Located on the northeast side of Mill Street North, the former Nicholson and Stetler Jam Factory is among several fine stone buildings that remain in the core area of Waterdown.
To-day, several small stores, specialising in crafts and clothing are located in the building, so returning it to its original commercial use.
It is believed that the structure was originally built for Charles Sealey c.1865, in an attempt to influence his son, James Clarkson Sealey, from going to the west, as many local young men did during the 1860s and 1870s. Here J. C. Sealey could operate his own store in the Waterdown area. The store section was located in the northwest corner of the premises, with handsome and spacious living quarters for the family throughout the rest of the building.
The stone walls, three feet thick at ground level, and one foot thick at the roof-line, suggest construction at a time when there were many superior stone masons at work in the village. In the upstairs rooms at one time there were fine plaster ceilings, decorated with central medallions, and elegant staircase down to the farthest south front door, and a large open room that stretched almost the length of the building. Until recently, the attractive store windows on either side of the front door were still in place.
In 1884, J. C. Sealey and his wife sold 82 ½ perches of property and these premises to a Waterdown Carpenter and Joiner, William Slater for $95.00.1 Over the next three decades the building was sold or leased to a number of local people, including Henry Anderson, Richard Attridge, James Fowler and Andrew Struthers. Various commercial operations, as well as living quarters, and for a time, a dance hall in the upstairs, were to be found in the building. According to the authors of the Waterdown-East Flamborough Centennial Book, “The building was at one time a feed mill, apparently run by gas engines, and at another time a wooden toy factory owned by Guenthers where kiddy cars and such things were made.”2
Financial problems were experienced by Andrew Struthers3 in 1918, and for over two years there was legal wrangling over the ownership of the property and premises. On 5 April 1920, a Public Auction at the American Hotel, Waterdown was held in an attempt to settle the problem of ownership. Posters described the premises as “a substantial two storey stone dwelling house and factory with outbuildings”. In spite of the auction no buyers were forthcoming and the wrangling continued for another 18 months.
In March 1923, the property and premises were sold to George Nicholson, who in partnership with Harlan Stetler established a food processing business. Beginning with the drying of apples, the factory was converted to large scale jam production after six years.
The factory supplied local bakeries, such as Weil’s and Jacksons of Hamilton, and bakeries and restaurant supplies in Niagara Falls, Burlington, London, Milton and Toronto. Apples were processed all year round. Most of the apple crop was supplied by local growers from the Waterdown and East Flamborough area such as The Wentworth Orchards. The fruit was kept in cold storage in Waterdown, the Niagara Peninsula, and as far away as Collingwood. Used mainly for applesauce and frozen sliced apples for pie filling, apples ensured steady year round work. During the year rhubarb, strawberries, cherries, red currants, raspberries, blueberries, apricots, peaches, plums, and grapes for jams, jellies, pie fillings and frozen fruits were all produced by Nicholson and Stetler for their large market.
Among the interesting additions made to the building once it became an established commercial operation, was a large elevator that came from the Brant House in 1930. As the Hotel Brant, it had been built in 1902 at the Burlington end of the Bay. The building was converted to a Veterans Hospital in 1917 and called “The Brant House”. The veterans were moved from there in 1923, and the building torn down. The Carson family transported the Elevator to the Nicholson and Stetler Factory, and people from the Otis Elevator Company installed it, with the glass panels being removed and replaced with a cast bronze and wooden door.
During the 1980s, the market for Nicholson and Stetler products shrunk so dramatically that the company closed, and the building was again sold after over fifty years of food and jam production in the Village of Waterdown.
In 1989, a collection of over forty documents relating to the property and premises known as Nicholson and Stetler Jam Factory were donated to the Archives of The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society by the Waterdown Branch of the Royal Bank.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1990, 2021.
