This ongoing series from Barrie Historical Archive curator Deb Exel shows old photos from the collection and one from the present day, as well as the story behind them.
R. Neill Ltd. – 35 Dunlop St. E.
The shoe men.
Robert Neill, born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1827 to John McClure Neill and his wife, Mary Margaret Southwell, immigrated to New York City in 1850.
In 1853, Neill and his wife, Margaret McKee, of Ulster, Ireland, had their first child, while living in Oswego, N.Y. Their second child would be born in Ohio, and seven more children would be born in Barrie, when the family relocated there about 1854.
Neill, a shoe and boot maker, opened his first shop at 120 Dunlop St. E. One of the earliest shoe stores in Barrie, records indicate Neill started his business in 1865. In the early 1880s, advertisements claimed “the Great Three in One: Neill Bros., R. Neill and Sons and Turner and Co.’ stocks all under one roof and under the style of Neill Bros.”
Prospective customers were advised to just look for the big red boot sign and you would find more stock than any house north of Toronto.
It was son Robert, who established R. Neill Limited, opening his first store in Peterborough, in 1895. The following year the chain grew as stores were added in Lindsay, Guelph and Brockville. Prior to the First World War, stores would open in Galt, Woodstock and London.
By then, the Barrie store had moved one door east of the CIBC on Dunlop Street, where the Walker’s store once was, for those that remember, but was later closed.
In 1918, R. Neill Ltd.’s would establish a main branch store and warehouse in Peterborough.
Even with the death of Robert Neill in 1920, the company continued to grow. New president R.J. Kidd opened more stores in Cornwall, Ingersoll and Midland over the next 15 years. Upon Kidd’s retirement, his successor, Clare G. Collins expanded the chain further with shops in Hamilton, St. Catharines, Belleville, Owen Sound, Kirkland Lake, South Porcupine and a second store in Cornwall.
R. Neill Ltd. would return to Barrie during this time of expansion, purchasing an existing shoe company from the Hurlburt estate in 1942.
R. Neill’s new Barrie location, at 35 Dunlop St. E., would get a dramatic makeover, both inside and out, in 1948.
The main entrance featured two display windows for shoes with a store front of black and forest green Vitrolite, a structural glass product, with a chrome sash and chrome sign lettering. The windows were fitted with Hobbs plate glass, known as the ‘maximum light glass’ a combination of prisms and lenses said to increase the light from five to 20 times. The window backgrounds were a tinted Weldtex, a new plywood product with a striated or ‘combed’ look. There was now a separate entrance to the Dermac Beauty Salon.
Inside, were natural oak floors and a colour scheme of rose, Delph blue and pale green. Three full-length mirrors divided the shelving on the west wall, with shadow boxes for displays placed at intervals in the walls, tinted in the colour plan.
The store was lit with both florescent and incandescent fixtures and a new heating system made the building comfortable. A new recess in the children’s department had dark red fabric seats, adjustable steps and a large hobby horse.
In 1950, R. Neill Ltd. introduced a new line, and service, to their business: safety shoes.
Up until that time, safety shoes were considered unattractive and ill-fitting … many men would not wear them. Neill launched a line of safety shoe products that came in a large range of sizes, including half sizes, three different widths, and they were attractive as well.
The new division operated 12 mobile units (trucks) across Ontario and Quebec, bringing quality safety shoes right to their customers.
R. Neill Ltd. was the first in Canada to offer ‘Winguard Steel Toes’ 40 per cent stronger than other brands, ‘Sok-Saver’ linings in safety shoes and ‘Pacifate’ fungi-proof liners. Three significant ‘firsts’ for consumers of industrial footwear.
The elegant and imaginative florist, Joshua’s Greenery, now occupies the former R. Neill shoe store.
