The zone post: Guelph gets safety first

Oddly, the postcard below was the one that got me interested in postcards of Guelph in the first place. Have a look and see if there is anything unusual there:

The card was printed by the Valentine-Black Co. of Toronto and published in the mid 1920s.

Here is a similar view today, courtesy of Google Street View:

Picking this card casually out of a box at an antique market, I was struck by the peculiar orange post in the middle of the intersection at Wyndham and Carden streets, rhyming visually with the campanile tower of the train station in the background. Who would plant a post in the middle of a busy intersection? I surmised it was some sort of traffic control measure. Being interested in the history of cars and cities, I bought the card and decided to find out.

It turned out that I was right. The post is apparently an example of what was called a "safety zone post" or just "zone post" for short. These posts were one of the first attempts to regulate the flow of automobile traffic in cities as that became both voluminous and dangerous.

From their introduction until about 1910, automobiles were mainly a curiosity for the well-to-do. In the summertime, when roads dried up enough to be passable, people who could afford motor cars (also called "motors" or "machines") would take them out of town for picnics or other recreations. This activity was pleasant for the motorists and mainly mildly amusing or annoying for other users of the roads.

However, with the introduction of cheaper cars like the Ford Model T in 1908, cars began to account for a substantial amount of traffic. The behaviour of motorists began to determine traffic conditions on streets and in a way that was significantly different from conditions on the streets before.

As Peter Norton (2008) explains in "Fighting traffic," city streets were common property, available for any members of the public to use more-or-less as they saw fit. If you had a mind to, you could stand in the street all day, or set up your peanut cart there, or play in the street, and that was normally your privilege.

Traffic was not usually very dangerous. It went at a slow pace and drivers or cyclists could maneuver around people who were hanging out on the street. Horses were normally smart enough not to run into people or other vehicles. Streetcars went slowly and along predictable paths.

This situation is illustrated in the following video of New York City around 1900. Note how people navigate or park in the streets without much concern for traffic.

As automobiles came to dominate the streets, this situation changed. They were large and heavy and went increasingly fast, so that being hit by one was a major problem. Their steering and brakes were not particularly responsive or even reliable, so they could be difficult to control. With their increased degrees of freedom, and few rules about who went where, automobile movements could be hard to anticipate.

The result was increasing levels of conflict and frustration. That Guelphites of this period were similarly affected is suggested by the following cartoon printed on the front page of the Guelph Evening Mercury (13 Nov 1915):

People began to think about how to deal with the risks posed by automobile traffic. An important, early response to this problem was the "Safety First" movement. Peter Norton (2015) points out that the Safety First movement originated in attempts to improve workplace safety and was transferred to railways and roads in the early 1900s. The slogan implies that safety should be the highest priority in traffic flow, over other priorities such as speed and convenience.

Furthermore, automobiles were seen as intruders in the streetscape and were thus the focus of traffic control. An interesting Maclean's article ("Two years of Safety First," 1 Nov 1915) gives a list of laws prompted by the Safety First movement aimed at regulating the configuration and maneuvers of automobiles on the roads:

We have seen the inauguration of automatic control of traffic which has minimized accidents; we have laws in several states and in most large cities compelling the use of dimming devices on headlights; we have seen the passing of the muffler cutout, the coming in of short radius turns on the automobiles themselves, and we have witnessed a strong effort on the part of various states to being about the enforcement of universal lighting laws which will compel every vehicle, no matter whether motor-propelled or horse-driven, to show lights at night.

For our purposes, the mention of "short radius turns" is significant. In early days, automobiles would often execute left turns by passing just next to the street corner on their left. Sometimes, this sort of turn is known as "cutting the corner." Drivers liked it because it was gradual and easy to execute rather than sudden and strenuous (remember, there was no power steering), and could be done without slowing down much. Geometrically, this turn is a "big radius" turn because a car following it would describe a big circle if it kept on turning.

As you can imagine, though, this turn is not very safe. An automobile cutting a corner could collide head-on with another vehicle approaching the corner on the cross-road. Since this turn was taken at high speed, the results of a collision could be severe. As the Safety First movement placed safety above speed, this sort of turn had to be prevented.

That is where the zone post came in. The zone post worked as a "keep right" sign. By placing a zone post in the middle of the intersection of Wyndham and Carden streets, it forced motorists who planned to make a left turn to drive to the middle of the intersection, slow down, and turn sharply left around the post. By replacing high-radius left turns at high speed with small radius left turns at low speed, the zone post helped to increase road safety.

In effect, the zone post turned an intersection into a very small roundabout.

Looking at the postcard again, many of the automobiles parked at the Grand Trunk station probably came down Wyndham street and made a left turn around the zone post in the picture before driving to the station entrance.

Zone posts were used at busy intersections for this purpose. However, their primary use was to designate "safety zones"—thus the name "safety zone post." A safety zone was a region of roadway that automobiles were not supposed to enter. The most common example was a zone around streetcar stops, which were often in the middle of roads. Since automobiles were prohibited from driving through safety zones, riders could wait inside them for streetcars and get on and off them without being menaced by motorists. At least, that was the theory.

In Guelph, the central point of the city's streetcar network was St. George's Square. People often stood in the Square around the streetcar tracks (standing on the grass around the Blacksmith Fountain was prohibited) while waiting for streetcars to arrive. As more automobiles took to the streets, this practice made these riders vulnerable.

In November 1915, the City of Guelph By-Laws and Markets Committee recommended a by-law to establish a safety zone around the streetcar tracks in St. George's Square. Although this notion seemed to meet with general approval, the zone was not enacted until nearly two years later. Finally, Guelph got its first safety zones and zone posts (Evening Mercury, 15 Sep 1917):

After a great deal of agitation and hard work Chief Randall has finally got zone posts placed at St. George’s Square. Three posts on each side of the square are in position, and they should go a long way in diverting traffic to the proper channel, and be a source of protection to pedestrians. The chief will also have the zone posts placed at the corner of Wyndham and Macdonnell streets, Wilson and Macdonnell, and the intersection at the Public Library.

There is a photograph in the Guelph Public Library archives of the safety zone in the Square, ca. 1920:

(Courtesy of the Guelph Public Library, C6-0-0-0-0-144.)

The zone posts are the skinny, metal sticks arranged around the Blacksmith Fountain garden, outside of the streetcar tracks. Painted on the top disk of each post is the instruction, "Keep to right." The posts were supposed to remind motorists to pass around the outside of the posts and in a counter-clockwise direction. In effect, St. George's Square became a large traffic circle.

I assume this measure helped to mitigate the danger of people being hit by automobiles in the middle of the Square. However, the zone posts were not fixed to the ground in order that they would not severely damage any cars that did hit them by mistake. A byproduct of this design was that the zone posts became objects of mischief. Indeed, they became auto-mobile themselves, especially at night (Evening Mercury, 9 Oct 1917):

Magistrate Watt made it very plain at the Police Court this morning that no nonsense, playful, willful or otherwise, around Chief Randall’s zone posts will be tolerated. His attention was called to the fact through a charge laid by Sergt. Rae against a young man, who was caught swinging one of the St. George’s Square posts around in the air on Sunday night. Although the youth pleaded not guilty, he had no defence to make, and was fined $2 and costs. The magistrate issued a warning that if any other case came before him of a like nature he would deal harshly with the offender. Chief Randall also informed His Worship that some time during last night the zone post at the corner of Wyndham and Macdonnell streets was removed and carried half a block up Macdonnell street. Another one at the Square was carried off some distance.

Indeed, the Mercury seemed to delight in reporting on the nocturnal perambulations of these "silent policemen" and how this habit affected the poor Police Chief (Evening Mercury, 2 Sep 1919):

For the second time this week the zone post which stands guard at the Public Library corner was removed during last night, and carried to Oxford Street. Chief Rae was very wrathy this morning when he heard of the matter, and stated he would pay $5.00 out of his own pocket for information that would lead to the arrest of the guilty party.

One more for good measure (Evening Mercury, 12 Nov 1919):

Apparently some person was laboring under the impression that last night was Hallowe’en, and as usual Chief Rae’s zone posts were the targets for the jokers. The Chief’s silent policeman which does duty at the corner of Woolwich and Norwich Streets, was removed during the night and taken to Hamilton’s marble works [now the site of Speedy Muffler], and this morning the “Keep to the Right” post was doing sentinel duty on top of a large monument. The post was still on monumental duty at noon today.

These long-suffering "dummy cops" kept their vigil in St. George's Square until 1923 when they were deemed unnecessary after the changes to the street car alignment there. However, zone posts continued to regulate left turns in downtown Guelph intersections for many years to come.

Some safety zones are still with us. School safety zones typically mandate reduced speed limits on roads around schools in order to reduce risk to children who cross streets there.

Another kind of safety zone is the crosswalk. In addition to zone posts, safety zones could be delineated by white lines painted on paved road surfaces. One sort of safety zones that cities began to mark in this way were lanes for pedestrians to cross streets at their corners. These markings were sometimes referred to as "jay lines" since they were provided, in part, to prevent people from crossing streets at mid-block, a practice still known as "jay walking." All is explained in this article from the Harrisburg Telegraph (1 Jun 1915):

“Jay lines,” for pedestrians will be placed at busy street intersections in Harrisburg. These lines will be painted in white and will mark the space to be used by pedestrians when crossing streets.

Colonel Joseph B. Hutchison arranged with Superintendent of Streets William H. Lynch to have “jay lines” at the busy corners, and to keep them in good condition. In explaining the new safety first project to-day Colonel Hutchison said:

“Two lines will be painted at each crossing. The lines will be separated, allowing a space equal to the width of the sidewalk. When a traffic officer orders an automobile, street car or any other vehicle to stop, it will not mean that the vehicle can run halfway over the crossing, but must stay beyond the “jay lines.” It will also mean greater safety to pedestrians, as they will be able to cross a street without the necessity of running around a vehicle that has stopped halfway on a crossing or taking chances of being hit by an automobile or wagon coming from another direction.”

Although the Safety First movement and its zone posts disappeared in the 1930s, its legacy lives on in the form of these "jay lines," including in St. George's Square.

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A recent proposal for redevelopment of St. George's Square includes turning it into a traffic circle. As we have seen, this plan is, in a way, a case of back to the future.

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Because you asked, traffic in New York in 1928. And, yes, that is the Bambino in the car. Note how the car drives through a safety zone at the video's end.

The John McCrae Memorial Garden

May 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the writing of "In Flanders Fields", the poem for which John McCrae is famous. Although McCrae lived long enough to enjoy some of the admiration of his work, his life was cut short by pneumonia in 1918.

However, regard for his poem continued to live and grow even after the end of the Great War. Testimony to this fact resides in the many memorials and monuments dedicated to McCrae and his work. For example, a brass plaque eulogizing McCrae was presented to Guelph Collegiate (now Guelph Collegiate and Vocational Institute), his alma mater, on 13 November 1919. Many other memorials of various kinds have been dedicated to him over the years since, for example (Guelph Mercury, 30 April 2015):

Stained glass windows are erected to his memory at McGill University, Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal and at the University of Toronto and here in Guelph at St. Andrew's Church. Four schools have been named after him: John McCrae Public School here in Guelph, John McCrae Senior Public School in Scarborough, John McCrae Public School in Markham and John McCrae Secondary School in Nepean which opened in 1999.

And, of course, the McCrae House, where McCrae was born and raised, became a national historic site in 1966 and a public museum in 1968. It is now part of the Guelph Civic Museum.

Next to the McCrae house stands the John McCrae Memorial Garden. The basic layout of the Garden can be seen in this postcard printed by the Photogelatine Engraving Co., Ltd., Toronto, in Kodachrome in the early 1950s.

The photo looks into the Garden diagonally from the intersection of Water St. and McCrae Boulevard. Notable in this photo are the low stone walls and gateway formed by pillars on either side. Through the iron gate is a path that leads through flower plantings to the John McCrae shrine. A look at the site through Google Street View shows how little the memorial has changed and how much the trees have grown:

The shrine itself is more closely featured in the card below, also printed by the Photogelatine Engraving Co., Ltd., Toronto but from a photo taken in 1946 (cf. "The Torch" 1946, p. 32):

The shrine sits on a raised, dais and features a limestone block with the words "Lest we forget" carved on it. On top of the block is an open, bronze book with the verses of "In Flanders Fields" inscribed. At the back of the dais is a low wall featuring urns at either side. In the center is a memorial surrounded by carved torches and featuring an alcove with an inscription in memory of John McCrae and an illuminated, bronze torch in the center. Around the shrine are beds of flowers in which poppies are usually prominent. (A close-up photo of the monument can be found in the Guelph Public Library archive.)

The Garden and the House are well integrated and visitors move easily from one to the other. It is thus easy to forget that the Memorial Garden was established as a public monument some 20 years before the House. Considering the obvious association between McCrae and his birthplace, how then did the first monument to him in Guelph happen to arrive in the form of a garden next door?

The answer begins with the early history of Brooklyn, the area of Guelph just south of the Speed. By the early 1850s, a large block of the area belonged to Henry William Peterson Jr., a prominent citizen and local politician. The estate and its grand house were known officially as Ulmenwald ("Elmwood") and locally as "Peterson's Grove" (see "Ulmenwald"; Piper 2008). Its address was 122 Water St. and it included the land on which the Memorial Garden now stands as well as much more to the south.

The Peterson family sold the property to Thomas Joseph Bedford in 1924. Bedford was a farmer in Guelph Township who moved to town with his wife and several children. Bedford was born in Guelph Township in 1857 and married Mary Jane Hockett in 1885. The 1901 and 1911 Ontario Census reveals that the Bedford clan was a large one: Thomas Sr. (b. 1857), wife Mary (b. 1859), with children Elenor (b. 1886), Florence (b. 1887), Francis (b. 1890), Thomas Jr. (b. 1892), Mary (b. 1894), Eva (b. 1895), John (b. 1899), Melba (b. 1901), Frederick (b. 1904), Charles (b. 1905) and Lucy (b. 1908)! It also notes that the family was Catholic.

(Thomas Joseph Bedford, Courtesy of the Guelph Daily Mercury, 28 May 1947.)

In 1913, Bedford sold a farm in Guelph Township to the Jesuit Fathers, who began the St. Stanislaus Novitiate there. Bedford was an active man (Mercury, 28 May 1947):

He served at one time as councilor in Puslinch township, and was a firm Conservative in politics. He maintained a keen interest in livestock and for many years was a land valuator for the Guelph Trust Company. In the latter category, he travelled widely throughout the western part of Canada.

According to Vernon's City Directory for Guelph, the family lived in several locations in town before settling at Ulmenwald in 1928. In 1932, they relocated around the corner to 49 Mary St.

It is not clear why the Bedfords moved into town but the family farm may have been insufficient to support the whole clan. In any event, many members found jobs in Guelph. In 1926, Bedford Motor Sales appeared on Quebec St. East (now in the Quebec St. Mall), selling Dodge cars. A photo of Thomas Bedford Jr. (misidentified as "I. J. Bedford") appears along with siblings Fred and John in a photo in the Guelph Civic Museum Archive.

As with Thomas McCloskey's garage, Bedford Motor Sales was hit hard by the Depression. By 1932, Bedford Motor Sales was no more and the brothers worked at other businesses or at casual labor. By 1940, Bedford had retired and the family may have been considering disposing of the Ulmenwald property.

By 1943, the national government was beginning to plan for the end of the Second World War. In particular, it was concerned about providing enough housing to meet the pent-up demand of soldiers who were to return from the conflict. Housing development had become a national and a local priority. So, Bedford was looking to sell the property at 122 Water St. and developers were looking to buy it.

At around the same time, the notion of memorializing John McCrae was raised. In the 1943 edition of The Torch (p. 21), the yearbook of the Col. John McCrae Memorial Branch of the Legion in Guelph, H. G. Hewitt talks about a suggestion made in a column of the Guelph Mercury:

Some months ago, an article appeared in the Guelph Mercury written about the names of the streets in Guelph. In that article, it was suggested that it would be nice if a street was named after John McCrae. The McCrae Legion has acted on that suggestion ...

The article Hewitt seems to have in mind is 3 March 1943, which talks about the development of new streets in Guelph and how they should be named:

If new streets in Guelph are to be opened or old ones renamed, the names chosen should carry on, as long as that street lasts, some worthwhile association. This is the suggestion made to the Guelph Daily Mercury by one of Guelph's citizens. He suggested that the name might be that of an important battle or engagement in which Canadians participated or will participate in the present war.

The article mentions Inkerman and Crimea streets, named after places from the Crimean War, as well as Vimy Ridge Road just outside the city boundaries. (The latter is now Laird Road and was the site of the Vimy Ridge Training Farm after the Great War and, by coincidence, was also the same road where Bedford owned other lots.) The article makes no mention of John McCrae.

Perhaps Bedford had read the same article and considered the matter. In any event, he approached the local Legion with the object of donating some property for a John McCrae memorial (Mercury, 1 Aug. 1946):

Creation of the Colonel John McCrae Memorial Garden ... began when the executive of the Colonel John McCrae Memorial Branch Number 257 of the Canadian Legion, British Empire Service League was advised that Thomas Bedford had donated to the branch a lot near the cottage where Colonel McCrae was born.

The Legion officially took on the project at a meeting in May, 1943 (Mercury, 10 May 1943).

No one seems to have asked Bedford what gave him the idea or why he made the donation, so we can only guess at his reasons. Thomas J. Bedford Jr. had volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1916. There is a recruitment record for "Thomas Joseph Bedford", a resident of Guelph Township, birthday 7 October 1892, on 4 March 1916. No prior military experience is noted. Clearly, the recruiting officer mixed up Bedford Jr.'s name with his father's and mis-recorded Bedford Jr.'s birthday, which was 7 October 1891.

Curiously, there is a conscription record for "Thomas James Bedford", a resident of Guelph Township, birthday 7 October 1891, on 15 October 1917. On it, Thomas is recorded to have served 3 months with the 55th Battery. The 55th Battery was an artillery unit formed in Guelph in the spring of 1916, trained at Camp Petawawa over the summer, and sent overseas in September of that year. Apparently, Bedford Jr. trained with this unit in 1916 but did not depart with them. Perhaps he was needed back home to help run the family farm. Given the farm labour shortages of the time, farm work was considered as a reason for young men to remain home and support the war effort through growing food.

In any event, it appears that the Bedford family supported the war effort. In addition, the family name "Bedford, —" appears on the Honor Roll of the Order of Service for the dedication of the Guelph Cenotaph in 1927. This notation appears to signify that the Bedford family had helped to fund that monument. Whatever the details of his military service, this record suggests that Thomas Bedford also supported the construction of public memorials to Guelph's soldiers.

In any event, in 1943, Bedford donated a parcel of land for the Memorial Garden. The McCrae Branch of the Legion then proceeded with fundraising and planning efforts under the direction of Ivan Glover. The plans quickly outgrew the donated lot. Joseph Wolfond, to whom Bedford had sold the neighbouring property, agreed to donate another lot, enlarging the Garden's size from 140 x 50 feet to 140 x 100, the frontage on Water St. and the new McCrae Boulevard respectively (Mercury, 17 Sep. 1943). The enlargement suggests that the Legion was already thinking about integrating the Garden with the McCrae home next door (Mercury, 17 May 1944), then owned by Elizabeth Mowat Nind.

The work took time, not surprisingly considering that the country was at war. Architect A. C. Burnett Nicol of Toronto was retained to design the shrine itself and the Sharp Brothers Cut Stone Co., of Hamilton to build it. William Parker of Guelph received the contract to build the surrounding wall. The land was cleared, leveled and the wall built by the end of 1944 ("The Torch" 1944). Limestone for the shrine would not arrive from Indiana and Queenston for nearly another two years.

The Guelph Horticultural Society helped with preparation and planting of the grounds. The Legion set out to raise $10,000 to cover the costs. The effort began to attract wider attention. For example, the Toronto Star ran a piece about it (1 Aug 1945), noting that blacksmith Al Smith had made the wrought-iron gates for the entrance and showing a photo of Legion Branch president Charles Vince beside one of the entrance posts.

Finally, the shrine and garden were complete and opened officially on 6 August 1946, described in detail in the Mercury. A parade led by veterans proceeded from St. George's Square to the memorial site, where a ceremony of dedication took place:

Following the opening hymn, "Land of Hope and Glory," J. Creighton Sanders, president of McCrae Branch, gave a short address, explaining development of the shrine and gardens. Scripture reading was followed by dedication prayers, with Major the Rev. E. Brillinger, rector of St. James' Anglican Church, officiating.

Other dignitaries in attendance included Ian Mackenzie, Federal Veterans' Affairs Minister, and Mayor Gordon Rife.

Many postcards of the memorial have been printed since then. My own favourite is the following, imaginatively coloured picture taken in the late 1940s and published by Valentine-Black Co. Ltd., of Toronto.

By framing the shrine and its flanking torches in the background between the two, spiky gate posts, the picture suggests that the posts themselves take the form of torches, though of a less formal sort. It is a kind of "rhyme" that I imagine John McCrae would have appreciated.

The garden and shrine continue to do good service, pleasing the eyes of visitors and dignifying the memory of John McCrae. I imagine that Thomas Bedford was pleased also. He died 27 May 1947 and is buried in Marymount Cemetery.

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PS. Thanks to Kathleen Wall of the Guelph Civic Museum for help searching the Museum's archives.

Guelph Correctional Centre

If asked about long-standing institutions in the Royal City, you might think first of the Ontario Agricultural College. That would be perfectly understandable. However, Guelph is also the site of another historical, Provincial institution, lately known as the Guelph Correctional Centre. For about 90 years, Guelph was the site of a provincial jail. How did it get there?

The answer involves changes in provincial politics and attitudes towards crime ("Joseph P. Downey and prison reform", W. J. Waines, Historic Guelph 16, 1977). In 1902, Joseph Downey was elected the first conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from Wellington South. In 1905, Downey was re-elected and became part of the first Conservative government of the province under James Whitney. Downey, it seems, had a special interest in prison reform and was appointed chair of the Special Committee on Prison Labour in 1907.

The Committee was given a mandate to inquire into the issue of how prison labour might comport with "free" labour in the province. At the time, prisoners were not normally given opportunities to work while incarcerated, while those who did laboured under what we would call sweatshop conditions. Downey had the idea that work under normal conditions would be beneficial for prisoners–who would acquire employable skills–and for society because employable ex-prisoners would be less likely to re-offend.

The Committee members visited prison facilities in the Central Prison in Toronto, and also reform facilities in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. In their report to the Legislature in 1908, the Committee recommended that the Province should set up a reformatory, where first-time prisoners guilty of minor offenses could be rehabilitated through employment. In particular, the Committee singled out agricultural work as most suited to the purpose of reform:

How does employment in the open air, especially farm work, meet these
requirements? It is productive, for nature is generous in her return for
labor expended on the soil. It is remunerative because the produce of the
field can immediately be used not only by the Institution itself but by other
Institutions under Government control, thereby saving materially the cost
of maintaining the Institutions. It is labor which offers the least compe-
tition to free labor.

In addition to its productivity, agricultural work is especially good for the character of people prone to criminality (note the connection with the temperance movement of the era):

Crime, in a large majority of cases is traceable to alcoholism and its consequences.
Work in the open air with well regulated diet is without doubt the best means of curing the drunkard, and this is especially so if the reformatory can detain him until cured. ... Outside labor improves the health of the prisoner, and in improving the physical condition, lays the foundation for moral improvement. The great diversity of occupations which may be carried on in an Agricultural Reformatory permits a constant change of work which is in itself a great help towards a prisoner's reformation. Labor on the farm is educational because of the many different kinds of occupation offered, and the opportunities for intensive agriculture. The interest the prisoner takes in his task when he sees the product of his labor growing and bearing fruit may be in many cases regarded as the measure of his reclamation. The constant surveillance of a prison is largely done away with, and the relative freedom enjoyed reconciles the prisoner to his surroundings, and thus helps on the work of reformation.

Just as the prisoner's efforts bear edible fruit, so does the province's efforts to cultivate law-abiding citizens!

The report won the support of W. J. Hanna, the Provincial Secretary, and the project was a "go"!

Given the emphasis on agriculture in the project and the chairmanship of Mr. Downey, it seemed natural that Guelph was selected as the site of the new "prison farm", as it was then often referred to. In 1908, 800 acres east of Guelph were purchased. In 1910, prisoners were transferred from Central Prison in Toronto to the new site to begin preparing the land and erecting the new facilities. (They were apparently housed in the existing farm structures left over from the previous owners of the lands.)

Architect John McIntosh Lyle was hired, also in 1910, to design the facility. Trained in the Beaux Arts style, Lyle chose a restrained classical form for the main building. However, Secretary Hanna ultimately found Lyle's fees too dear and gave most of the design work to James Govan, an architect in the Secretary's own Department. So, the gatehouse, outbuildings, and layout of the grounds are largely the work of Govan and his collaborators.

In 1915, the work was complete enough that the remaining prisoners at the Central Prison in Toronto were transferred to the new facility. Although the site became a military hospital from 1917 to 1921, it remained in use as a "prison farm" for most of the time until the late 1970s. Indeed, it was well known for its orchards, its cattle herds, and its abattoir. In addition, the prisoners did a great deal of work on the grounds, quarrying stone at a nearby site and using the stone to landscape the grounds into the early 1930s.

Eventually, however, the province could no longer see the relevance of the agricultural rehabilitation offered by the Correctional Centre. Farming skills were no longer so much in demand, or were increasingly provided by machinery or migrant labour. Finally, the facility was closed in 2001 and the Province began to seek new uses for the property.

This process continues today. The Province and the City of Guelph are soliciting ideas for the development of what they call the "Guelph Innovation District". Plans would include some mixture of residential and commercial development, along with a college campus, perhaps.

A group called the Yorklands Green Hub advocates the establishment of

a demonstration and educational centre in Guelph where residents, business persons, schools, community groups of all ages and cultures can see, learn and practice appropriate technologies for water, energy and resource conservation, urban farming and people powered transportation.

All parties also wish to protect the historic structures on the site, as well as the significant features on the grounds. Not doubt, this will be quite a challenge!

In the 1930s, the Reformatory attracted attention from postcard makers. Both the Photogelatine Engraving Company (PECO) of Ottawa and Valentine-Black (VB) of Toronto produced a series of cards displaying its main building and grounds. Let's start with the main building itself. Here is a view of the front elevation taken from the west near the York Rd. entrance.

It was made by PECO and has a caption that says, "Ontario Reformatory, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. - 32". The picture provides a good view of the the layout of the building, with its classical orderliness and sprawling wings. Also, it displays the emphasis placed on the bucolic setting of the structure. It was set into large, open grounds that were meant to provide a feeling of verdure and openness, in contrast with the massive and confined design of typical prisons.

Here is another frontal view of the main building, this time by VB. The caption here says, "Administration Building, Jail Farm, Guelph, Ont., Canada."

This card gives a better view of the details of the building. However, the facade is colourized to resemble white limestone instead of its actual buff stone, making it look a little "off" (or perhaps too classical). Clearly, the colourizer had not seen the building or a colour reproduction of it.

VB also includes a photo of the grounds that includes a picture of the gatehouse by the entranceway to the main building. Here it is, with the caption, "Scene by the Highway, near Guelph, Ontario, Canada".

The scene shows one of the ponds constructed by the prisoners, with the bridge and gatehouse as incidental accoutrements in the background. The caption does not even mention the "Jail farm" but only the nearby Highway 7 (York Rd.), which was outside the city limits at the time. This postcard was actually mailed in 1937, confirming that the photos in this series were taken before that time (likely around 1935).

The water features on the grounds appear in many more postcards. Here is a good example from PECO. The caption reads "A corner of the lake, Ontario Reformatory, Guelph, Ontario. - 28."

Interest in the Reformatory seemed not to survive World War Two, at least among postcard makers. However, PECO (now in Toronto) did produce a Kodachrome card of the same old pond in the 1950s. The caption on the back read, "Ontario Reformatory, Guelph, Ontario, Canada - 9."

In this picture, the greenery hides the bridge and gatehouse behind, throwing all the emphasis on the pond and stream in the foreground.

Not unusually, the postcards display an interest in the buildings and grounds of the jail farm, but no interest in the prisoners or even their orchards, fields, or herds.

Of course, it is difficult to match these pictures exactly since the grounds have changed somewhat. Also, Google Street View provides shots only from the roadway. (You can take a recent photo tour of the buildings here.) Having said that, this image is close to the one above. If not a perfect match, it is the kind of scene that postcard markers of the era would have appreciated as a "beauty spot".


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The City of Guelph continues to grow and now the old prison farm will be incorporated into its fabric. How that will happen remains to be seen. I suppose it would be fitting if the site could become a centre for urban farming, reforming urbanites with agriculture has it did convicts many years ago.

Update (23 April 2014): This posting is mentioned in a Mercury article by Andrew Vowles on Guelph's visioning process downtown.