By John Rhodes
Special to The Voice
In the 1800s, it was common for local merchants to name their stores after large cities. The implication being that such a store, so named, would have superior prices and quality only found in big cities.
One such of these emporiums was the New York House Grocery which was built on the north side of King Street, at the upper bend. This would be about 1842, making it one of the earliest brick buildings on King Street.
The store was built at the behest of a man named Gee, by Isaac Oldershaw; members of this contracting and building family are still to be found living and working in Chatham to this day.
Mr. Gee did not remain in the enterprise for a great deal of time before control of the building and business passed to Alexander G. Mess, who became a wealthy man.
Mr. Mess later sold out to an employee known as Hugh Malcolmson, who also prospered. Mr. Malcolmson, as a side line, traded in grain futures; not a venture for the meek.
In the 1880s Mr. Malcolmson extended the height of the structure from three to four floors and gave the roof a huge cupola from which flew a large Union Jack that could be seen from just about anywhere in the town. He also expanded the width of the structure, westerly, by one third.
Hugh Malcolmson died in 1919 and reposes in the Chatham Mausoleum.
The New York House eventually became home to a Dominion Store and later came under the ownership of Max Ordon who, as Motco Ordansky, had escaped the anti-Jewish pogroms of eastern Europe to settle in Chatham where he operated the building as Artistic Ladies Wear.
The building was later reduced to two floors and underwent a modernization that made the building look as if it was from the 1950s, and technically, at least from a frontal view, it was.
The Ordon/Richman families operated the business for two generations.
To my great regret, the ancient New York House was lost several years ago to a condo development.
