Living Heritage Podcast Ep144 Lewis Ferman and the Merchants of Main Street

In October 2018, Heritage NL staff rushed down Water Street to rescue an old shop sign from the business of Lewis and Grunia Ferman, Jewish merchants and WWII resistance fighters. That event unlocked a flood of stories and memories about the Ferman family, and about other merchants who had business in St. John's and beyond. 

In this episode, we look at the legacy of immigrant merchants in Newfoundland, with clips from interviews about both the Ferman shop, and the multicultural shopkeepers of Windsor who are featured in a new Virtual Museums of Canada exhibit. 

• Download the podcast here

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The Living Heritage Podcast is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the community level. The show is a partnership between HFNL and CHMR Radio. Past episodes are hosted on Libsyn, and you can subscribe via iTunes, or Stitcher. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

#CollectiveMemories Monday - John Connors and Brown Derby

The Brown Derby Restaurant, Main Street, Windsor. Photo courtesy of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society.

On September 21, 2016, as part of the Collective Memories project, I interviewed John Connors of Grand Falls-Windsor about his family’s business and experience on Main Street.

In this interview John discusses his grandfather’s work as the first Railway Station Master, his father’s start in business, and the growth and development of Brown Derby from a restaurant on Main Street to the major wholesale business it is today.

Roy Oldford also of Grand Falls-Windsor described the restaurant:
The Brown Derby was a little café you went in and sat down. There were seats. They had a jukebox and roller seats around the counter and that was a pretty popular place for people to go and have a meal or whatnot especially if you came in on the train. We spent a lot of time at the Brown Derby and it was a typical teen and other place at that point in time.

Click here to listen to the interview with John and learn more about the Brown Derby.

~Terra Barrett

Merchants and Memories of Main Street, Windsor - Booklet Launch

Some of the people interviewed for the booklet, members of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society, and Heritage Foundation staff.

On Saturday, March 4th, Dale, Kelly, and I attended the "Merchants and Memories of Main Street" booklet launch in Grand Falls-Windsor. The launch took place in St. Joseph's Parish Hall just around the corner from Main Street where the memories of the booklet focused.

Interviewer Terra Barrett with longtime GFW resident Yvonne Courtney who was interviewed for the booklet.

“A Little Montreal: Merchants and Memories of Main Street, Windsor” is the third booklet in the Collective Memories Series produced by the Heritage Foundation. This booklet focuses on the memories of people who grew up, lived, worked, and shopped on Main Street with a particular emphasis on the merchants and shops of Main Street, Windsor.

Reviewing photographs from the GFWHS.

The Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society (GFWHS) had a collection of their archival photographs from Main Street projected on the wall.  They displayed several 8mm and 16mm films from Grand Falls and Windsor including a soap box car race, baseball and hockey games. The Society also placed photocopied photographs and documents on a table for visitors to view and help identify the people pictured.

The crowd listening to a reading from the booklet.

The launch was a great success with over 150 people turning out and all the booklets being sold in a matter a minutes. The Society is placing an order for more printed booklets and can be contacted here! A PDF version of the booklet will also be placed online through Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative.

Debating who is in the wedding photograph displayed on the banner.

There were lots of refreshments provided following a couple of speeches and readings by three participants showcased in the booklet.  The Heritage Foundation had three large banners printed and displayed around the room which prompted stories and arguments had over who was in the photographs. After the official launch there were photographs taken of the staff members from different stores on Main Street such as Riff's, Cohen's, Stewart's, etc.

Former staff of a Main Street shop.
I believe this photo is of the Stewart's staff - let us know if the comments if you know for sure!

Discussing stories of Windsor.

The Main Street booklet is part of the foundation’s Collective Memories Project. This project is an initiative of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the HFNL, with funding provided by the Department of Children, Seniors, and Social Development. The Collective Memories Project invites seniors to record their stories and memories for sharing and this booklet and launch was an excellent opportunity to do just that!

Anne Warr posing with the Windsor quilt and the Cozy Chat banner which displays the photograph of her parent's wedding in the Cozy Chat.

~Terra Barrett

Booklet Launch - Merchants and Memories of Main Street, Windsor

Main Street, Windsor. 1944. Photo courtesy of GFWHS.

The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) and the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society present a booklet launch at St. Joseph’s Parish Hall in Grand Falls-Windsor on Saturday, March 4th, from 2:00-4:00pm.

“A Little Montreal: Merchants and Memories of Main Street, Windsor” is the third booklet in the Collective Memories Series produced by the Heritage Foundation. This booklet focuses on the memories of people who grew up, lived, worked, and shopped on Main Street with a particular emphasis on the merchants and shops of Main Street, Windsor.

“It was very small but it was like a little Montréal. A lot of different cultures and sights and sounds,” described Corey Sharpe. “The business owners on Main Street came from China, Lebanon, Syria, Russia, Norway, Ireland, United States, England so it was a melting pot of cultures.”

Sharpe was one of several residents of Grand Falls-Windsor who were interviewed as part of the oral history project completed by HFNL in conjunction with the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society.

“This booklet developed as a result of conversations with the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society,” says Terra Barrett, a researcher with the foundation. In recent years the Heritage Foundation has assisted with the digitization of some of the Society’s archival materials but most of that material focused on the AND company, the mill, and the former town of Grand Falls,”“This project focused on Main Street in order to showcase and learn more about the Windsor part of the community.”

The Main Street booklet is part of the foundation’s Collective Memories Project. This project is an initiative of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the HFNL, with funding provided by the Department of Children, Seniors, and Social Development. The Collective Memories Project invites seniors to record their stories and memories for sharing.

The booklet launch is open to the public and will include light refreshments. There will be copies of the booklet available at the launch as well as a PDF version which will be placed online. For more information please go to www.collectivememories.ca or call Terra Barrett at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 5.

Several members of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society with Heritage Foundation staff. Standing L-R: Joe Shapleigh, Jim Locke, Dale Jarvis, Brian Reid, Terra Barrett, John Blackmore. Sitting L-R: Cathy Simpson, Audrey Burke. 2016. Photo by Kelly Drover.

#CollectiveMemories Roadtrip - Grand Falls-Windsor

Terra Barrett, Dale Jarvis, and Kelly Drover in the Old Mill in Glovertown. 

This week as part of the Collective Memories Project Dale, Kelly, and I travelled to Grand Falls-Windsor to meet with their heritage society. On the drive out we made a quick stop to the Old Mill in Glovertown. After learning a bit more about the site and the urban legend it has encouraged we wanted to take a look at the building itself. The mill is situated on a side road relatively close to the main road through town but if you didn’t know the mill was there you could bypass it completely. The abandoned mill is covered in graffiti from different decades with some graffiti referencing the red eyes urban legend. It was an interesting but eerie spot to visit and learn more about.

Members of the Grand Falls-Windsor Heritage Society and Dale Jarvis and Terra Barrett of the Heritage Foundation. Photo by Kelly Drover.

After our short detour we met up with the GFW Heritage Society in their office on High Street. This meeting was a follow up on the work I did in Grand Falls-Windsor in September on the memories and merchants of Main Street in Windsor. The photographs and interviews are being edited into a booklet for the community however the ICH Office also wanted to do something a little bit different so we met with the society to discuss the booklet launch and the possibility of doing a pop-up exhibition in the New Year. We tentatively decided on the last weekend in February for the launch and exhibit and are looking forward to the event!

Razor, stropper, brick, bottle, and tobacco from Stewart's Grocery.

While in the community we also completed an oral history interview with Brian Reid and photographed some of the artefacts housed by the society. We also returned digital copies of the Merchants of Main Street interviews which can be found online here. If your community has material you would like help digitized or would like to start an oral history project of your own feel free to contact terra@heritagefoundation.ca or call toll free 1-888-739-1892 ex. 5.

~Terra Barrett

#CollectiveMemories - Main Street Memories

Stewart's. Photo courtesy of Carmel Barry.

Yesterday morning started with a chat with Carmel Barry about Stewart’s store on Main Street in Windsor. Carmel worked with George Stewart for 47 years. She spent one year working part time and another full time on the floor packing shelves and doing whatever needed to be done but most of the time she spent in the office doing the bookwork. Carmel vividly remembered the money system that was in place in the store which allowed money to traverse the store from the office to the cash. She also remembered the wood stove that heated the store and how George would head in to the store before the staff and have the fire burning so it would be nice and toasty when they arrived. Carmel clearly loved the store, the work, and the staff and she exclaimed that she would still be working there today if she could. Unfortunately George Stewart died in 20008 and the old store was torn down a couple of years ago.

In the afternoon we had two interviews. One was with Boyd Cohen whose family moved from the Ukraine and Poland. His grandfather moved from what is now the Ukraine to London, England in the 1890s to work for a clothing company. Between the years 1904 and 1906 Simon Cohen, Boyd’s grandfather, moved to Newfoundland to work for a Newfoundland Clothing Company which was being established by a firm out of England. Following the First World War the family moved to Grand Falls-Windsor and opened a general store. This store sold “anything from hardware and nails to ladies hats”. Boyd also discussed the move from Main Street in Windsor to High Street in Grand Falls and how he got into the furniture business and into real estate.

Cohen's bus.  Photo courtesy of Boyd Cohen.

One memory Boyd shared was of the bus his father ran between High Street, Grand Falls and Main Street, Windsor between 1928 and the mid 1930s. Listen to the clip below.
Our next interview was with Mary Kelly. She discussed growing up in Grand Falls-Windsor and spending time on Main Street, Windsor. Mary had many fond memories of Riff’s where her aunt Helen Kelly worked for years and years. She described going to the store and the magic of Main Street in Windsor. Mary fondly remembered the generosity of the Riff family and how they sent Christmas cards to the family long after her aunt had passed away. She described how after one of Riff’s buying trips to Montreal her family would eat bagels for weeks which were brought back from Montreal from Mr. Riff.

Riff's Christmas party. Helen Kelly and Marie Penney. Photo courtesy of Mary Kelly.

Listen to Mary’s memories of Main Street in Windsor.

Here Mary describes going into Riff’s on Main Street.
Let us know your memories of Main Street, Windsor! Email terra@heritagefoundation.ca or call 1-888-739-1892.

~Terra Barrett