An architour of St. Marys, a Southern Ontario gem that was once a stop on the Grand Trunk Railway
Try as I might, I will never know as much about St. Marys, Ont., as Larry Pfaff.
Yet, with typical Canadian modesty, he’s invited Paul King along on our architour to ensure all the bases are covered. Mr. King, a retired real estate lawyer, is a member of the St. Marys Heritage Committee and a founding member of the local Architectural Conservancy of Ontario branch. And here, Mr. Pfaff gives me the lay of the land, literally. A British surveyor arrives in 1839; it’s an ideal spot since Trout Creek and the Thames River meet plus there is “water power potential”; there’s an outcrop of limestone; a sawmill comes first, followed by a gristmill and then log cabins; by the 1850s and 60s “Scottish, some Irish, some English stonemasons came and they started to build houses”; brick comes into vogue in the 1870s and 80s; stone returns and is used at St.
As we walk down Queen, I learn of the town’s connection to Timothy Eaton – brother Robert had a dry goods store here first and then Timothy and James opened a general store in 1860 – and Mr. King points to Timothy’s building, now called The Chocolate Factory .
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