It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
The building on the left is from the Muskoka Digital Archives. It’s of 86 Main Street East, Huntsville, Ontario, where Algonquin Outfitters is now located (right).
When a fire destroyed the dry goods business of Matthew Wardell at 77 Main Street East, Wardell started over by moving into this building which he rented for $600 a year.
Later he installed electricity and the Wardell family purchased the building for $6000 in 1920. In 1939 the storefront was altered and a new brick face was applied as seen in this photograph (above, left). Matthew Wardell had five children: Maude (Mrs. George Donal Nickalls), Mary “Daisy” (Mrs. William Mawhinney), Claude, St. Clair, and Annetta (Mrs. Charles Deeprose Boyd).
Between 1913 and 1917 the store was known as Wardell, Boyd and Son. Charles Boyd’s father established a grocery business next door at 90 Main Street East in 1917, known as J.R. Boyd and Son.
Maude was widowed in 1899 and returned to Huntsville with her two small sons, Grenville and Jack. She and Claude bought the store in 1920. The store was famous for Scottish woolens, Spode china, and Hudson’s Bay blankets. In 1957 Maude’s son, Jack, and grandson Donal Nickalls took over the business. In 1973 Donal and his wife Pat became the proprietors. The store was closed in 1986.
The vehicle in front is a 1939 Chevrolet Coupe.
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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