History of the Van Halteren Building
8 Wellington Street, Lindsay
Excerpt from the September 17, 1935 issue of The Lindsay Post.
Since 1974, the building has been the home of Van Halteren’s Music Centre, and it seems everyone has heard of the place. But what is less known is that the Van Halteren family occupied the building nearly a decade prior to this– and just what is up with that funny addition to the front? Let’s look back at the history of 8 Wellington Street.
Fire Insurance Map, Lindsay 1898, revised 1911. Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives.
Originally the red-brick home at the back belonged to the Kennedy family. They operated a large milling company that spanned the edge of the river from as far south as King Street and all the way north as far as a half-block north of Bond Street East. The company was known as Kennedy + Davis Milling Co. and Kennedy, Davis + Son.
On 5 May 1911, the business was taken over by Ashley + Pogue, who continued the milling business. That year, the fire insurance map was updated, and clearly shows the expanse of property the Kennedy operation had just turned over– and the red-brick house without the front addition.
Ashley + Pogue didn’t remain in operation for long, likely put out of business by better methods for milling. A brick church was erected at the south-west corner of Wellington and Lindsay street to replace the crumbling wood-frame church building.
On 17 September 1915, Boving Hydraulic moved their office to the red-brick building at the “old Kennedy homestead next to Hall’s garage.” Boving operated the plant just north on Lindsay Street at Colborne Street East. The plant went through a few changes, including becoming a crayon factory, before finally being demolished. It’s now a park.
Illustration of the Boving Hydraulic and Engineering Company Ltd. along the Scugog River in Lindsay. 1917
The addition to the front was constructed by Boving, to serve as the office, putting the construction sometime between 1915 and 1949. Prior to the addition, the red-brick home would have been one of the largest in Lindsay and looked something like this:
Advertisement of Dodwell-Broadworth to Roblin appearing in the November 5, 1952 issue of The Lindsay Daily Post.
Over the years, the addition housed several businesses after Boving, the first being Dodwell-Broadworth, a farm equipment sales company that moved into 8 Wellington during February 1949. They didn’t move very far– they’d previously occupied the “former” Manley Motors at 10 Wellington– and didn’t mark the move with fanfare or a grand opening. Only a simple address change on their weekly ad in the Lindsay Post revealed the shift with their February 9th location at 10 Wellington and their February 16th location at 8 Wellington.
Dodwell-Broadworth stayed at 8 Wellington until November 5, 1952 when W.D. Roblin took over and also sold farm equipment. A popular item to advertise in the Post was the chainsaw. Roblin stayed until 1967 when he relocated his business to Rural Route 4 Lindsay.
Advertisement for Ops Centennial Auction Barns appearing in the November 28, 1967 issue of The Lindsay Daily Post.
This was when the first Van Halteren moved in. Tymen Van Halteren was an auctioneer for Ops Centennial Auction Barns. He moved into 8 Wellington on November 27,1967 where he operated the Centennial Auction Centre for a couple of years before he moved to the Cambray school.
In May 1969, Richards Metalworking operated out of 8 Wellington until 1973, when Philips and Philco Ford opened Newtronic Radio + TV headed by Ken Newall. Newall did so well that he bought out another TV sales business and had to relocate to a larger building.
And on December 7, 1974, Jerry and Zeger Van Halteren held Van Halteren’s Music Centre’s grand opening in the “yellow building at the bridge,” where they’ve been ever since.
Researched and written by Sara Walker-Howe.
