Walk around the catwalk~

On an overcast, snow dusted day in November, 1975 I climbed the old Water Tower by Moore Street in St. Thomas, Ontario. After taking in the incredible view I went around the circumference of the catwalk, setting the camera on the rail trying to take a pic at each support so as to get them at even distances. The police never came and no one ever bothered me, and I went up the next day and took some more shots with a couple of different lenses including a fisheye. I didn’t go up a third time as I figured I was probably pushing my luck.  

Above~ Have a look around. Click the image, let it run or use your mouse or arrow keys.

According to a newspaper clipping shared by Steve Peters [see bottom of page] the Water Tower was built in 1914 and demolished October 7, 1993. It was over 160 feet high, the balcony (catwalk) where I took the pics was 93 feet off the ground, and the tank itself was 40 feet in diameter. From the balcony where I stood to the lower part of tank roof was 37 feet. At the time it was the largest steel water tower in Canada, second largest in North American (largest was in Louisville, Ky). The capacity was 500,000 Imperial gal. 

On the day it was brought down I went to have a look but my heart just wasn’t in it. I remember raising my camera and maybe taking one pic but lowered it again and just walked away. Nothing to celebrate here. It was like losing an old friend who had done nothing worse than serve his community well. Perhaps in another time and place an elevator could have been built to take people up for the view. Don’t know.

---

Images~

I’ll show these in the order they were taken, facing southeast and looking down Ross Street, then moving counter-clockwise.

Above~ Starting from the left, we can see Battery Supply, the Orange Hall, Ross Street Variety, and the original location of Elgin Pet & Garden on the corner. Easily identifiable by the awnings is the wonderful Galloway’s Foods, then Richardson’s Meat Market, Guido’s Pizza and SeaHut Fish & Chips down by Locust Street on the corner. Both Guido’s and SeaHut opened in 1973. The St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital (1954) is in the distance. Myrtle Street Public School (1903, demolished 2014) was almost in a straight line from the tower to the hospital but seems obscured by trees. On the far right you can see the water tower and stack from the Ontario Hospital on Sunset Drive. 

Note all the farmland in the distance that had not yet grown houses [Steve Peters].

Below~ We can now see Lyle Cook’s Auto Parts in the lower left and a former location of Home Hardware. Notice the old lettering on the corner wall of Battery Supply: “E. Cutler Furniture Carpet Linoleum.” Cutler was in business from 1913-1937 (this is the corner of Barnes and Ross).

Above~ Looking directly east down Jonas Street toward the rail yard, almost all the buildings on either side of the MCRR locomotive repair shop (1913–thankfully still standing as the Elgin County Railway Museum) are gone, including the N.Y.C.R.R. & C.P.R. Freight House (1875-demolished 1980) on the left and the adjacent rail Car Repair Shops (ca. 1872-demolished) buildings to the rear and to the right. Ric-Wil of Canada had occupied them since 1956 making heating pipes but was gone by 1977, followed by Anvil Construction till 1979, then General Equipment Manufacturing which ended 1982.

The Canron Iron Foundry (1903-demolished 1980s) was still going strong making manhole covers and railcar brake shoes. Over the right shoulder of the Car Repair Shops are the rooflines of houses that were demolished for strip malls at the corner of Wellington and First Avenue. Yarmouth Heights can be seen in the distance. Also in the distance, just to the right of the Canron smoke and some trees, is a snow covered roofline of what may be the Talbot Park Golf Course Clubhouse (1924-demolished 2000), not sure.

FYI: Looking straight down Jonas and turning right at the first corner is Lydia Street. The second house on the right is the “Glass Brick or Gingerbread House” where Frank Roberts made his incredible bricks on site. It has a shed beside it with a diagonal window.

Above~ You can now better see the trees of the beautiful Talbot Park Golf Course (1924-demolished and paved over for the Walmart complex) in the distance. The great Timken smokestack (1947-closed 2013, demolished) along with the small water tower can be seen, and swinging to the left of Timken and out in the distance you can see the silos of Elgin Co-op’s Edgeware Road location.

Then moving slightly left and coming in closer from the silos towards town there is the beautiful Grace United Church (1909-demolished 2011) rising on Balaclava Street. Balaclava Street School (1899) is thankfully still standing and is now an Adult Learning Centre.

Swinging back now to the Timken stack and coming closer down Talbot St., the bucket and sign for Kentucky Fried Chicken are visible, and just in front of the building is the H. Salt Fish & Chips sign with the umbrella. This dates these images, since the strip mall Talbot Court Development at Talbot and Woodworth had just opened in January 1975. It housed Golden Crown Chinese Restaurant, Radio Shack, Becker’s, St. Thomas’s first Tim Horton’s and H. Salt Fish & Chips.

About halfway between the McDonald’s Arches (October 1973) and the OK Used Cars sign is the LaBelle Bridal Shop (1880s) which was demolished in 1982 for a Burger King. Then to the left by the OK sign is the beautiful Meehan House (1891) with its iconic wall which was demolished for Harry’s in 1986.

We can see the International Hotel or House (1882) now called The Jolly Robin. Medlyn Hardware is visible–what a great hardware store!–and across the street is the Canadian Tire gas bar (1971), and you can see the back of the new Canadian Tire building (1972) by A&P, now Van Pelts.  I believe you can just see the top of the Lor-El Coffee Shop sign next to the old CT location at 797 Talbot. Just over the A&P sign you can see B. E. Wellman Pet and Garden, and then Golden Crust Bakery, Muntz Stereo and the John Scott Hotel.

Above~ And now, to the corner of Ross/Flora and Talbot: the YMCA (1914-demolished 1997) with its ??? rooms, gym and swimming pool, the Bank of Montreal in the venerable and classy Molson Bank building (1920-demolished 1977) is across the street, and the original Empire Hotel (1877-destroyed by fire mid 90s) and the Ross Street Subway (1908-filled in 2014). Moving back a bit to the right we can see the Terrace Row Housing (1882-demolished by fire 1981) on Manitoba.

Across from the Consumers Distributing sign is Chicken Delight, the Golden Crown Chinese Restaurant and we get a glimpse of the Elgin Restaurant across from the Talbot Mercury/Lincoln sign. It is nice to see that Arthur Voaden Secondary School (1926) and the St. John’s Anglican Church (1909) are still active. 

Above~ Now looking directly north right down John Street–the smokestack of Elgin Handles (1911-closed 2000, demolished). Just to the left of it you can see the roofline of what I believe is the old L & PS Train Station (ca. 1870, demolished) on Station Street which had been converted to a freight office/shed. On the south side of Talbot we can see the back of The Health Pantry (later Ansell’s), Sanderson Pro Hardware and the back of the St. Thomas Bus Depot which was very busy (including daily runs to London).

The Sutherland Press building (1913–closed 1993, demolished 2017) is fully intact and Cox Cabs is right across the street, complete with cabs parked and waiting. Right above the top right side of the Sutherland Press and through the trees I can make out the top windows of the Dixie Dairy Bar (1880-present) at 51 St. Catherine Street. Looking down, and now starting to come into view is the BX Tower (ca. 1872) which controlled much of the switching in the rail yards through a series of rods underground. And in the distance we can see the new water tower which had been built in 1967 to accommodate the Ford Plant.

Above~ We can now see the silos of the Elgin Co-op ( 1883 as Campbell Mills, then Empire Mills, rebuilt after 1954 fire, expanded many times, demolished ?) which was going full steam (literally) on this particular day. The cloud of sweet smelling steam from feed grinding and molasses was moving around, the haze is noticeable on some negatives. Going back to the Cox Cabs area, we can see the building housing the wonderful Ramona’s Delicatessen with the Ministry of Agriculture beside (demolished 1985). Across the street is the Schooner Inn (opened Sept. 1973, formerly Talbot Hotel), Moore Tire, the St. Thomas Police/Justice building (1970-demolished 2014) and the PUC buildings.

Moving back to Talbot you can see Honest John’s and Baronet Shoes, and just over the Honest John’s building there is a glimpse of the top windows of the new Public Library (October, 1974). We can see City Hall (1899) clearly and across the street toward us is the roof of the wonderful Capitol Theatre (1931-closed early 2000s) with its classy entrance.

Above~ We can now see Co-op Lumber Yard (rebuilt after 1970 fire, demolished) with steam from the Mill between the camera and one of the long buildings. About midway in this pic of the Co-op Lumber and on the other side of the street is The Old Gardens flower shop at 26 Princess Avenue , a company with a long history in St. Thomas going back at least to the early 50s. Looking down now we see the London and Port Stanley Railway (1856), later taken over by CN. This stretch of rail was also used by the C&O to continue their east-west movement along the New York Central. 

Moving back towards Talbot is Holy Angels Church and St. Joseph High School complete with students out in the yard. Right above Holy Angels we can see the Memorial Hospital (1924-demolished 1998) on Pearl Street. And then coming back a bit and across from St. Joe’s is the old Dominion Store on White Steet.

Now looking toward the west end of town and we can see the tower of the Elgin Co-op Cold Storage building (demolished 1988) on William Street, the Essex Wire building, the Grand Central Hotel (1881-demolished 1979), and moving to the right is the bell tower of the First United Church (1949) on St. George Street. It is to my great regret that the iconic Old Fire Hall on Southwick Street is missing–it had been demolished in 1973.

Straight ahead on the left is the Centre Street Baptist Church (1879- closed 2021). Just to the left of the church steeple on the horizon there is a rectangle–that is the tower with the big logo at the Ford Plant in Talbotville (1967-2011). You can also see it in the image of City Hall further down this page. 

Note the vehicles of that era, and the TV antennas on some houses.

Above~ Now looking directly west we can see the rest of the Elgin Co-op Lumber Yard and the Princess Avenue Christian Church (thankfully still standing as the Princess Avenue Playhouse for the Elgin Theatre Guild). Looking towards the left we can see the Trinity Anglican Church (1877 -closed 2020; now the St. Thomas Islamic Centre), over the roof we can see the top of Wellington Street School (1899- closed 2009), then over to the right is the dome of the Elgin County Courthouse (1899) and then through the trees some of Knox Presbyterian Church (1883).

Notice steam haze from the Co-op has now moved over the railcar.

Above~ We see Marlatt’s Lumber (rebuilt after a fire in 1968, closed) along with Sifton Funeral Home coming into view. The steam has shifted to the Odd Fellows Hall, lower left. It was following me around.

Below~ We can now see the Central United Church (1897) on the left, a better look at the Odd Fellows Hall, and all of Marlatt’s Lumber along with Top Notch Feeds (demolished late 1990s) over to the left.

Above~ Now Alma College starts coming into view. But then while you’re staring at Alma you notice that just over the right shoulder you can see the water tower that was beside the old C&O Roundhouse, the Roundhouse (ca. 1942, demolished 1989) though partly obscured was still there, and the smokestack of the old Victor Gasket/Victor Perfect Circle building was still in operation at the time. The C&O rail yards to the right of Memorial Arena (1954) appear to be in good use. There was a whole world back there that serviced the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and everything else. It was busy! [see Larry Broadbent’s aerial photo further down]

Above~ And now, swinging to the south, one’s heart stops gazing at the Grand Ol’ Lady herself: Alma College. What a remarkable structure, what class and beauty, what an asset to have in any town. The whole thing is just too damn sad to write about, not just that it was destroyed by arson, but that it ever got in such a state of disrepair in the first place. [Alma College–construction began 1878, opened 1881, closed 1988, destroyed by arson 2008]

Directly ahead we can also see the St. Thomas Pentecostal Assembly (1958) with the beautiful stained glass before it was covered over.  Finally, looking directly south you can see the water tower and stack of the heating plant of the Ontario Hospital on Sunset Drive (1939- closed permanently 2013) and we’re back where we started. 

Impressions~

I guess my first impression looking at these images after almost fifty years is just the sheer number of structures that are gone. And these were just my first impressions. Lordy. Now, obviously I’ve gone back and added dates for reference purposes, but still… A bit much to take in.

The second impression for me is how busy everything looked. But I don’t know if this is evident in the images or just because I remember the sight, sound and smell of everything that was going on then. Things seemed to be firing on all cylinders! Smoke coming from Canron and Timken Bearing (the smoke from Canron was a big problem it must be acknowledged), railcars beside Canron and in the rail yard, the steam and smell of grain coming from the Elgin Co-op, the noises from the rail yards and lumber yards, students out in the yard at St. Joe’s. I mean, you can’t tell from a pic that the Sutherland Press was cranking out calendars to send all over the county.

My third impression is the presence of the Elgin Co-op in the everyday life of the community. No fewer than four major structures can be seen just from the water tower: the aforementioned Feed Mixing Plant silos visible off in the distance to the east on Edgeware Road, the silos of the Moore Street Elgin Co-op right next to the water tower (with the Molasses truck parked beside and steam escaping–see slide show below), the Co-op Lumber Store and Yard nearby, and finally the Elgin Cooperative Services Cold Storage on William Street with the tower visible at the west end. Agriculture was a big part of St. Thomas and Elgin County. It was Big Ag, but it was Big Ag for the little guy. Everybody used it.

The day after~

Some images taken the next day with a telephoto. Fisheye plus some other shots are in the slide show below.

---

Time capsule~

For those of you that weren’t there or just staring at images that don’t mean anything, let me see if I can paint a bit of a picture for you.

During the time period these photographs were taken, there were three main grocery stores along the Talbot Street corridor: the A&P one block east of Ross Street (visible), the Dominion in the downtown across from St. Joe’s at 7 White Street (visible) and Loblaws at 41 Mondamin Street behind the Public Library. The Central Fruit Market and Giffords were both operating at the west end as well. Everything was within walking distance. There were also the IGA at Homedale Plaza and the Loblaws on Elm Street.

This was in addition to the drug stores, hardware stores, 5 and dime, a beautiful downtown theatre, a plethora of lunch counters, restaurants and watering holes, a first class department store (Andersons), a discount department store (Zellers), furniture and appliance stores, clothing and shoe stores, bakeries, pool halls, bowling alleys, jewellers and watchmakers, record shops, a vibrant radio station (CHLO with live DJs), flower shops, hobby shops, bookstores and stationary stores, magazine shops, community swimming pools, shoe repair shops, bicycle repair shops, TV and radio stores and service, and so on.

The great bleed off in trade from the downtown core to the Elgin Mall in St. Thomas and to Towers and the White Oaks Mall in London (24km away) had not yet happened.

A case in point is the images you’re looking at right now on this page. All my cameras, lenses, filters, film, darkroom equipment including the enlarger, timers, paper, developer, fixer and right down to the tongs in the developer trays came from Cliff Maxwell’s Cameras on Talbot Street. Cliff Maxwelll was a great guy with a great sense of humour, but more than anything else he was kind, knowledgeable and helpful.

The Elgin Mall opened October of 1975. White Oaks Mall (as a fully enclosed shopping centre) was built in 1973 with Woolco as an anchor plus 150 stores, but it takes a while for people to change their shopping habits. In 1976 Simpson’s was added to White Oaks plus more stores, and a Mark’s and Spencers in 1983. By the 1980s the bleed in trade was fully underway. The K-Mart at Elgin Mall pretty much killed Zeller’s downtown.

For groceries I sometimes went to the A&P on Talbot (liked the store and enjoyed Smitty the cashier–she was fun) but most of the time I went to the Loblaws on Mondamin Street as it was less than two blocks from my apartment in the old schoolhouse at 67 Hiawatha Street. I had a bracket over the rear wheel of the bicycle that had these spring loaded flaps for books or whatever. It held a paper bag of groceries perfectly. Average cost of that bag of groceries: $5. I know, because I noticed when the cost seemed to go up to $7. Wow, things are getting expensive! Keep in mind that the average wage for most people then was probably $4-6 an hour (minimum wage in 1975 was $2.40 an hr.).

One Friday I went to get my usual at the Loblaws on Mondamin Steet. There was maybe one car out front and two customers in the store. By this time I’d gotten to know the manager a bit and asked “Where is everybody?” He said “They’re all out at the new Dominion store at the Mall.” That was October, 1975, and it would be the beginning of the end for the downtown (as we knew it).

Hard to take in~

Think of it this way: what if I knew you were looking for work and a place to live, and I said “Hey, I know this town, there seems to be lots of work, everything is within walking distance, two bedroom apartments are about $75-$90. What would you say?

It is hard for me to understand how we think we can improve on a system where you can walk to most everything you need–groceries, drug and hardware stores, entertainment and so on. And there was lots of housing from rooms at the Y and various hotels to apartments and houses. The third paragraph above–that’s not an exaggeration: everything from community swimming pools to shoe repair shops to lunch counters.

I’m glad I saw it, and lived it. Mistakes and all, warts and all, I’m glad I was there. A lot of people are really hurting right now. Perhaps this gives clues for a way back, don’t know.

But to be fair, one wonders what someone from previous generations might think if they saw these images. They might be horrified. Where are all the trains, they might ask?

Thanks~

Looking at some of these buildings, it really drives home the importance of volunteers and people who try to keep history alive including those who have put in countless restoration hours into places like the Elgin County Railway Museum and CASO Station. Or, people who just tried to save something, like Mark Cosens’s effort with the Capitol Theatre, or Gillian Martin from Ansell’s who restored the facade at 648 Talbot with its iconic balcony. 

---

Slideshow~

.
Above~ an assortment of pics including some fisheye shots. I got the fisheye lens from Cliff Maxwell Cameras–some kind of generic brand–not high quality at the edges but a riot to use and lots of fun. I still can’t believe I climbed a water tower with a long scarf around my neck. Not a good safety plan at all.

---

Links & Sources~

Heritage Collections Elgin-St. Thomas~ The goto resource for research.

You Know you grew up in St. Thomas, Ontario when…~ Facebook group, lots of information, searchable.

Church Histories St. Thomas~ Good historical overview of the church history in St. Thomas.

Elgin County Ontario Genealogical Society– St. Thomas 100 Years a City~ Good background info.

Properties of Heritage Interest~ Great overview of some of the properties in St. Thomas.

Timeline of St. Thomas, Ontario~ Summary and overview from the Public Library.

St. Thomas Heritage Walking Tour Map 1~ Take a walk down Talbot…

Elgin County Railway Museum~ the ECRM website.

St. Thomas Railway History Chronology~ Good summary from the St. Thomas Library.

The Railway History of St. Thomas~  good overview from the St. Thomas Library.

St. Thomas Four Major Rail Lines~ good YouTube presentation by the Elgin County Railway Museum.

CASO Station~ Website for CASO, historical information plus preservation and restoration efforts.

Canada Southern Railway~ Great resource page by Terry Link. Worthwhile.

History of the Canada Southern Railway~ Good overview and timeline from Carl Riff.

Michigan Central Railway~ Wiki page, good historical overview with maps.

Canron~ A short history of Canadian Iron & Foundry Company

Downtown St. Thomas Heritage Conservation Study~ Prepared by Stantec, interesting photos and observations.

1973 Talbot Shivaree Brochure~ Great window into that time period. [pdf, 42 pages].

Railway City Transit~ Wiki page overview.

Transit History of St. Thomas~ Timeline of the St. Thomas Transit System by David A. Wyatt.

London and Area Golf History~ Page about Talbot Park Golf Course

Anderson’s Department Store~ History from the Elgin County Archives.

Supermartifacts~ Incredible research by Andrew Turnbull of the grocery chains. Wow!

Above~ Newspaper clipping shared by Steve Peters about the Moore Street Water Tower dating from 1914.
Below~ An aerial photo taken by Larry Broadbent in 1971 of the C&O rail yard in St. Thomas. It shows the Roundhouse and accompanying buildings when still in operation. Note the back of Alma College at the top.

Across the tracks from the Roundhouse on the right is the large, flat C&O shops building (the back is visible in the large image of Alma College on this page). We can see the heating plant beside, and directly across from the Roundhouse turntable is the C&O office headquarters on the other side of Wilson Avenue with a walkway to the tracks. A clear view of Victor Gasket/Perfect Circle north of the shops building and the Armoury and Memorial Arena are across the tracks.

We can also see the Park House Hotel (early 1900s), a watering hole for railway workers and others at 95 Wilson Avenue, corner of Ada Street. The Park House renamed itself The Chessy Cat one year after this photo in 1972. It introduced St. Thomas to disco in ’76, became BJ’s jazz lounge in ’78, went into receivership 1980, and would later become Stop 95 and other names, now demolished.

---

Acknowledgements~

I’m very grateful to Steve Peters for his faithful sharing of historical information over the years. Many of the facts, dates and details on this page came from his contributions to different sources, and he also generously contributed some details to this page when I asked. Also to the Elgin County Archives Heritage Collections and the people who maintain it, and to Larry Broadbent for his aerial photograph of the C&O rail yard.

And, to the contributors on the FB page You Know you grew up in St. Thomas, Ontario when… for all the little bits of information. Any errors or typos on this page are my own.

---

See also~

Snowfall in the Wabash/CN Rail Yard~ Stroll through the rail yard at the end of Hiawatha Street in St. Thomas circa 1973.

Sophy Segal Scrapyard in St. Thomas~ A visit to Canada Scrap Iron & Metal on Edward Street, St. Thomas circa 1974.

Old St. Thomas Church in Infrared~ A walk with an infrared camera through the Old English Churchyard in St. Thomas, Ontario.

---

A Salute~

Finally, I cannot end this page without a tip of the hat (as he would sometimes do) to Ed Addley, aka “Pop Bottle Eddie,” a colourful character who would wander the streets of St. Thomas collecting cans and bottles and whose appearance would sometimes change depending on what people had discarded. Ed lived in the shadow of the Water Tower, at 8 1/2 Mill Street across from the silos and about three houses away from the tower structure. His home is visible in some of the fisheye shots above. I dedicate this page to him.

---

Technical Notes~

Images~ Pentax Spotmatic II, 50mm 1.2 lens, Panatomix X film, 32 ASA. Can’t remember the telephoto other than it was a Pentax macro lens, the fisheye was a generic brand. Except for the one colour slide, the film was developed by myself in 1975. All negs scanned on a Minolta Dimage IV scanner. 

The day after I took the pics I developed the film in my darkroom and later made 11 x 14 prints of my trip around the catwalk. I thought this was just going to be epic. Later I took the prints and lined them all up on the floor and coffee table in my little apartment on Hiawatha St. and guess what? Nothing lined up!! Can you imagine–a town with railway tracks plus streets and everything else. This would be my first boiled-in-oil/baptism-by-fire encounter with Parallax. 

I still remember staring at the prints and realizing if you rotated them in a bit at the bottom the streets and tracks would sort of line up. So I went back into the darkroom, put a thick book under the front of the easel to tilt it, stopped the lens of the enlarger all the way down to keep everything in focus, and carefully re-exposed and developed the prints. Lining them all up the day after they didn’t look too bad, and the eye tends to fill things in. I had them mounted on my walls for many years, and I still have the prints today, fixer stains and all. 

Fast forward fifty years and I’ve had some time making 360° panoramas with high end stitching software and a DSLR using a fisheye lens on a pano head and tripod. So when I ran across the negs, I scanned them with a negative scanner, touched up the worst of the dust spots and scratches, and attempted to stitch them in the usual manner. And guess what? Parallax is still there. But I’ve done my best with it (for now).

According to the stitching software program PtGui, it is technically impossible to stitch a 360 pano when the camera lens has shifted into different points of view. The camera needs to rotate on a single axis point going through the entrance pupil of the lens, hence the need for a pano head, not just a tripod.

Also, and this is mandatory, the images must overlap at least 20% to get a good stitch. The images from the Water Tower do neither, since the tank was 40 feet in diameter, and adding at least 4 feet for both sides of the catwalk balcony, that means the camera was moving in an arc 48 feet in diameter! Also, to attain a 20% overlap I would have needed to take twice as many prints or a wider angle lens, say a 40 mm. To keep the horizon straight I would have had to attach a small carpenters line level to the camera, probably on the hotshoe.

Yet here we are. On the 360 at the top of the page, it isn’t the stitch I want, and it isn’t exactly how I want it displayed, but I’ve decided to declare victory and go home. The main thing is I wanted to share with people what it was like to be up there. It was awesome! Cheers.

---

If you see errors in my recollections or have something to add please leave a comment. Although an email address is required to prove you’re not a bot, it is never shared. Or, you can email me. Thanks.