The Irish Famine, John Dunn's Convalescent Hospital, and George Monro's Scottish Gardener

John Dunn's Convalescent Hospital
John Henry Dunn was a wealthy businessman and receiver-general of Upper Canada (1820-1841) and of Canada (1841-43), who endured considerable criticism for his cavalier handling of government finances. (He also was the father of Alexander Dunn, first Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross, for bravery at 'the Charge of the Light Brigade' at Balaclava.)

In 1841, Dunn was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of United Canada for Toronto (by a vote total of 495 over 436 votes for George Monro. "Reform, on the part of the Government and people" was his slogan).

The approximate location of John Dunn's house.
Fort York to the left, Oasis to the south, Victoria Square bottom right.

On his lot -- opposite the future Oasis location -- Dunn built a new house (presumably replacing the previous one storey structure), described thusly:
"On the death of Mrs. Dunn, a new three-storey house of brick, with wings, was built for Mr. Dunn in 1835 by Mr. John G. Howard, the architect, at the north-west corner of Front and Bathurst streets. […] The house at Front and Bathurst street was rented by the government and occupied as quarters for the officers at the garrison. It afterwards came into the possession of John Dickey. Later it was occupied as an agricultural implement factory, and still later by John Doty." 
- J. Ross Robertson's Landmarks of Toronto (vol.1), 1895, p 264.
(Take note of the name; Doty is a seminal figure we'll encounter again…)

In the summer of 1847, the Irish Famine prompted a desperate migration of over 38 thousand Irish refugees to Toronto (whose population at the time was less than 30 thousand). This massive influx severely challenged local officials, and would form one of Toronto's first civic crises.

Ireland Memorial Park commemorates the crisis

Ships packed with thousands of Irish emigrants made their way across the Atlantic and down the St. Lawrence. These passengers were often ravaged by typhus. One commentator compared the overcrowding, lack of sanitation, and health care on the lake ships to conditions on board slave ships from Africa to the United States. As a result of the terrible conditions, typhoid fever killed many of the arriving emigrants.

Heritage Toronto Plaque on the Fever Sheds of 1847

Passengers coming to Toronto were forced to disembark at "Dr. Rees' Wharf", near the current site of the Metro Convention Centre. An Emigrant Hospital and 'fever sheds' were constructed at King and John, but were quickly overrun. The crisis deepened when George Grasett, the Chief Medical Officer at the Emigrant Hospital, died of fever on July 18. Panic over a possible epidemic began to spread in the city.

In August, the Board of Public Health and city authorities rented a brick building on the corner of Bathurst and Front Streets... from none other than John Henry Dunn. This building and its stables would notoriously serve as a Convalescent Hospital -- essentially an overflow triage zone for Emigrant Hospital survivors.

In The Famine Migration of 1847 and Toronto, Mark McGowan writes,
"Dunn’s property would serve as a Convalescent Hospital, to which patients in recovery at the Emigrant Hospital could be moved. The erection of this new facility provided the convalescing patient with a healthier environment for recovery and offered a more efficient use of space in the “Fever” hospital. Shortly after opening, the Convalescent Hospital would house over 300 patients daily. From there, patients would either be released to continue their trek into the interior, be sent back to the Emigrant Hospital should they suffer a “relapse,” (usually bad cases of diarrhea), or, if they were widows and orphans, sent to the  “House of Refuge,” a former barracks at Bathurst and Queen Streets."
This 1876 view of the north west corner of Front and Bathurst depicts Dunn's house at the top right, and what may have been his stables/the fever sheds just to the south. from Bird's Eye View of Toronto, 1876, P.A. Gross
By the end of the year, over 1,100 emigrants had perished. Today, Ireland Park, located on the south east corner of Bathurst Quay and just west of Rees' wharf and south of the fever sheds, commemorates the tragedy. Mark McGowan's gripping Death or Canada chronicles this often overlooked chapter of Toronto's history in detail.

Coincidentally, in the early 1990s I briefly lived in one of the row houses on the south side of Niagara just west of Bathurst. At the time I had no idea of the area's deep history. The archeological assessment performed during the preparation for the now-dead Fort York Pedestrian Bridge observes: "The rear yard areas of late nineteenth-century row housing have potential for the survival of limited remains of the circa 1835-1852 Officers' Quarters."

Guess I should have done some digging in the back yard!  All we ever did was sit in the back and drink beer.


George Monro's Scottish Cottager - McGrath
George Monro, the 6th Mayor of Toronto -- who was defeated by John Henry Dunn in the 1841 legislative assembly elections -- also owned property extremely close by (if not in fact at) the Oasis site, on the north east lot at Front and Bathurst. Robertson's description:
"Mr. Monro extended his hobby for gardening beyond the surroundings of his dwelling. He bought a plot of about half an acre on Front street, between Portland and Bathurst streets, and here in a little cottage he installed a Scotch gardener named McGrath, whom he had brought from Scotland. Here Mr. Monro would pass his evenings occasionally, while McGrath paced up and down playing the bagpipes. He afterwards sold this property…"
- Robertson's Landmarks of Toronto (vol.1), 1895 J. Ross Robertson, p 264.  
Ever wonder why the music is so loud at Oasis? Now you know -- it's to dispel the ghostly bagpipes of Gardener McGrath! [what eventually became of Monro’s cottage I was unable to discover]


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Patrick Burns' Coal and Wood Yard: 1875

The first industrial use of the Rock Oasis site was Patrick Burns’ Coal and Wood Yard. His yard shared the north east corner lot with the Queen’s Wharf Hotel for many years.

Patrick Burns advertisement, Globe Dec 10, 1881

Coal was often imported by ship from Pennsylvania, and consequently, coal-fired, steam-powered industrial operations tended to concentrate on the Toronto waterfront or along rail corridors to reduce transportation costs. The Burns coal yard at Front and Bathurst was ideally situated for ready access to both modes of transport. It was one of six yards that Burns operated around the city.

The 1884 Goads Fire Insurance map showing Patrick Burns' Coal Yard occupying the Oasis site. The map also gives a hint to the future disposition of the lot. On the west side of Bathurst, just north of the tracks, John Doty had erected the beginnings of his engine works... 
Patrick Burns was a native of County Fermanagh, Ireland, and came to Toronto in 1856, eventually establishing a thriving coal and wood business in 1875, with a major yard at Front and Bathurst streets.

Patrick Burns Coal Yard - 1908, view from Bathurst St. Bridge
"[Burns] handles about thirty-five thousand cords of wood, and one hundred and fifty thousand tons of coal annually, and employs about three hundred men, and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred horses and carts for delivery. His wood comes to the city by all railways, and his coal both by lake and rail. He has several offices in different parts of the city for the receiving of orders, which are connected with the yard by telephone. As an instance of Mr. Burns' great success in this line of business, it is only necessary to say that at the commencement two horses were requisite for delivering purchases."
From: History of Toronto and County of York, Vol. I, 1885, by Charles Pelham Mulvany & Graeme Mercer Adam, pub. Christopher Blackett Robinson, p442.  

An ad in the Nov 7, 1885 Globe for P Burns coal

Can you find the typo? Note also the ad for the competing Elias Rogers coal shed across the street on Bathurst's west side -- although the Rogers facility isn't shown in the 1884 Goads map, it does appear in the 1890 Goads. Rogers had an interest in several Pennsylvania coal mines, and was the city's largest fuel dealer -- he had a massive yard in the Esplanade. Rogers was a puritanical Quaker Alderman who ran for Mayor in 1887, who lost primarily due to the stunning revelation of a secret fuel-price fixing scheme. Also, it turns out that roller skates are older than you think!

In the early 1880s, coal sold by Patrick Burns cost $6.50 per ton. Premium beech and maple cords of wood cost $6 per cord - delivered to any part of the city.

An ad in the April 11, 1882 Globe

In 1886 Burns was arrested, and charged with fraud by the City, due to a dispute over $8,000 of coal that was paid for, but allegedly never delivered. Burns had amassed considerable wealth, so the case became known as the 'Coal Conspiracy Case', with allegations of payoffs, municipal corruption, conspiracies, and accounting trickery. The case occupied many column-inches in the papers of the fall of 1886.
"I'm blest if I know."
- Patrick Burns, when asked why he had been arrested.
New York Times Aug 13, 1886
The legal wrangling cost Burns heavily. Although finally acquitted in 1887, Burns encountered a significant financial setback, as the American mines that supplied him with coal refused to extend him additional credit, due to the uncertainty of the trial.

New York Times Feb. 4, 1887
Patrick Burns Coal Yard - April 5, 1916
Patrick Burns' coal yard operated for many years at the site, co-existing with a stream of other businesses. [We'll be discussing Berg Machinery Co. in a later section…]
Perspective in June 2011

Despite Burns' difficulties, the coal yard nevertheless operated under the Burns name for many years (at least until 1924, as photographs show), sharing the lot at Front and Bathurst with several other businesses. The widespread use and advance of electric power from Niagara Falls and natural gas in the 1900s (over local coal-powered generators) doubtless impacted the industry adversely. Coal nevertheless remained a major source of Toronto residential and business heating until the 1950s.

The next occupant of Front and Bathurst was John Doty: an emblematic Victorian story of success, ambition and failure.


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John Doty’s Engine Works: 1881-1895

“Small Beginnings often make Great Endings”
John Doty was the man who built the industrial structure we know today as the Rock Oasis.

Doty was an energetic, ambitious, and thrifty machinist with many interests, whose formidable business acumen guided him to success in Toronto. He ultimately controlled several overlapping enterprises involving: engine and machine works, shipbuilding, ferry operations, and amusements on Toronto Island.

From Prominent Men of Canada, G. Mercer Adam

Born on a farm in the township of Lewiston, Niagara county, New York in 1822, John Doty had a lineage that traced back to Edward Doty, one of the original Mayflower pilgrims of 1620. He was the second youngest child out of seven. He learned the machinist trade from Mr. Lewis Kenyen in Rochester NY at the age of 16, and four years later moved to Niagara Falls.

Stints in Toronto, Oakville, and Hamilton followed, and at each step Doty took a larger role in business affairs, eventually selling his firm in Hamilton in 1872. In 1875 he moved back to Toronto. He started a machinery shop at the foot of Yonge street, on the west side of the slip, but eventually outgrew those premises.

He then purchased property at the foot of Bathurst, on the west side -- from the Masseys, in 1883.

This 1876 view of the north-west corner of Front and Bathurst shows the Dickey, Neill and Co. Soho Foundry, later occupied by John Doty. JH Dunn’s house is shown at the top right. From Bird’s Eye View of Toronto, 1876 P.A. Gross.

This western lot was previously occupied by the Dickey, Neill and Company Soho Foundry, which operated from 1875 to 1877, after which the premises were taken over by the Toronto Reaper and Mower Co. This company was then acquired by its rival, Massey Manufacturing Co. in 1881 (Massey would later become Massey Harris, Canada’s largest manufacturer of agricultural implements and Toronto's leading employer, at a famous complex of factories further west on King).

The view from the original west-side machine works: Doty eventually moved across the street to expand  

Doty commenced operations therein for a large machine works (presumably it was around this time that he lived in the John Dunn house). This machine works was also previously depicted in the 1884 Goads Insurance map. Structural remains of this building can still be seen physically, in the lot at the foot of Tecumseth on the south margin of the property.

1890 Goads Insurance Map showing
Doty's Machine Works - on both sides of Bathurst


The Doty Engine Works
Once more, Doty’s business outgrew the premises, and with the intent of moving, he purchased new property on the east side of Bathurst, just above Front street, shifting operations sometime around 1889.

1893 Chromolithograph excerpt, Barclay Clark & Co.

Take a look at this massive -- not to mention gorgeous -- 1893 Chromolithograph of Toronto by Barclay, Clark & Co. Expand it to its full size, and you'll see that the familiar warehouse shape of Oasis appears to have already been built! But where is the tower? And where is the Rescue Inn?

Doty’s machine works on the west side of Bathurst are also visible.

Unfortunately, it was common practice in drawings like this to include structures not yet constructed, as well as prospective buildings. (Observe City Hall (then new, now old)'s presence -- yet old City Hall was built in 1899.) So the date isn't quite as reliable as you might think.

The 1891 Assessment Roll showing Doty and sons' presence
on the east side of Bathurst. Of note: Doty is 68! 

The ‘1 story’ entry in the above Assessment Roll indicates the total Works structure -- the length (200 feet) and value support this interpretation. Does the ‘3 story’ entry represent the tower, or is it the Sherwin Williams building to the north?

There is no listing for Doty on the east side in the 1890 Assessment; this fact, taken together with the 1890 Goads map and a similarly new entry in the 1891 Might’s city directory, suggests that the east side Bathurst Doty Engine Works were constructed in late 1890.

An archeological clue as to the building's construction date. It turns out that Oasis’ peeling white paint covered another amazing link to Toronto’s industrial past! Soft-mud molded clay ‘John Price’ bricks were manufactured at the Don Valley Brick Works, starting in 1889 -- implying that this portion of the structure was built no earlier than that year. These bricks were the Brick Works’ most prominent brand -- the majority of Toronto houses south of Eglinton are built from similar bricks. This photo taken onsite during the demolition of the Doty Works - July 22, 2011. Most of the bricks in the rubble were unbranded, but I chanced across this one and dredged it out for a closer look.  
1891 Might’s Directory -
Doty’s first listing on the
East side of Bathurst

Doty prospered in his new spot on the east corner of Front and Bathurst, where the Rock Oasis climbing gym would eventually be built. The location proved to be the launching pad for Doty's sizeable business empire.  Doty built all kinds of machinery, and for any purpose.

Here’s a multi-page advertisement for one of Doty's products, built and sold at Front and Bathurst:

The Doty-Vertical Steam Engine and Boiler

(Advance the pages to see the full description, more prices, and other products sold by Doty!)
"A man with a technical knowledge and who is a good mechanic is a better man than a mechanic without a technical knowledge… Men who have not a technical knowledge are only equal to inferior men."
- John Doty

In January 1888, Doty was called before the Royal Commission on the Relations of Capital and Labor in Canada.

There, he was asked to testify on the importance of technical education. Doty's testimony provides a riveting glimpse into the working conditions that prevailed at his Machine Works over one hundred years ago.

The interview, reproduced below, is highly recommended reading (it's only a couple of pages long, and it starts near the bottom of page 326). At this point in time, Doty managed over 100 employees at the Works, ranging from unskilled labourers to highly adept machinists.



If you ever wondered whether the staff at Oasis were underpaid, imagine working fifty-seven hours per week, ten hours a day during the week, and working till 4 on Saturdays… making $2.25 a day as a senior machinist!

Doty's Machine and Engine Works, and the expansion of the railroads south of Front Street, changed the character of the Wellington and Niagara neighbourhoods. Industry became the accepted norm in the area; this was symptomatic of how Victorian Toronto divided itself into more clearly defined residential, commercial, and industrial districts. A side track from the Grand Trunk Railway ran directly to Doty's premises, enabling the company to receive material from any part of the continent, and to load and ship machinery to all parts of the country.

The building permit for Doty’s foundry. This was the closest I came to finding the permit for the Engine Works, which were constructed a couple of years earlier.

The Doty Shipyards
Yet engines and machinery were merely the foundation for the striving industrialist. The John Doty Company (John Doty and Sons) was the first ship building company organized in the Bathurst Wharf area. Formally declared in 1891, the company built a shipyard at the foot of Bathurst near the bay, occupying the Northern Railway wharf south of Portland [see the full 1890 Goads]. Between 1890 to 1893, Doty constructed these six vessels, keeping his machinists frenetically occupied:

- Mayflower
- Primrose
- Mistassini
- Garden City
- Petrel
- Medora

A sketch of the Mayflower. Note the octagonal 'birdcage' pilot houses

The Primrose and the Mayflower were identical sister ships designed by W.E. Redway, both launched at the Doty shipbuilding yard and used as Toronto Harbour ferries. At the time they were the largest-capacity ferries in the Harbour. The boilers and other parts for these ships were constructed, naturally, at the Engine Works. Both vessels lasted until 1938, when they were scrapped and rebuilt as work barges. Robertson's description:
"The Mayflower and Primrose, are sister ships, and are not only justly prized by their owners, but greatly appreciated by the general public. Their appointments are as nearly as it is possible for them to be perfection and every reasonable convenience is afforded their patrons. Their framework is of steel, their length just exceeds 140 feet and their breadth 28 feet. They are two-decked, double-bowed paddle steamers, and were built in Toronto in 1890 by the Doty Engine Company. They each possess two diagonal direct acting 29 horse power condensing engines by the same company as built the steamers [Doty]. Their tonnage is 189.40, and they are permitted to carry 900 excursionists."
- Robertson’s Landmarks, Volume 2 
"Both these steamers are lighted throughout by electricity, and when loaded with pleasure-seekers at night present a gay and unique appearance. They are universally considered the finest ferry steamers to be found between Hudson's Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. One pleasing thing in connection with them is that almost daily throughout the season hundreds of the inmates of the charitable institutions of the city are provided with free excursions upon them by their proprietors."
- Toronto Telegram 

From Mike Filey's Trillium and Toronto Island: The Centennial Edition

Postcard of The Garden City
The Garden City was a 180 foot ferry built in 1892 by Doty's company to ply a ferry trade between Toronto and St. Catherines.

The Luella (the angle in this photo makes the vessel appear stubby). Note the canvas curtains, usually dropped in inclement weather. The octagonal pilothouse was eventually removed in a 1908 refit. 
The Luella, an earlier vessel built by W. Armour in conjunction with Doty, was built in 1880, boasted a 24hp high pressure non-condensing engine from the Doty Engine Co., and was widely known as the "handsomest, fastest little steamer on Toronto bay". With a tonnage of 38 tons and a capacity of 122 passengers, it sported the record for most lives saved from drowning, and City Council awarded her captain a set of colours in recognition.


The Doty Ferry Service & Island Amusements
Doty's ferry construction went hand in hand with another focus of his -- ferry operations and Island amusements. In the late 19th century, two ferry companies were predominant: A.J. Tymon's Island Ferry Company and the Turner Ferry Company.

Doty purchased the Turner assets in 1887 for $14,600 (John Turner had passed away) to form the John Doty Engine and Ferry Company. Doty controlled the wharves at Yonge and York, as well as the wharf at Hanlan's point. With his sons, Doty ran and operated the Toronto Harbour ferries for about five years.

From The Globe, July 17, 1886

Imagine -- a patron of this theatrical showing of HMS Pinafore would sit in a theatre built by Doty, having taken the ferry service operated by Doty to arrive there, using a ferry built by Doty, with a thrumming Doty engine at its heart! An audacious example of Victorian vertical business integration, to be sure.

Doty Ferry Lines at Hanlan Hotel on the Toronto Island, sometime between 1885-1895
Note the Doty Island Ferry docks on the left side of the Hanlan Hotel. The Hotel was run by the famous rower Ned Hanlan, and its bar had a reputation for being a gathering place on Sundays where 'boys' would come to drink. Also observe the ad for 'Doty's Coney Island Carousel' on the right.

Lawrence "Lol" Solman, general manager for the Toronto Ferry Company.
From Trillium and Toronto Island, Mike Filey

In 1890, Doty's company was merged with the Tymon operation to form the Toronto Ferry Company, a joint stock company capitalized at $250,000. The Toronto Ferry company under general manager Lawrence Solman is notable for constructing (presumably with Doty's knowledge as a shareholder in both the TFC and the Island Amusements Company) an amusement park in 1894 at Hanlan's Point, as well as the adjacent Hanlan's Point Stadium in 1897 for the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball club. [Babe Ruth would hit his first professional home run into Lake Ontario from a later incarnation of this stadium]

People waiting for the ferry at the Doty Company Ferry Docks at Hanlan's Point. Note the pavilion for 'Doty's Hippodrome' on the right -- Doty was a shareholder in the Island Amusements Company.
City of Toronto Archives f1478_it0035 (FW Micklethwaite.)

The ferry license of the Toronto Ferry Company would go on to be acquired by the Toronto Transportation Commission (1927-1954), which morphed into the Toronto Transit Commission (1954-1961). The license was subsequently held by the Metro Parks Department (1962-2001). The Island ferry service is now run by the Toronto Parks Department (2001-present).

Doty's mini-empire would not last. In the early 1890s he "suffered reverses in the hard times that followed the boom" (there was a major world industrial slump in the 1890s), and his business encountered financial duress.

In late 1892, the Doty Engine Works and shipyard were sold to its major creditors George and John Bertram, and Doty 'retired' and moved to Goderich. Two of his sons, Frederick and Franklin, stayed on to manage the Works for a time, notably building a sand pump, before eventually joining their father in Goderich (the Doty Engine works in Goderich was where one of the first pile-drivers was designed) (Another son, Albert, lived in NY).

A Doty Steam Engine from 1895 (Goderich) can still be found in active use today. The S.S. Pumper  is a meticulously restored wood fired, steam screw vessel situated at Fort George on the Niagara River.

At its peak, Doty's various enterprises employed up to 300 people. Doty passed away in 1902, and had three surviving sons by his wife of sixty years, Louisa Jane Wilcox.

From The Daily Star, Sept 30, 1902

It would take two men -- the Bertram brothers -- to follow in Doty’s accomplished footsteps. These brothers would themselves prove worthy successors as forthright men of industry...


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Secret Bonus material
Click here and here to read a April 23, 1887 article in the Globe regarding Doty’s "Ferry Monopoly"

An ad from Doty’s years in Oakville:

An ad from his early tenure near the Esplanade:

Doty’s sons Franklin and Frederick continued to operate in Toronto for several years after the retirement of their father under the name “Doty Brothers & Co”, with an engineering works location at the St. James Hotel building on York St., east side between Esplanade W and Front St. W (opposite the east end of Union Station):

Photo taken 1896 courtesy Toronto Public Library: public domain.
Baldwin room B 12-15b


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The Bertram Engine Works: 1892-1905

The Bertram Brothers: George and John
Bertram & Co. was run by two brothers, George and John. Their motto, as declared in a Globe article about an exhibition of machinery at the world's Fair, was "Never follow, but always lead", in making high-class tools.

On September 15, 1892, Bertram & Co. acquired "the entire property and good-will" of the John Doty Engine Co., pledging in the Globe that day to "carry on the business under the firm name of Doty Engine Works Co."

Announcement in The Globe Sept 15, 1892
The financially distressed Doty had sold the works at Front and Bathurst, as well as the shipyard south of Portland -- the Bertrams were major creditors -- and he moved to Goderich; two of his sons would stay on for a while to manage affairs, but by October the next year, they were no longer in the Bertram's employ, having left to join their 'retired' father.
"No effort will be spared to give the utmost satisfaction to all who will entrust the new firm with contracts"
1902 Plan of Toronto by Villiers Sankey, showing the Bertram Engine and Boiler Works as well as the Bertram Shipyard to the south.

George Bertram
George Hope Bertram was one of eleven children. Born in 1847 in Fenton Barns, Scotland, he was apprenticed in the iron and hardware trade. At age 18 he emigrated to Upper Canada, and after a stint in Lindsay running a hardware store with his brother John, he moved to Toronto in 1881, setting up Bertram and Company to retail hardware.

George Hope Bertram, named
after George Hope, noted
Scottish agriculturalist

Announcement in the Globe Nov.1, 1893
As the years passed, the Bertram company expanded in scope, and George Bertram eventually decided to take over the Doty Works in 1892. The Bertram Co. manufactured engines, boilers, steel boats, hulls, and other types of machinery.

During the 1890s John was focused on running the Collins Inlet Lumber Company, and George primarily ran the Bertram Co. and the Engine Works.

Early shareholders of the Engine Works included William Mellis Christie [the namesake of Christie cookies, Christie Street, and Christie Pits), and Sir Edmund Boyd Osler (MP, West Toronto 1896-1917 -- and also one of the original directors of the Toronto Ferry Company, which bought the Doty Ferry assets).

Arendt Angstrom, formerly Chief Engineer of the Cleveland Ship Building Co., was named Manager of the Bertram Engine Works. Angstrom was a laudably capable marine architect, influenced by Frank E. Kirby.

With the expansion of Toronto as a major port, boom times in shipbuilding were occurring. The Bertram Co. was ideally poised to take advantage of it. In total, 46 ships were built under the Bertram Engineering Works name between 1895 and 1906.

The Hiawatha -- built at the Bertram Engine Works, the Hiawatha is still operated by the RCYC. Observe the dress code! Shirts with collars; no jeans or cut-offs.
(photo circa 1968)
Two of the early ships included the Hiawatha, the 'oldest operating passenger vessel on the Great Lakes', for the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, and the much larger Corona, whose launch was attended by hundreds of onlookers.

From the Evening Star, Nov 24, 1897. A sketch of the Corona,
along with a list of ships built to that date at the Bertram Shipyards
-- and their values. 

The Bertram Engine Works were highly prolific; parts built there became widespread, and even made their way out as far as BC, as seen in this footage of the SS Moyie (see below). Steel hulls and machinery that had been pre-fabricated in Toronto by the Bertram Engine Works were sent to the West Kootenay by rail.

A team of riveters assembled the SS Moyie and the carpenters, painters, metalworkers and boilermakers at the Nelson CPR Shipyard completed the task; the ship was launched Oct 22, 1898.



A succession of massive steamer ships, designed by Angstrom, were built for the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Co. by the Bertrams. These ships made the company famous, as they were the largest steamer ships of their kind at the time. The first of the R&O boats was the beautiful passenger steamer Toronto, in 1898:

Invitation to the launch of the Toronto
(other side of Invite to the Toronto launch)

The launch of the Toronto on June 21, 1898. The Bertram Shipyard lies in the background

The 269-foot steamer Toronto, built by the Bertram Works and designed by
Arendt Angstrom. The vessel contract was valued at a quarter of a million dollars.

George Bertram was quite active in public life. A member of the Toronto Board of Trade from 1884 until his death, he was known for supporting municipal reform, and advocating municipal ownership of the street lighting system (this was self-interest -- his Engine Works stood an excellent chance of winning the boiler and generator contract. Bertram claimed that he could light the city for $60 per lamp annually. In 1894 this advocacy would embroil him in a municipal scandal involving alleged city council blackmail and influence-peddling -- he was the one being extorted).

In 1895 Bertram would champion the provision of Sunday streetcars -- much of city council was vehemently opposed, as Toronto had strong sabbatarian roots. Bertram argued it was "a question largely between the company and the employees." [This vigorous debate, and Bertram's role in it, is deftly chronicled in The Revenge of the Methodist Bicycle Company: Sunday Streetcars and Municipal Reform in Toronto, 1888 - 1897 by Christopher Armstrong and H.V. Nelles]

Bertram was also active in the Unitarian Church, and in the St. Andrew's Society.

Laurier's public correspondence
with George Bertram staked out key
 positions on free trade and tariffs. 
Bertram's sphere of influence would grow even larger on the national level. In a well-publicized exchange of correspondence with Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, Bertram discussed government economic policy and the awarding of contracts. Laurier used his open reply to stake out positions on free trade, and a federal tariff.

George H. Bertram was then elected to federal parliament for Toronto Centre in 1897 as a Liberal, with the result that other manufacturers now saw him as a powerful channel, by which to have their concerns heard at the highest political levels.
"The winner in Centre Toronto; the business representative of business interests; the man whose presence in Sir Wilfrid Laurier's following helped so strongly to swing the manufacturers into line for Liberalism at the time of the general elections; Mr. Bertram cannot fail to be the centre of much curious interest in the halls of Parliament."
Toronto Evening Star Feb 2, 1898

In 1899 Bertram attempted to get federal support for a Canadian inland fleet to transport grain and ore, as the trade was dominated by American vessels. Naturally, the Bertram Works were one of a few companies capable of supplying the requisite ships! Unfortunately, the scheme fell through.

From The Daily Star, March 21, 1900

Suffering from cancer the last three years of his life, Bertram passed away in March 1900. George Hope Bertram is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

GH Bertram's grave marker in Mount Pleasant Cemetary

John Bertram
George Bertram's death in 1900 compelled his older brother, John Bertram, to run the Bertram Engine Works and Shipyard.

John Bertram
John Bertram was born in 1837, and emigrated to Canada before George, in 1860, taking root in Peterborough as a hardware dealer. From 1872 to 1878 he was a Liberal MP in the House of Commons for Peterborough West.

John was an authority in all matters concerning natural resources and lumber. As president of the Collins Inlet Lumber Company, he controlled holdings on the north shore of Georgian Bay, Manitoulin Island, Algoma, and the Parry Sound district. Bertram was a strong advocate of prudent harvesting and forest management. He later became the chairman of the Dominion Commission on Transportation, and a member of the Ontario Forestry Commission.

Bertram believed Canada's natural resources could be used as the basis for national advancement. His concern was that the resources be manufactured in Canada prior to their export (the 'manufacturing clause' was a key item in Ontario's economic policy for years as a result).

From The Globe, June 1904. The Bertram businesses were inevitably linked; the Collins Inlet company shared the offices at the Engine Works at Front and Bathurst

1903 Goads Fire Insurance Map showing the Bertram Engine Works
In 1881, John Bertram moved to Toronto and was president of Bertram Engine and Shipbuilding Company, though his attention was mostly devoted to the Collins Inlet business -- until George passed away. John was an adept businessman, even more skilled than his younger brother.

From the Daily Star, April 18, 1903

The Bertram Engine Works and Shipyard thrived under John. The contracts from Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Co. -- which had come to be the major operator of passenger vessels in the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River areas -- continued to roll in, for ever larger vessels, including the Kingston, and the Montreal.

The Kingston leaving Toronto on her last trip on Sept 17, 1949.
Photo by JH Bascom. Allegedly, Thousand Island salad dressing
was invented in the Kingston's galley! 
The Kingston was intended as a running mate to the Toronto. 288 feet in length, 36.2 in the beam, 13.3 feet in depth, she was "powered by a direct-acting, inclined, triple-expansion engine with cylinders of 28, 44 and 74 inches and a stroke of 72 inches. Steam was supplied by four coal-fired Scotch marine boilers measuring 11 by 11.5 feet, the boilers and engine having been built for the ship by Bertram's."

The Ottawa was again 'the largest steamer ever built on Lake Ontario', this time for the Canada Atlantic Transit Co. From the May 23, 1900 Daily Star

Other major orders for the Bertram Works included the Tadousac for J. Waldie & Co, and the Tadenac, for the St. Lawrence & Chicago Steam Navigation Company.
John Bertram's confidence was very high

The launch of the Montreal in 1902 was the pinnacle of the Bertram Works' shipbuilding glory. The vessel was deemed a "floating palace", and was a monster, with a gross tonnage of 4,282 tons, a length of 340 feet and a width of 43 feet. The engine, no doubt the most powerful ever constructed at the Works, was estimated at 3,000 horsepower.

She featured 260 staterooms, including 20 parlour rooms. The interior was luxurious and opulent. The decorations were declared "of unusual beauty," done in the Louis XV style.

Postcard of the Montreal
Montreal saloon interior
Montreal interior - companionway

The launch of the huge ship was observed with fanfare by thousands of cheering onlookers, and was extensively covered in the Star and Globe. The Montreal was christened with a bottle of champagne by Mrs. HM Pellatt, the wife of Lt.-Col. Pellatt. (Henry Pellatt was a Richelieu director, and is commonly known for building Casa Loma).

Coverage of the Montreal's launch in: the Globe and the Star.

"A Public Calamity"
The death of John Bertram was front page news in the Globe on Nov 29, 1904. The paper proclaimed "Death Removes a Great Canadian", and described him as "one of the leading lumbermen of Canada, a man identified with various industries, and one whose services to the public leave behind a debt of gratitude."

Read:
The Globe's coverage of John Bertram's death (p1)
The Globe's coverage of John Bertram's death (p2)

The Globe also devoted its full editorial that day to the subject of Bertram:
The Globe editorial on John Bertram's contributions: "A public calamity". 
The Star was rather more grudging, conceding only that "The Province suffers a severe loss".
Bertram had been ill for about six months, and he passed away in his house on Walmer.

The Bertrams were a tough act to follow. Even with the shipyard busy, the Bertram Co. was still challenged to find enough orders for engine-building; it was these orders that kept men at the Works employed between contracts.

The Victorian Age had passed along with its great Queen. The 20th Century ushered in a new set of owners for the building on the corner of Front and Bathurst....



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You're reading: Farewell to Rock Oasis, the secret history of my home climbing gym.   

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Secret Bonus materials:
An arch erected in 1901 by the Bertram Engine Works on Queens Park Crescent n. of College, to celebrate the visit of King George V. Now that's a serious arch! Printed Inscription on VSO of mount: The Bertram Engine Works Co. Photo via Toronto Public Library, Slide MTL 1268, Public Domain  
A look at the interior design of the Toronto and Montreal ships (via Construction magazine)
Coverage of the Toronto's launch in the Globe
Coverage of the Corona's launch in the Evening Star
George Bertram's 'Challenge to Mr. Howland' in the Evening Star
The Star's obituary for John Bertram

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