Forgotten Places: Dominion Heating and Ventilating Co.

by Feb 11, 2022Hespeler2 comments

Dominion Heating and Ventilating Co.When we posted the photo of the early two buildings on Sheffield Street, many would believe that it was from the early days of the Hespeler Wood Specialty Co. – a business that would go on to be synonymous with the famous Hespeler hockey stick. It’s been often written and talked about that the company dated back to 1907. One would make assumption that a photo in the 1908/09 timeframe would be from the early days of the organization. But…that’s just not the case.

A closer look at a fire insurance map from 1910 (with edits until 1917) shows that the buildings in the photo were of a previously unknown business, “Dominion Heating and Ventilating Co. Ltd.

With the way the edits were made to the insurance map and with some Photoshop enhancing, we are able to see the original map through the layers. It shows that in 1910, the business had been closed and the buildings were silent / not operating.

1910 Fire Insurance Map

Just down the road to the west on Sheffield, sat another company, the “Parkin Elevator Co.”

Below is an advertisement taken out in a national woodworking publication. It would likely be one of Parkin’s last. They would file for bankruptcy and close operations in 1910.

Parkin Elevator Advertisement

Later in 1910, Zachariah Hall and Oscar Zyrd would acquire the Parkin Elevator buildings for their new factory – the Hall-Zyrd Foundry.

Some time after 1910, they would acquire the two vacant Dominion Heating buildings turning them into a pattern building and a machine shop for wood and glass.

Sheffield Street 1909

“That Hespeler hockey stick factory can trace its roots back to 1907.”

That well-known statement above is somewhat misleading…because those roots weren’t happening on Sheffield Street. 1907 was likely a connection to Preston with Salyerds Manufacturing Co…a company that also made hockey sticks.

Hall and Zyrd did expand their operations over the years from the original footprint of Parkin Elevator. A reasonable assumption would be that Hespeler Wood Specialty purchased or leased those two buildings from the Hall-Zyrd Foundry in 1922 when they officially began operations.

In 1930, the Hespeler Wood Specialty Company was acquired by Waterloo Wood Products (the Seagram Group). Over the next 3 years, they would go on to acquire Hilborn Co. (Ayr, 1931), St. Mary’s Wood Specialty Co. (1933), Salyerds Manufacturing Co. (1934). The name would be changed in 1935 to Hespeler St. Marys Wood Specialties Co. All assets were transferred to Sheffield Street.

Hespeler St. Mary's Wood Specialties

Likely it was some time after 1930, as equipment and staff starting to move into Hespeler, that the familiar red brick building was erected out front on Sheffield.

To answer our original question then — What were those two buildings on Sheffield? We have now have our answer… Hespeler’s almost-forgotten Dominion Heating and Ventilating Company.

Google Earth shows us, though, that they are still with us. Quite possibly the oldest buildings on the street –  in good hands and protected this whole time by our famous hockey stick factory.

 

— Marty Lachance

Dominion Heating and Ventilating Co.

2 Comments

  1. William Marshall (Grandson of ZA)

    Great article!
    Zachariah Adam Hall (Zed-A, as he was known) filed a total of seven Canadian patents on various aspects of hockey stick design including goaltender (218792, 1921) and innovative two-piece sticks (253410, 253411, 270453, 270915, 1925 and 1927) and their mass production (3279715, 1932). The patents were also filed in the United States (1438030,1549971, 1601116, 1631960 and 2040132) from 1922 to1932. The main advance was the tongue and groove heel joint (270915 and 1601116, filed in 1926 in Canada and United States, respectively) that allowed the handle to be made from flexible ash and the blade from a more rigid and durable hardwood, birch or maple. The formula of the waterproof glue remained a trade secret of Hespeler Wood Specialty Co. The impact was primarily that youngsters soon had inexpensive ($0.30 or less per stick, CS47-204-1927, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, 1929) hockey sticks in large numbers that spawned rapid expansion of the sport worldwide during the great depression.

    Reply
  2. Bill Marshall

    Oops…add patent 270452 to the list

    Reply

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