| Notes |
- John Ferguson is credited as being the founder of North Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Arriving on the "Lucy Dalton" was John Ferguson, a 19 year old Scotsman. Ferguson delivered the mail for the C.P.R. and upon his arrival he purchased 288 acres (at $1 per acre) of what would be downtown North Bay and the C.P.R. yards. Ferguson sold off most of the land and built his family home downtown.
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Scottish born John Ferguson (1861-1946), a nephew of Canadian Pacific Railroad vice-president Duncan McIntyre, arrived here with CPR steel in 1882. Credited with being a key founder of North Bay, Ferguson, whose vocation was described as "real estate, builder and capitalist", purchased 288 acres of land for a dollar an acre and his lot #20 was the first cleared for a town site. He became a postmaster, reeve, member of the Board of Trade, council member, magistrate and was four-term mayor starting in 1919. Contemporaries described Ferguson as "a hustler, an animated steam engine in trousers."
John Ferguson had two large buildings constructed at this site which was his flagship property, located as it was close to the railroad station, and both suffered the same fate - destruction by fire.
In the mid 1880's, the first large edifice featured twin towers; it burned to the ground in December 1904 with the town books and various public records being consumed in the blaze. Tenants at the time included the Torrance & Parks Grocery, coal and wood dealers McCluskey & Lindsay, Judge H.D. Leask and ironically Ferguson's own real estate office.
With very little delay, Ferguson had another building constructed on the same site (corner of Main and Oak). This was of a flatiron design which had significant precedents in larger cities during this era. The upper stories of the three-storey building had a rusticated brick exterior with regularly spaced arched upper windows using coloured voussoirs to emphasize the classic design. The lower floor was a commercial space with larger storefront windows along the sidewalks. The building was crowned with a prominent cornice supported by brackets in an Italianate style. This burned to the ground in February 1964 as a result of "an explosion in the boiler room."
Tenants in 1964 included Canadian National Telecommunications, and the popular A & B Record Bar along with over 25 offices and apartments.
The monetary loss was significant for the time and the owner, J.H. Prisco, decided not to rebuild. The property served as a parking lot until the mid-1980s when it was sold to the city and the present parkette was created.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=215887
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1861 - 1946 (84 years)
