Photo above courtesy of Fred Gonder
A Quick History of Market Square presented on July 9, 2017 by John Kastner, General Manager of Stratford Perth Museum, at Queen of the Square Cinema
Unveiling of Cornerstone at City Hall, 1898, Stratford-Perth Archives Street Photograph Collection-Market Square #1973.2.1
There’s no history like local history and it is time to tell the story about Market Square. As was mentioned in The Beacon Herald this week, that history is like Groundhog Day. The more I read and researched, the more I felt like Bill Murray.
The story of Market Square is a great story – some colorful characters, accusations of lying, double-crossing, local business interests influencing decisions, over-spending, fights between city councillors and merchants, threats of litigation, and legal interpretations of agreements. And I’m not talking about the last six months – this was all before 1900.
For people alive today – the most controversial property in Stratford’s history is the Cooper site. I can tell you, however, that over the complete scope of Stratford’s history – we are actually on the most controversial ground right now. There’s only one way to tell this story – chronologically.
1834 – Canada Company surveyor Donald McDonald lays out the downtown and he leaves a triangled square to be the Market Square. There is no town hall – it’s where the United Way thermometer is now. Donald McDonald – remember that name.
Market Place, as it was known then, became a bustling spot but it was not a market. A German settler named William Rischmiller ran a sawmill here in the 1840s.
There was an open creek called Romeo Creek that ran right through this block, into something called Erie Creek that went by where the Legion is now, along Worsley Street, then under the Central Flats to the Avon River. By the way, that creek was first covered over with wooden planks and then paved over. Today there are manhole covers in the basement of the Avon Theatre and beneath some houses on Birmingham Street where the river runs under the property.
Downtown Stratford was growing – it was becoming a place for commerce, not industry, and soon, Richmiller was forced to close the sawmill. He sold the property to Dr. Morris Lee Wolf of New York City. Remember Donald McDonald, the surveyor? Here’s where the allegations of collusion and corruption begin. He and his wife Frances buy the Market Place property from the American. Keep in mind he is a Canada Company employee, and a few months later – this is 1855 – they in turn sell much of Market Square to the Village of Stratford for 200 pounds or $1,000 - roughly.
But McDonald wanted the area to be home to a market and that was one of the conditions of the sale. “To have and to hold that said land and premises and appurtenances in trust to use for the same for the purpose of erecting and maintaining thereon a Market House and the buildings incident thereto as aforesaid forever.”
I’m an English major and I don’t really know what that means. I think, and most people felt the same way, it meant there had to be a market here.
McDonald, the surveyor, owned all sorts of retail property on Wellington and Market Square and he wanted this to be the centre of retail in Stratford. It would be good for his business. Meanwhile, once the city got a hold of the property, a town hall was envisioned. A contest was held – we’ve heard that before more recently – with the best design getting 50 pounds. Things moved a little faster then and in just two years, Stratford, now a town, had a new town hall that included market stalls to help fulfill the sale agreement.
That was 1858. But combining the town hall and a market did not go well. Councillors were meeting upstairs while vendors were selling their wares downstairs and outside. When the town hall was built no one thought about putting washing facilities outside. So vendors brought fresh fish into the town hall to clean them and councillors complained about butchers dragging dead animals and hides through the building.
In 1859, Council approved an expenditure of $40 and an outdoor privy was built to be used by the market vendors and customers. Ironically, here we are 160 years later, and there is no longer an outdoor washroom. That washroom, or privy, made for a better relationship so the market and town hall could co-exist.
It’s 1876 and the town decides they want to enlarge Market Square in the second of three expansions. They call our old buddy Donald McDonald, who is now a Senator, to buy some more land. This time it’s not $1,000 like the last time. It’s $50,000 for two more acres. Eleven years later his widow, Frances, who is now living in Los Angeles, sells a 30-foot wide strip to Stratford, now a city, that runs from Wellington Street to Downie Street for $1. This is to replace the wooden sidewalk in front of those stores.
But again, there’s a condition - the whole area has to remain a market. Frances of course, owned some of the businesses along there and a new sidewalk was just what the doctor ordered. That was in 1887.
But then – 10 years later – November 24, 1897 – Stratford town hall catches fire and burns to the ground. During 1898, the current city hall is rebuilt but – no market stalls and no provision for a public market.
This was a political issue for decades with city hall, and the Market Square linked politically. In the 1920s, the newly formed Stratford Parks Board wanted to plant some trees and flower beds in Market Square. The request was denied because some city councillors were still hopeful the area would be reverted back to a market.
In 1925, the city again brought up the idea of a public washroom in the square. It was again turned down – no market, no washroom. A few years later those advocating for a downtown market got their way – but not here. It was down the street at the corner of Waterloo and Albert. Down that street past Molly Blooms. We can see it from here. The old firehall was there and a market was built adjacent to that.
When the firehall was tore down in the 1960s, the market made its way to the fairgrounds and the idea of a downtown market was dead. So were Senator and Frances McDonald, by the way, so they no longer needed to worry about those old conditions either.
But Stratford being what it is – when one controversy died, others were more than happy to take their place. It’s as though when it comes to these few acres, the city and its population, has never been content. Soon after the idea of a market here behind City Hall was dead for good, perhaps the craziest idea in the city of Stratford history is floated. Called Bard Square, the city would see Market Square redeveloped to give downtown businesses a boost. That was in 1967. The city would look for buyers for the city hall – not the building, just the property it sits on. The aging city hall would be torn down. But in return, the property the developer would also have to make Market Square a bustling retail space. Sparks Street in Ottawa, a pedestrian only retail area – was held up as the example.
Parking and the buses were the two major obstacles – imagine that – but Mayor Donald Davis got his way and in 1971 – city council voted 6-5, with Davis breaking the tie, to sell city hall to a Montreal developer working with CN Hotels. The price – $1 million. The mayor proudly posed with the drawings that included a 10-storey hotel, complete with a revolving restaurant on the top floor.
Parking – no problem. There would be three levels of underground parking under City Hall, and the Market Square – with spots for 450 cars. I don’t know how many parking spots are at the mall, for example, but hard to image 450 parking spots underground right here. So with City Hall sold – where would city council and staff go? No problem. The city had to rent two floors for 25 years for council chambers and office space at $25,000 a year.
The public outcry should not have been surprising – except the city councillors were taken aback.
The next day the “Save the City Hall” league was formed and two weeks later Stratfordites packed the council chambers with people all up and down the stairs, and assembled outside. Cheers shook the council chambers, and the city for that matter, when the group, led by seven Stratford women by the way, forced Council to re-neg on the deal, and pay the $25,000 escape penalty.
Mayor Davis was furious. At a Rotary Club meeting and at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, he lashed out at The Beacon Herald for the critical coverage of the plan. FAKE NEWS as it were. And he blamed “small special interest groups” for undermining progress.
You may notice a cycle here. From the birth of one idea, through its demise, a bit of a break, then the birth of a new idea. About a decade to 15 years each time.
So in 1983, then Mayor Ted Blowes, a school teacher by the way, came forward with another grand plan. Dig out Market Square – like really dig it out – and put in a two-storey underground parking garage. Ted was an environmentalist. He started the ME Club at Northwestern – which stood for Man’s Environment. That was in the 1980s and Ted was well ahead of his time. The parking garage, which would have been right below us, would be covered by a green space.
The city committed to money for a study – design work began, everybody was excited – but when it came time to pull the trigger councillors were concerned about what to do about two things – the city buses and the loss of parking. The other big concern was about, are you ready for this, bus tickets. JS News, located over there at Ross’s Bike Works, and the News Depot, where Fosters is now, sold books of bus tickets. If the buses moved, where would people buy bus tickets? The project died.
Undeterred, in 1998, another school teacher and city councilor Mike Jorna said we should turn Market Square into green space with tables and chairs and umbrellas and make it a public meeting space. AND – he had a plan to address the concerns about parking and the buses. Build a two-storey parking garage on Erie Street and move the buses there too. Hope springs eternal but merchants along Wellington Street lead the charge against this and a divided council rejects the plan. It never got to the design stage.
2003 – A young city councilor named Jim Chapryk stood before Council and requested $5,000 be set aside to organize a public visioning session to determine what to do with Market Square. Ironically, there had never been a shortage of public vision – it was just divided. Half the community wanted a much better Market Square and half wanted it kept exactly the same citing concerns about – you guessed it – buses and parking. The $5,000 paid a study – the fifth. Studies were cheaper then and whenever at a loss to make a decision, Council just asked for another study. By the way, four of the five studies said – you can do what you want but the buses have to stay downtown.
But this was the beginning of what we have today. City lawyer Marcia Matsui was the chair of the City Centre Committee. Conversations with the community, and city council, began and several themes emerged. In fact, one of the views got put down on paper and became the roadmap for development. This was key, as it was referred to whenever decision makers began to wander. A mission statement as it were.
“The Square should be a people place, one where citizens and visitors gather to sit and enjoy the view, a Square bordered by some of Stratford's iconic heritage architecture, where people enjoy a snack, people watch, take in some entertainment. The Square must be accessible by transit and some perimeter parking should be retained.”
The consultation phase led to an international design competition in 2006, funded by the Ontario Rural Economic Development (RED) grant. Guidelines were developed based upon input from over 650 citizens.
2007 –10 years ago, twenty-one firms submitted designs and a panel led by George Baird, Dean of University of Toronto School of Architecture and Design and including citizens Tom Orr and Eleanor Kane, chose Plant Architect Inc.’s concept as the winning design.
Matsui stepped down from the CCC in 2009 and then the Stratford Market Square Committee continued as an unfunded volunteer committee, chaired by Marcia until 2014, after which Eleanor Kane became chair.
All the while, another Stratford controversy was coming to a close. Walmart, after a decades long fight, got a spot in Stratford.
But there was the question of outstanding legal bills from that fight and lo and behold, Walmart makes a $1.25 million donation to the city, but like our old buddy Senator McDonald – it comes with some strings attached.
The donation has to be used to redevelop Market Square.
March 2016 – City Council approves a proposal from the GSP Design group with a plan to have it finished by Canada Day 2017. Two issues still had to be resolved – Anyone? Anyone? – buses and parking.
And now here we are – as far as buses and parking – well, some would suggest that has been dealt with. Some will say it has been pushed aside.
But why did this attempt at doing something succeed when so many had failed. Was it political leadership? Was it community leadership? Was it the public input that removed off ramps? Was it the $1.25 million from Walmart? When somebody speaks about this development in my place, say 25 years from now, they can cover that chapter and draw their own conclusions. And they will have the benefit of time.
For now, I can tell you that this space has seen some of Stratford’s greatest celebrations and its worst conflict.
Here is a great celebration picture from 1897 – Queen Victoria’s jubilee.
The story of Market Square is a great story – some colorful characters, accusations of lying, double-crossing, local business interests influencing decisions, over-spending, fights between city councillors and merchants, threats of litigation, and legal interpretations of agreements. And I’m not talking about the last six months – this was all before 1900.
For people alive today – the most controversial property in Stratford’s history is the Cooper site. I can tell you, however, that over the complete scope of Stratford’s history – we are actually on the most controversial ground right now. There’s only one way to tell this story – chronologically.
1834 – Canada Company surveyor Donald McDonald lays out the downtown and he leaves a triangled square to be the Market Square. There is no town hall – it’s where the United Way thermometer is now. Donald McDonald – remember that name.
Market Place, as it was known then, became a bustling spot but it was not a market. A German settler named William Rischmiller ran a sawmill here in the 1840s.
There was an open creek called Romeo Creek that ran right through this block, into something called Erie Creek that went by where the Legion is now, along Worsley Street, then under the Central Flats to the Avon River. By the way, that creek was first covered over with wooden planks and then paved over. Today there are manhole covers in the basement of the Avon Theatre and beneath some houses on Birmingham Street where the river runs under the property.
Downtown Stratford was growing – it was becoming a place for commerce, not industry, and soon, Richmiller was forced to close the sawmill. He sold the property to Dr. Morris Lee Wolf of New York City. Remember Donald McDonald, the surveyor? Here’s where the allegations of collusion and corruption begin. He and his wife Frances buy the Market Place property from the American. Keep in mind he is a Canada Company employee, and a few months later – this is 1855 – they in turn sell much of Market Square to the Village of Stratford for 200 pounds or $1,000 - roughly.
But McDonald wanted the area to be home to a market and that was one of the conditions of the sale. “To have and to hold that said land and premises and appurtenances in trust to use for the same for the purpose of erecting and maintaining thereon a Market House and the buildings incident thereto as aforesaid forever.”
I’m an English major and I don’t really know what that means. I think, and most people felt the same way, it meant there had to be a market here.
McDonald, the surveyor, owned all sorts of retail property on Wellington and Market Square and he wanted this to be the centre of retail in Stratford. It would be good for his business. Meanwhile, once the city got a hold of the property, a town hall was envisioned. A contest was held – we’ve heard that before more recently – with the best design getting 50 pounds. Things moved a little faster then and in just two years, Stratford, now a town, had a new town hall that included market stalls to help fulfill the sale agreement.
That was 1858. But combining the town hall and a market did not go well. Councillors were meeting upstairs while vendors were selling their wares downstairs and outside. When the town hall was built no one thought about putting washing facilities outside. So vendors brought fresh fish into the town hall to clean them and councillors complained about butchers dragging dead animals and hides through the building.
In 1859, Council approved an expenditure of $40 and an outdoor privy was built to be used by the market vendors and customers. Ironically, here we are 160 years later, and there is no longer an outdoor washroom. That washroom, or privy, made for a better relationship so the market and town hall could co-exist.
It’s 1876 and the town decides they want to enlarge Market Square in the second of three expansions. They call our old buddy Donald McDonald, who is now a Senator, to buy some more land. This time it’s not $1,000 like the last time. It’s $50,000 for two more acres. Eleven years later his widow, Frances, who is now living in Los Angeles, sells a 30-foot wide strip to Stratford, now a city, that runs from Wellington Street to Downie Street for $1. This is to replace the wooden sidewalk in front of those stores.
But again, there’s a condition - the whole area has to remain a market. Frances of course, owned some of the businesses along there and a new sidewalk was just what the doctor ordered. That was in 1887.
But then – 10 years later – November 24, 1897 – Stratford town hall catches fire and burns to the ground. During 1898, the current city hall is rebuilt but – no market stalls and no provision for a public market.
This was a political issue for decades with city hall, and the Market Square linked politically. In the 1920s, the newly formed Stratford Parks Board wanted to plant some trees and flower beds in Market Square. The request was denied because some city councillors were still hopeful the area would be reverted back to a market.
In 1925, the city again brought up the idea of a public washroom in the square. It was again turned down – no market, no washroom. A few years later those advocating for a downtown market got their way – but not here. It was down the street at the corner of Waterloo and Albert. Down that street past Molly Blooms. We can see it from here. The old firehall was there and a market was built adjacent to that.
When the firehall was tore down in the 1960s, the market made its way to the fairgrounds and the idea of a downtown market was dead. So were Senator and Frances McDonald, by the way, so they no longer needed to worry about those old conditions either.
But Stratford being what it is – when one controversy died, others were more than happy to take their place. It’s as though when it comes to these few acres, the city and its population, has never been content. Soon after the idea of a market here behind City Hall was dead for good, perhaps the craziest idea in the city of Stratford history is floated. Called Bard Square, the city would see Market Square redeveloped to give downtown businesses a boost. That was in 1967. The city would look for buyers for the city hall – not the building, just the property it sits on. The aging city hall would be torn down. But in return, the property the developer would also have to make Market Square a bustling retail space. Sparks Street in Ottawa, a pedestrian only retail area – was held up as the example.
Parking and the buses were the two major obstacles – imagine that – but Mayor Donald Davis got his way and in 1971 – city council voted 6-5, with Davis breaking the tie, to sell city hall to a Montreal developer working with CN Hotels. The price – $1 million. The mayor proudly posed with the drawings that included a 10-storey hotel, complete with a revolving restaurant on the top floor.
Parking – no problem. There would be three levels of underground parking under City Hall, and the Market Square – with spots for 450 cars. I don’t know how many parking spots are at the mall, for example, but hard to image 450 parking spots underground right here. So with City Hall sold – where would city council and staff go? No problem. The city had to rent two floors for 25 years for council chambers and office space at $25,000 a year.
The public outcry should not have been surprising – except the city councillors were taken aback.
The next day the “Save the City Hall” league was formed and two weeks later Stratfordites packed the council chambers with people all up and down the stairs, and assembled outside. Cheers shook the council chambers, and the city for that matter, when the group, led by seven Stratford women by the way, forced Council to re-neg on the deal, and pay the $25,000 escape penalty.
Mayor Davis was furious. At a Rotary Club meeting and at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, he lashed out at The Beacon Herald for the critical coverage of the plan. FAKE NEWS as it were. And he blamed “small special interest groups” for undermining progress.
You may notice a cycle here. From the birth of one idea, through its demise, a bit of a break, then the birth of a new idea. About a decade to 15 years each time.
So in 1983, then Mayor Ted Blowes, a school teacher by the way, came forward with another grand plan. Dig out Market Square – like really dig it out – and put in a two-storey underground parking garage. Ted was an environmentalist. He started the ME Club at Northwestern – which stood for Man’s Environment. That was in the 1980s and Ted was well ahead of his time. The parking garage, which would have been right below us, would be covered by a green space.
The city committed to money for a study – design work began, everybody was excited – but when it came time to pull the trigger councillors were concerned about what to do about two things – the city buses and the loss of parking. The other big concern was about, are you ready for this, bus tickets. JS News, located over there at Ross’s Bike Works, and the News Depot, where Fosters is now, sold books of bus tickets. If the buses moved, where would people buy bus tickets? The project died.
Undeterred, in 1998, another school teacher and city councilor Mike Jorna said we should turn Market Square into green space with tables and chairs and umbrellas and make it a public meeting space. AND – he had a plan to address the concerns about parking and the buses. Build a two-storey parking garage on Erie Street and move the buses there too. Hope springs eternal but merchants along Wellington Street lead the charge against this and a divided council rejects the plan. It never got to the design stage.
2003 – A young city councilor named Jim Chapryk stood before Council and requested $5,000 be set aside to organize a public visioning session to determine what to do with Market Square. Ironically, there had never been a shortage of public vision – it was just divided. Half the community wanted a much better Market Square and half wanted it kept exactly the same citing concerns about – you guessed it – buses and parking. The $5,000 paid a study – the fifth. Studies were cheaper then and whenever at a loss to make a decision, Council just asked for another study. By the way, four of the five studies said – you can do what you want but the buses have to stay downtown.
But this was the beginning of what we have today. City lawyer Marcia Matsui was the chair of the City Centre Committee. Conversations with the community, and city council, began and several themes emerged. In fact, one of the views got put down on paper and became the roadmap for development. This was key, as it was referred to whenever decision makers began to wander. A mission statement as it were.
“The Square should be a people place, one where citizens and visitors gather to sit and enjoy the view, a Square bordered by some of Stratford's iconic heritage architecture, where people enjoy a snack, people watch, take in some entertainment. The Square must be accessible by transit and some perimeter parking should be retained.”
The consultation phase led to an international design competition in 2006, funded by the Ontario Rural Economic Development (RED) grant. Guidelines were developed based upon input from over 650 citizens.
2007 –10 years ago, twenty-one firms submitted designs and a panel led by George Baird, Dean of University of Toronto School of Architecture and Design and including citizens Tom Orr and Eleanor Kane, chose Plant Architect Inc.’s concept as the winning design.
Matsui stepped down from the CCC in 2009 and then the Stratford Market Square Committee continued as an unfunded volunteer committee, chaired by Marcia until 2014, after which Eleanor Kane became chair.
All the while, another Stratford controversy was coming to a close. Walmart, after a decades long fight, got a spot in Stratford.
But there was the question of outstanding legal bills from that fight and lo and behold, Walmart makes a $1.25 million donation to the city, but like our old buddy Senator McDonald – it comes with some strings attached.
The donation has to be used to redevelop Market Square.
March 2016 – City Council approves a proposal from the GSP Design group with a plan to have it finished by Canada Day 2017. Two issues still had to be resolved – Anyone? Anyone? – buses and parking.
And now here we are – as far as buses and parking – well, some would suggest that has been dealt with. Some will say it has been pushed aside.
But why did this attempt at doing something succeed when so many had failed. Was it political leadership? Was it community leadership? Was it the public input that removed off ramps? Was it the $1.25 million from Walmart? When somebody speaks about this development in my place, say 25 years from now, they can cover that chapter and draw their own conclusions. And they will have the benefit of time.
For now, I can tell you that this space has seen some of Stratford’s greatest celebrations and its worst conflict.
Here is a great celebration picture from 1897 – Queen Victoria’s jubilee.
Queen Victoria's Jubilee, June 22, 1897 Stratford-Perth Archives Street Photograph Collection-Market Square #1972.29.607 .jpg - altered material
1933 – A bitter riot takes place right here. Chicken pluckers go on strike, they are followed a few days later by the furniture workers and Stratford is in the throes of a general strike. The militia is sent in and a wild and bloody conflict takes place right here. The militia would not be mobilized again in Canada, to restore order, until the FLQ crisis in 1967.
1946 – A bitterly cold January day as the Perth Regiment came home from helping to liberate Europe.
1952 – Convertibles went to Shakespeare to meet the Stratford Indians senior hockey team and bring them into town as heroes after their incredible run to the Allan Cup championship series in Fort Frances.
Since then we have had Terry Fox, and Trudeaumania, and the Olympic Torch in 1988, another cold, cold day. And Hockey Day in Canada in 2010 and this past year, Hometown Hockey.
And now we can add July 1, 2017 to the list as crowds gathered here under threatening skies to open this new space. A lot of history has been written here; some in the last century, some in the century before that, some in the last 10 years. Now, this community can continue to write its own history right here and we have a blank, clean, new canvas to celebrate when we do.
Thanks so much.
1946 – A bitterly cold January day as the Perth Regiment came home from helping to liberate Europe.
1952 – Convertibles went to Shakespeare to meet the Stratford Indians senior hockey team and bring them into town as heroes after their incredible run to the Allan Cup championship series in Fort Frances.
Since then we have had Terry Fox, and Trudeaumania, and the Olympic Torch in 1988, another cold, cold day. And Hockey Day in Canada in 2010 and this past year, Hometown Hockey.
And now we can add July 1, 2017 to the list as crowds gathered here under threatening skies to open this new space. A lot of history has been written here; some in the last century, some in the century before that, some in the last 10 years. Now, this community can continue to write its own history right here and we have a blank, clean, new canvas to celebrate when we do.
Thanks so much.