William Robertson Block
20-22 Main Street South, Seaforth, Ontario
( Year built: 1877 )
Home to Box Furniture for many years now, this 2½ storey yellow brick block was built in 1877 for William M. Robert-son. In 1863, William M. Robertson and Co. were hardware merchants with William O. Reid as manager. They conducted business in a frame building on part of this site until moving into the north part of the Thomas Kidd Block on the opposite side of Main Street in 1869.
George Ewing had a butcher shop next to William Robertson’s hardware store in the 1860s. By the time of the fire in 1876, Robertson’s store was vacant and Jones & Rowcliffe had furniture warerooms in the south store. Part of the property was owned by Sam and Margaret Stark. After the 1876 fire, Robertson bought this and the adjacent land and built his large store block.
Above Photo: Reid & Wilson’s Hardware as it was in 1900. Note that the architectural details of the original have been beautifully recreated so that the existing building looks much as it once did.
It was “the finest warehouse in town", a large 35’ x 126’ (11 x 38 m) block with basement and two flats or apartments. In one store they sold builder’s hardware. In the other, they sold carriage hardware, wagon and carriage material upstairs, and oils, paint, glass, etc., in the basement. At the rear was a large iron and steel warehouse. Robert-son moved his “Sign of the Circular Saw” store into the new building in November of 1977 and continued in business until 1883.
Robertson & Reid became Reid & Wilson Hardware by 1884, still operating under the “Sign of the Circular Saw.” Reid & Wilson advertised as hardware and iron importers. They were in business until 1909 when McIntyre & Willis, also hardware merchants, took over.
The brickwork of the entablature, the pilasters and the window labels of the upper façade are the same design as that of neighbouring building to the north. The upper cornice with decorative brackets and finials, the storefront cornice with dentils and finials, are part of extensive restoration work done in 1990.
In 1916, James E. Willis opened a silent movie theatre called The Strand. A 1921 advertisement for “Better Motion Pictures” announced a rise in ticket price to “Adults 25¢ Children 15¢” up from 15¢ and 10¢, for such great photoplays as The Revenge of Tarzan, Mary Pickford’s Pollyanna, and Douglas Fairbanks in The Mollycoddle. The Strand was in buisness into the 1920s. At the same time, George C. Bell had a garage next door.
The stores were vacant for a few years in the late 1920s. In 1928, Marshall Stewart opened a pool hall. At the same time, Norman Nichol had a paint shop; A.D. Sutherland, an Insurance Agent, had an office; and, John Regeir used part of the store space for car storage. Into the 1930s, C.M. Smith ran the pool room in the rear part of Elgin Close’s barbershop. In the late 1930s, there was also a ladies’ hairdressing parlour. The pool room contin-ued as a popular hangout through the 1940s.
By 1945, Richard Box had moved Box Furni-ture to this location and by 1955, Box Furniture occupied all of the original William Robertson Block.
In 1990, extensive renovations were made to the block and the adjoining James Murphy Block to the north. Box Furniture expanded into part of the James Murphy Block, next to Anna’s Dress Shop.
Advertisements Above: The Huron Expositor, January 28, 1916. Left: The Seaforth Sun, March 18, 1887.
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