, he was joined by his brother, Henry A Holman, and the name of the business changed to Holman Brothers. They relocated to the Fortune Block in 1885.
In 1904, the company merged with the Gallagher Company which owned a large abattoir and meat packing business and Holman got out of the retail trade.
September 22, 1905, Winnipeg Tribune
By June 1905, Harrington was settled in at the store and again able to expand the scope of his trade by offering “a full stock of staple groceries, the choicest meats – fresh and cured, butter and eggs, and seasonable vegetables direct from the gardens.”
It could be that some of the vegetables were grown by the Harringtons. Charles' father was quoted speaking as a vegetable producer at a trade show in the summer of 1905 and took out classified ads around the same time seeking to purchase 50 to 100 acres near the city limits.
There was a close call for the shop and the Fortune Block as a whole in October 1905 when an overheated stove at Harrington's caused a fire. The fire brigade was called and it was soon put out. The total damage was limited to $100 in stock.
Charles Harrington's store did not last long. The last ad for it ran on September 22, 1905 and the October fire is the last mention that can be found. In 1906, Harrington and the store are gone from newspapers and the Henderson Directory.
What exactly happened to Charles Harrington is unknown. A scan of some archived rural Manitoba papers and Henderson Directories from other major cities in the West at the time turn up nothing.
It could be that he found producing food was preferable to selling it and got into the farming side of the family business. Perhaps his entrepreneurial spirit, which saw him running his own market stall at age 24, took him to larger centres. Maybe the family returned to their roots in New Brunswick.
1 comment:
I love ghost signs! Very cool to find them on buildings.
Post a Comment