It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
Prior to the great fire of April 18, 1894, a mercantile business owned by George Hutcheson operated on this site, the current location of Algonquin Outfitters, under the name Hutcheson & Son. He had purchased it from Smith and Culp in 1883.
After the fire, George Hutcheson rebuilt the store on the same site but withdrew from the business. William E. Hutcheson, R.J. Hutcheson and William Hanna of Port Carling then formed Hanna & Hutcheson Bros. to carry on the business.
In 1895, Matthew Wardell and his family moved in across the street at 77 Main St. E. Wardell had operated a large dried goods store in Toronto at Queen and Spadina. He moved the business to Huntsville to cater to lumbermen, selling them wool socks and heavy mackinaw breeches. Every foot of space would eventually be crammed with goods, from ladies’ wear to home furnishings and produce.
The Wardells had five children: Maude (Mrs. George Donal Nickalls), Mary “Daisy” (Mrs. William Mawhinney), Claude, St. Clair, and Annetta, who married Charles Deeprose Boyd in 1910.
On December 28, 1911, a fire destroyed the Wardell’s dry goods business. He formed a partnership with Boyd, called Wardell, Boyd and Son, and they moved the business into the Hanna & Hutcheson building, which Wardell rented for $600 a year, and purchased Hutcheson’s entire stock.
Between 1913 and 1917 the store was known as Wardell, Boyd and Son. Charles Boyd’s father, J.R. Boyd, established a grocery business next door at 90 Main Street East in 1917, known as J.R. Boyd and Son. After Boyd retired in 1919, they called the business Wardell and Company – the Busy Merchants, “Dealers in Dry Goods, Furnishings, Clothing, Millinery, Boots and Shoes, Groceries, Flour and Feed.”
Later Wardell installed electricity in his store. His son Claude and daughter Maude purchased the building for $6,000 in 1920.
In 1939 the storefront was altered and new brick facing was applied as seen in this photograph.
The store was famous for Scottish woollens, Spode china, and Hudson’s Bay blankets. One summer they operated a store at Bigwin Inn. In the 1950s there was a branch store on Highway 11 and in the late ’70s early ’80s a store in Bracebridge catered to young people.
In 1957 Maude’s son Jack and grandson Donal Nickalls took over the business. In 1973 Donal and his wife Pat became the proprietors.
The store was closed in 1986, and became Algonquin Outfitters in the 1990s.
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
Photo via Muskoka Digital Archives, details from Muskoka Digital Archives and Huntsville: With Spirit and Resolve.
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I remember it well. They sold Woolrich sweaters. Thank you for the walk down memory lane!
I spent most of my early shopping days at Wardell’s. Friday night I would pick up new Archie comics, marbles etc. Once I wanted a puppet and Wardell’s has a cowboy puppet. I had it for years.
My last purchase there was a leather trench coat. I had just started my new job at Huntsville High School and was wearing suits. I had also just bought a new 1974 Capri because of the oil crisis.
The leather in that coat was so soft. I loved it.
Wardell’s certainly carried quality products.
David Traves
I remember a shoe department that sold children’s shoes.. there were shoes with windows on the toes to try on to see if you were getting the proper size. My little sister was so fascinated with those open toes. She wasnt having any other shoes but those!
Mom got the regular pair to my sisters anger and grief lol And when we got home she took those new shoes out to the sandy area in front of the house and buried them.
We never did find them though we searched for days..
I loved that store. Was sad when it closed.
I remember my mom saving coupons they gave out in Wardell and you could buy things in the basement. I remember her buying dishes with a pink rose in the center, and gold trim. That’s about it, I was very young that’s all I remember.
Back in day Wardell’s was certainly the place to go to to buy quality men’s work and dress clothes, ladies wear, and high quality English china, they were famous for selling the Hudson Bay Blankets, and the tiny room down in the basement crammed full of toys and things for the Youngsters. Always remember the creaky hardwood floors similar to the floors in the A&P store across the street .
My first work clothes from socks , mitts, pants all the way up to hats were bought at Wardell’s. My favourate work boot was always the “hydro boot”. Once with exception of buying a pair of “river driver boots” from Burn’s Boots across the street on Brunel Rd next to Harold Bray’s Superior Cold Storage. I can vividly remember going to Wardell’s at the end of the summer and buying a complete set of new clothes to start grade 9 high school. Jack Nichalls, the younger Don, and not forget their longest man employee Mr. Ernie Norris were always very, very knowledgeable sales people.
The bank cheque cashing facilities was very popular, also was several overnight robberies to the same .
I suppose when Eatons Dept. Store came to town it probably took some business away from Wardells, however they never carried the quality of products that Wardell’s carried.
The Wardell’s store down south of town on hwy 11 mostly carried fine china and gift wares catering to the motor tourist traffic. Later this location was sold and I believe became a petro stop.
It used to be one could ask our older folks about days gone by, now many if not most of our older generations have passed, my age group are now becoming the generation of “to go “to tell how it used to be in the by gone days around Huntsville and surrounding Twps.
Thank You for all these interesting articles Jamie, maybe some time You could do an article on early trappers of the Huntsville, possibly featuring your trapper family of Jim & Elmer Rand.
When I was 6 or 7 or 8 yrs. old and loose on Main street, Wardell’s was like heaven. On Friday and Saturday evenings, drivers jockeyed for parking spots in front of, or as close to the store as they could get. People went to town with the intention of visiting on Main Street. Wardell would cash the checks of some workers, long after the banks were closed. While they visited, my parents would give me some freedom to run about. Inside the doors of the old store you deked right and went down the stairs into a part of the basement. There were toys!!! Not like I was getting any, but you could look. It was glorious.
Toward the back of the main floor, to the right of the stairway, there was a little cubicle that was hooked to the pneumatic delivery system that fed cash and change from the buyer to the office and back.
Up the stairs, you entered a lady’s world as I remember. Not a lot of stuff I was interested in, but there were a lot of Christmases that a night gown or dressing gown was purchased there, for my Mother or Grandma Hayes.
In town with Grampa Markle, we would be into Boyd’s store for some hard candy or a cookie, if I had or could beg a couple of cents. Sometimes it was free. Or a taste of some sort of salami or preserved meat slice that was offered to Grampa.
“Try this one George, It has a bit of mule in it” and a piece of the stuff would be held out. And then to me.
“You want to try some?” A sliver would be offered. You bet! Like saying ‘mule’ would put a guy off! As I remember, mule tastes pretty good!
When darkness fell, the street lighting came on. Then you would hear the peenting of the nightjars that were drawn to the bugs, just as the bugs were drawn to the light. You would hear the birds cry and the air purring in their wing feathers as they dove and maneuvered. It was a bonus when one of us would spot a bird as it pulled out of a dive, but had curved low into the light.
In later years, I would buy a shirt or pair of jeans in the little area that, years before, had displayed all those toys.
A different time and a different place.