A nod to Holmedale's heritage
07/05/2005
Developer of former Harding Carpets property to open a community room highlighting area's past
BY MICHAEL-ALLAN MARION
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD
The former Harding Carpets will be renamed the Holmedale Business Centre as part of King & Benton Redevelopment Corp.’s final steps in its project to reclaim the former brownfield site.
It will also be the site of a community room and industrial heritage display for the Holmedale area.
In a news conference, officials from King & Benton, the Brant Historical Society, the city’s heritage committee and the Holmedale community advisory committee unveiled the new name for the transformed warehouse-distribution centre, along with plans to open a Holmedale Community Heritage Room.
The company has spent $4 million in a two-year plan to rehabilitate the closed, block-long, former Morrell Street carpet maker. When King & Benton took possession in 2003 the factory was crammed with flammable materials, chemical drums and leftover inventory.
Two years later, it is a state-of-the-art warehouse and distribution centre.
The company is now undertaking the final stage of its plan by finishing the landscaping, and setting up a combination community and heritage room in one corner of the sprawling complex.
It will be done with the help of the historical society, a local community group.
CENTURY OF INDUSTRY
“It’s a great way to wrap up the project,” said company president Steve Charest.
“The community room will recognize the heritage of Holmedale with a century of industry and the people who built the community.”
Assisted by the historical society, the company has collected artifacts and archives on a range of industries that once dominated Holmedale.
They include:
Holmedale Mills, begun circa 1857, producing 1,000 barrels of flour per week;
Holmedale Woolen Mills, established in 1875. It produced blankets and yarn, then expanded to flannel sheets, cloakings, horse blankets and carriage rugs;
City Broom started in 1877 on what was then called Canal Street near the woolen mill;
Knowles, Ham and Nott, which began manufacturing bicycles in 1892;
Hussmann’s Store Equipment, which opened a sales and service arm in Brantford in 1949, then built an addition to manufacture aircraft parts for the defence industry;
Dominion Steel Products Co. Ltd. established in 1916 to manufacture munitions and gun mounts in the First World War;
S.C. Johnson and Sons, which opened in 1920;
And Harding Carpets, which opened on Morrell Street in 1927, and produced carpeting for such hotels as the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, the Royal York in Toronto and the Windsor Hotel in Montreal.
Harding expanded several times over the years while building an international name in the industry, then floundered in the early 1990s before closing.
The demise of Harding Carpets tarnished Holmedale’s sense of community pride, said Colleen Armstrong, King & Benton’s project co-ordinator. “We want the pride to return.”
DONATED ITEMS
Charest said that when some artifacts and documents came to him, from first Harding, then other companies, he decided they should be preserved to tell a story. “We want the history of the area to remain for younger generations to see. Once it’s gone, it’s gone,” he said.
Holmedale is one of the few remaining neighbourhoods left in Brantford — along with Eagle Place and East Ward — where people could walk short distances to live, work and play, and is still intact today, he said.
“These communities are worth preserving. I want this to send a signal to developers that this is one way to make it happen.”
The historical society will provide advice in mounting and preserving exhibits according to museum standards.
Stacey McKellar, director curator at the Brant Museum and Archives, said the room will make a welcome adjunct to the area’s historical displays.
“Our museum is so full, we don’t have room to display all our collection,” said McKellar. “It’s an opportunity to get our collection out to the community, and expose in different venues the rich heritage we have.”
Cindy Macdonald-Krueger, chairwoman of the heritage committee, is equally enthused.
“The approach is fabulous,” she said. “It’s an excellent reuse of an old building. I don’t know anywhere else that this has been done, certainly not in this town.”
The room is expected to be finished in early September, with an official opening ceremony on Sept. 24 in conjunction with Doors Open Brant.
The company has set up a Web site where people can visit and post memories. The Web site is www.holmedaleheritage.com.
