Craig’s Tannery

Don Smith—Looking Back
Craig’s Tannery

Robert Craig, Sr. (1813-1896) operated a buy/sell hides shop and tannery in proximity to his home on the west side of Pitt Street between Sixth and Seventh Streets. The address was 382 Pitt under the old numbering system and 612 under the current system. The building is believed to have been erected in 1845 when Craig purchased the south half of that block. He acquired the remainder of the block in 1864. Craig also owned a series of Pitt Street brick rental houses in that block as well as in the next block north. Those were in addition to other Cornwall properties on Augustus and Sydney streets. Craig took over a prosperous Glen Walter farm that was owned by his father, James (1789-1858). A son, Robert Craig, Jr. (1839-1919) like his father was a tanner who earned his income there. Another son, Hector (1849-1919), likewise worked in the shop and eventually took over the business. Duncan (1856-1878), a son by his second wife, worked in Craig’s tannery until apparently taking his own life in the shop in 1878.

In 1889, Dennis Mahoney constructed a building behind the tannery in order to operate a machine shop and foundry. The following year, Mahoney signed a lease with Hector and Janet Craig, which stated that during the term of the lease, Mahoney was free to remove any building that he would erect there. Should any structure become unfit for use, such as by major fire, the lease would terminate. Mahoney’s shop was constructed across a portion of the property that had until then been used as a public lane between Pitt Street and Ridley Avenue. Today, the commercial property at 604 Pitt Street still retains that narrow strip of land connecting with Ridley.

 

This photo from the Museum’s Daly Collection, appears to show some of the buildings that once occupied the Craig Pitt Street site. The collection contains 108 local photographs dating between 1893 and 1901. Cornwall Community Museum photo

 

The property partially succumbed to a serious fire in September of 1908 by a blaze that gutted the tannery and destroyed the upper storey of the adjoining brick tenement house. The Freeholder reported that: “The fire started about 2 p.m., a spark from Mahony’s [Mahoney] blast furnace catching in the roof of the old stone tannery.” A small municipal water line and temporary low pressure may have impeded the firefighters’ efforts. Mahoney relocated his business to 422 Sixth Street East; the Cornwall Brass & Iron foundry succeeded him there. In the Cornwall Community Museum’s historic trades exhibit is a farm plow made by Mahoney. Robert Jr. and Hector died in 1919, merely three months apart. In the 1930s we find the Albert Denesha foundry operating in very close proximity at 608 ½ Pitt Street. Until her death in 1936, Hector’s widow, Janet, continued to reside nearby at 620 Pitt Street.

In 1955, the former tannery building was demolished to make way for a used car lot at 612 Pitt. Many changes have since taken place in the 600 block.

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