Carmichael’s Red & White Block
9-13 Main Street South, Seaforth, Ontario
( Year built: 1895 )
This two-storey red brick building is in the Classic Revival style. The upper façade is very handsome and consists of a centre bay flanked by two side bays divided by projecting brick piers. The entire façade is surmounted by an elaborate brick frieze of superb craftsmanship. The storefronts below were altered to a modern design.
Robert Carmichael built two frame stores on this site in 1864. Fred Veal occupied one of the stores until 1873. H.W. McCann was in the second store until declaring insolvency in 1869 at which time Thomas Coventry, a Boot & Shoe Maker, moved in. Coventry’s shoe store and Passmore’s grocery were here when fire struck in 1876. From that date on the property remained vacant until 1895 when Carmichael had the existing brick stores built.
Above Photo: (Photo being edited...) Fred Gale’s Meat Market was in the north store when this picture was taken in 1901. J.W. Beattie, Butcher, followed soon after. W.H. Willis, Boots & Shoes, occupied the south store from 1896 to 1907. Robb’s grocery is in the white brick store to the south.
T.R.F. Case & Co., Butchers, occupied the north store from 1897 to 1900, operating for one year as Case & Chesney (George M.) until the partnership was dissolved in March 1898. Fred Gale and Winter & Stewart, Butchers, were tenants for a short time. John Wesley Beattie, Butcher, took over and was in business for five years until 1906. Then, Sylvester and E. Everatt, Butchers, operated a successful shop here until 1914. B. Cass had the butcher shop after the Everatts.
Advertisement Left: Appeared in The Huron Expositor October 2, 1908.
Robert Willis, Boots & Shoes, was the first occupant of the south store in 1895. W.H. Willis, aged 28 in 1896, was a clerk in the store at that time and took over the business in 1897. He ran the store here until 1906. Robert Willis purchased the Carmichael store next door to the south and moved the shoe store there in 1907.
After Willis vacated the south store in the red brick block, F.L. Willis had a clothing store here for one year and then it became a paint and paper, or interior design, store. The store was first run by Harry Evans in 1908, then by Thomas G. Scott by 1913. Scott’s paint and paper business was here until the end of the 1930s. The store then was home to Boshart Electric until the two store spaces were taken over by G.A. Whitney’s furniture store. Whitney also had an undertaking business. He took over the north store which was occupied by Samuel T. Holmes & Son, Undertakers since 1919. G.A. Whitney Furniture occupied both stores into the late 1960s and the north store in the late 1970s.
Advertisements Above Left: An ad appearing in The Huron Expositor June 18, 1897, and; Above Right: Shown in the June 11, 1869 issue of The Huron Expositor.
The white brick single-store block, adjoining the red brick block to the south, is architecturally the same. It has the same decorative brickwork, pilasters or piers, and the same façade as the north store of the red-brick block. The storefront level is also the same with inset door flanked by two large windows.
The white brick store was vacant in the first years after it was built. The first tenant, evident in the photograph printed in Souvenir of Seaforth booklet published in 1900, is Robb’s grocery. W.L. Talbot had a store here from 1904-06. 
Robert Willis then moved his shoe store into this space. By 1913, J.E. Willis had taken over the business and was here until 1921. Frederick Wigg took over and had a shoe store here until Walter Willis succeeded him in 1930. Walter Willis, then James Willis, had a shoe store here into the 1960s when it was MacDonald’s Shoe Store for a time. By 1970, after so many years as a shoe store, the store became Wong’s Grill.
Above Photo: John Wesley Beattie, in the centre of the photograph, operated a butcher shop on Main Street for many years. Everatt had the shop after Beattie, from 1907-14. Ad is from the October 2, 1908 Huron Expositor.
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