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THEN AND NOW: The original home of Eplett’s Electric

139 Dunlop St. East has been home to a few businesses over the years, including Eplett's Electric
Deb Exel

Fred Eplett was born in Victoria Harbour in 1904, to County Commissioner J.A. Eplett and his wife Nellie. When Fred, a railway clerk, was 27, he married Dorothy Ball (known as Orphie), a drug clerk, from Orillia.

In 1933, the young couple moved to Copper Cliff, where Fred worked with the International Nickle Company for 10 years. It was during Fred’s time with INCO, that King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the company’s nickel operations in Sudbury - the first members of the British Royal family to do so. In fact, the Queen was the first woman to go underground, in the Frood Mine. Also, from 1939 to 1945, 1.5 billion pounds of nickel, 1.75 billion pounds of copper and more than 1.8 million ounces of platinum metals were delivered to the allied countries during World War II, from the INCO mines.

In 1945, the Eplett’s moved to Barrie. Within two years, Fred had opened Eplett’s Electric at 139 Dunlop Street East.

Fred’s store was in the Boys Block. Henry R.A. Boys, owner of Midhurst mills, one-time Simcoe County treasurer and a backer of the newspaper Spirit of the Age, which was founded to promote Conservative and Orange Order teachings, owned a row of commercial properties on this block until a fire on Jan. 30, 1873, forced him to sell due to losses. The new co-operative of owners constructed a block of nine stores that were built to a mostly identical plan. This historic location was the setting for Eplett’s television and appliance business.

A 1953 Eplett advertisement invited folks to trade in their old refrigerators for new ones – no cash down payment required. A 9.5 cubic foot General Electric refrigerator, regularly $459, with a minimum $100 trade-in, could be had for only $359 or $5.62 weekly.

Business must have been good, for within a few years, Fred’s store had moved to 147 Dunlop Street East, where he remained until he retired from his appliance business in 1962. Fred changed gears and went into real estate with Rogers and Connell. When Mr. Eplett passed away at only 66 years old, Frederick Dalton Eplett was buried in his home town in the Victoria Harbour Union Cemetery.

Other businesses that followed in Eplett’s first store at 139 Dunlop St. East included Ernie’s Bargain Centre in the 1960s, in the 70’s, The Gallery  was the place to get your posters, fast-forward to the early ‘80s when Rainbow Wood Stoves operated from this address until CC Pant Shop moved in during the early '90s, followed by Cheryl’s Bridal Boutique (1999). Today, the John Linkert Salon’s elegant entrance and exterior present a gracious heritage store front at 139 Dunlop Street East.

When Eplett moved his business to number 147, the corner unit of the Boys Block, besides his wonderful neon sign out front, there was a large painted sign on the Mulcaster Street side of the building. I often wonder if the old Eplett signage (and all that marvelous brickwork), is still under the siding somewhere.