By John Rhodes
Special to The Chatham Voice
This photo is related to the royal visit of Edward, Prince of Wales, to the International Plowing Match staged at Chatham in September of 1919.
I first showed you this photo several years ago with the observation that the picture had so much more of a story to tell, some of which I would like to detail here, but let me remind you of the original story line.
Prince Edward came to Chatham on his Canadian tour to visit the plowing match and was given a tour of the city in a new Gray Dort touring car which took him on an extensive tour of the city, mostly including drive by visits to city schools with one of those destinations being a southward route between St. Joseph School and the Central School as is indicated by the included photo.
When I wrote my book “Gray Dort, Class Of The Light Car Field” (1987) I made an attempt to find out what became of the Royal Gray Dort, but I was unable to learn of its fate.
I know that today, of the 24,000 Gray Dorts that were built between 1916 and 1924, approximately 25 to 30 still exist.
The photo I have included looks south, down Queen Street from Wellington Street, with Central School students at left and St Joseph School students at right; all of them eagerly awaiting the arrival of the future king.
The Prince was to visit the plowing match site near the junction of the Gravel Road (County Road 10) and the English Side Road near the northwest corner of Harwich Township.
The visit of the Prince was a complete success.
Looking at the photo, I am delighted to know a bit about the two buildings to the left side of the photo.
At extreme left is the boot and shoe manufacturing and repair shop of Clarence Marriott Huson, who was born at Chatham on September 3, 1895.
In those times, boots and shoes were comprised of a quality that readily lent itself to repair rather than discard.
Clarence died at Chatham in 1951 and reposes in Maple Leaf Cemetery.
His small store was eventually torn down and replaced by a gas station which, ultimately, was removed.
The Huson building property is now a municipal parking lot at the southeast junction of Wellington and Queen Streets.
The three-storey building to the right of the Huson building (85 Queen St.) is still there. It was, in that age, a multi-use building with the first floor being occupied by H.W. Smith who is listed in the Directory of 1920 as a cleaner. I will assume him to have been someone who removed nasty stains from carpets and clothing. Next south to him, at 89 Queen St., same building, was J.W. John who operated a laundry.
I am not sure what year this building dated from, but I do know that it is well more than 100 years in age and has recently been through a major renovation.
In closing this story, I can’t help but comment on the beautiful asphalt brick street that can be seen in front of the camera.
At one time, most of the interior streets of the core area were comprised of brick surfaces, but all were eventually lost to obsolescence.
It was not that the bricks could not stand up to the traffic, but was more a matter of the subgrade being built to support horse and buggy vehicles rather than the heavy trucks of later decades.
This is a great photo and I am glad I got to tell you more about it.
