Seaforth Printers
Building 96 Main Street South, Seaforth, Ontario
( Year built: 1932 )
Doctor Simon Lubelski, Surgeon Chiropodist, opened an office in the north part of Marvin Pillman’s tailor shop in 1869. To the south, in another attached building, was Lubelski’s Beauty Salon. In it were hot and cold shower baths. As indicated in the advertisement of April 14, 1870, Marvin Pillman took over management of the baths and, it appears, moved his tailoring business into the salon. Pillman, along with his brother, Frank, owned this lot by 1874. Marvin Pillman had his tailoring shop here until 1890.
Advertisements Above Right: Appeared in The Huron Expositor August 13, 1869. Below Left: Shown in the Seaforth Sun October 31, 1884, and; Below Right: Displayed in The Huron Expositor October 21, 1870.
Pillman & Co., Carriagemakers, established a carriage works on the south part of the lot in 1874. They had a large two-storey frame building with a showroom on the main floor. The painting and trimming was done on the upper floor. At the rear were the blacksmithing and woodworking shops. Pillman & Co. made buggies and carriages that ranged in price from $90 to $200. They regularly employed about 10 men. Pillman & Co. were in business here until 1887 when they moved to Goderich Street just east of Main. The John Smiths, Sr. and Jr., also wagonmakers, took over the site. By 1894, James Beattie, a grain buyer who now owned the lot, had an office in a building on the south part. Smith continued to make wagons at this location until 1903.
After Marvin Pillman retired from tailoring in 1890 at age 70, the building which housed his shop was used as a home. By 1914, this building was no longer there. James Hays and William Chapman, both stonecutters, had a marble-works on the north part of the lot where they made tombstones. Their shop is just visible, to the south, in the c.1915 photograph of the Dominon Block (previous section).
Advertisements Below Left: The advertisement is from The Huron Expositor December 31, 1886, and; Below Right: Appeared in the May 6, 1881 issue.
The frame building on the south part of the lot was a laundry by 1923, operated first by W.H. Lee, then Tung Him, and finally by Wing Wong until 1934. Infected clothing at “John’s” Chinese Laundry was blamed for a smallpox scare in the early 1900s.
In 1932, the Snowdon brothers bought the north part of the lot and built the existing building to house their printing office. Here they published The Seaforth News.
The Seaforth Printers building is an unusual single-storey concrete structure with a decorative boomtown front façade. The side elevation to the south is undistinguished.
The laundry building was used at this time as a meeting place for the Senior Men’s Euchre Club. Instigated by J.M. Govenlock in 1935, the club met here until the early 1950s. In November of 1963 the building was bought by the Boy Scouts and moved to Egmondville where it was torn down in 1964.
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