Baddeck Businesses of Old

Chebucto Street in the 1930's. An unidentified man walks toward the photographer. In the background on the left an unidentified restaurant and the White Store. Across the street, Ballachy's Store (building with people standing in front). (Author photo)

In 1900, Baddeck postmaster Robert Elmsley compiled a list of local businesses in his diary. He lists over 85 businesses that he can recall in the sixty years since he arrived in Baddeck in 1840.

Back in 1840, there were only two businesses - Kidston’s store on the west end of the island and James Anderson’s inn on the cove near the present-day Legion on Ross Street. Anderson had purchased the business for a barrel of oatmeal from Joseph Campbell. This was the first business to be located where the village of Baddeck would soon develop.

By 1860, after Kidston had provided the land and carved out the Main Street, other businesses were constructed. Some of these buildings are familiar to us today - the Telegraph House and the Bras D’Or House, while others exist only in memory - Campbell’s Shipyard (near the current Bras d’Or Yacht Club) and the White Store – located where the BOLD Centre (former Kidston’s Landing gift shop) is today.

The White Store, circa 1910. The three story department store was opened in 1903. The top story was removed because 'it swayed in the wind' locals said. It provided the perfect spot however, for panoramic views of town. The White Store was lost in a fire in December 1973. (Author photo)

Francis MacGreggor (1882-1968), a Victoria County resident who wrote the book "Days That I Remember: Stories with a Scottish Accent” (published in 1976) recalls what Baddeck businesses were like when he was young and provides us with this wonderful glimpse to a different time:

"The old merchant had to be a man who knew every angle of his work.  There was no packaged goods, nothing wrapped in plastic or cellophane.  In fact, there were few paper bags and, in some cases, old newspapers were used.  A long counter with bulk tea, sugar, soda and many other things behind and under it.  His shelves were loaded with things that needed no parceling.  Heavy articles, such as flour, oatmeal, crackers, salt herring and molasses, the latter came in 90-gallon hogshead (*note – a large wooden barrel). Also, kerosene came in good barrels.  All these things had to be weighed out, and clerks had to work for their pay and know how to handle their customers in those days there was plenty of credit...

"Lying around in front of the counters and against the walls would be farming tools, fish nets and everything else that was needed.  In my father's time even, rum was sold and charged for the same as any other goods.  Money was scarce and most goods were paid for with produce.  Butter, meats, hides, lambs, live cattle and even oysters at $1.00 a barrel.  The storekeeper had to be a salesman also.  He had to find a market for all this and make a profit…. He would store all this produce until such time as he could charter a vessel or join up with some other merchant to get a sailing ship for Newfoundland, Boston or the West Indies...

"Every store had a high board fence at the rear of the store for the customers to tie their horses when they came to town.  In those days, Baddeck had a good plank sidewalk along the street.  Stores remained open as long as there was anyone around that might want something.  Baddeck also had a brass band.  The bandmaster was Percy Blanchard, a lawyer and there was a nice bandstand which stood where Bethune's Garage is today” (*Note: where the Visitor Information Center is today).

Chebucto Street, 1908. Found in Norman Bethune Senior's (1899-1986) photo album. He noted that of the three men walking across the street, it is lawyer Percy Blanchard on the right. His office was just out of the frame of this image, to the right of the McKay-MacAskill Department Store. (Bethune Family photo)

The late Duncan Grant of Middle River, a staid and quiet man, once reminisced to my husband Norman about the old MacKay-MacAskill store. His eyes sparkled as he remembered as a small boy, eyes barely above the countertop, seeing long rows of open containers of penny candy. He chuckled when he recalled a ‘basket of spectacles’, where customers would try on a pair of wire-rimmed eyeglasses to test them, often stumbling around the store until they found a pair that provided clear vision.

Some say the burgers were the best at the Thistledown. Others say it was the fries. Still others say the ice cream tasted like a summer day when you are 4 years old. A popular restaurant in the 1960s and 1970s. This building located between Norman Bethune Senior's home and the Telegraph House burned in the early 1970's. (Author photo)

Here are a few of Robert Elmsley’s Baddeck merchants compiled circa 1900. I’ve put them in alphabetical order.

• James Anderson (1842)

• Duncan Beaton

• Stephen Barber (1889)

• William Bingham

• Campbell & McLean (1890)

• Campbell & Son (1849)

• Charles J. Campbell

• John Campbell

• Joseph Campbell

• Kenneth Campbell

• A. & M. Cameron

• Cameron & Stephens

•  Duffus (1818)    

• Graham & Cameron

• Jno Haliburton

• Hart & McCurdy

• C & R Hart

• Albert J. Hart

• Irish & Kidston

• Jones Leaver & Co

• Martin Liest (watchmaker)

• Dougald Kennedy

• Kerr at McKay's Point

• Marshall & Watson

• Ali Ban McAulay

• McCurdy & Son

• McKay & Co.

• McDonald at Wharf (1887)

• Duncan McKenzie

• Salty McKenzie

• J. P. McLeod

• D. F. McRae

• Donald J. McRae

• William Robertson (1885)

• Sellon & McLean

• James Sparling

• Leaver Sparling (1884)

• Taylor & Elmsley

Alton Langille was another Baddeck postmaster who documented Baddeck life. In this image from the winter of 1947, we can see an unidentified grill and the Bras d'Or House. (Photo by Alton Langille. Courtesy of Walter Langille.)

What businesses do you recall? Where was it? What did they sell? What era was it from? What did the business look like inside? What business did your grandparents frequent? Sign in to post your memories in the comment section below.