The building which once stood at the south east corner of Hamilton Street and Cedar Street was a landmark in Waterdown and a familiar sight to everyone who grew up in the area.
Early in 1954, Branch 551 of the Canadian Legion was formed with a membership of 17. Meeting at first in members' homes and at Bert Clute's barbershop, the membership continued to grow and a new home was needed.
In December 1955 Harold Place, Horace Kendrick and Roy Klodt, as Trustees of Waterdown Branch of the Canadian Legion Branch 551, signed an agreement to
purchase the lot on Hamilton Street and mortgages were obtained.
There is no known record documenting why the Quonset hut style was chosen for the building, nor who the builder was. However, on April 11, 1956, a Public Notice appeared in the Waterdown Review from Arch & Truss, a Waterdown company which built this type of building, stating, "We desire it to be known that the building structure that collapsed on Hamilton Street last week is not an Arch & Truss Structure and we have positively no connection or association with this project."
At the Waterdown Council meeting the following week, council passed a motion to have all work stopped on the building until a certified building plan, signed by a qualified, registered engineer, was filed with the Village Clerk. It does not seem to have affected the project very much. Work progressed, furniture was purchased and the new Legion building opened in September 1956, with a membership of 92 and a newly formed Ladies Auxiliary.
The building contained a large auditorium, a ladies' lounge and the main kitchen downstairs, with a lunch room, television room, small kitchen, washrooms and a meeting room for the ladies auxiliary upstairs. In keeping with the social norms of the time, women were not allowed in the main room with the exception of
Friday evenings, when they had to be escorted by a gentleman.
The membership continued to expand and the branch, now known as the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 551, after approval to use the word "Royal" was given by Queen Elizabeth in 1960, looked for other premises, purchasing a lot across the street and starting construction on the current building at 79 Hamilton Street North in August 1975 and opening in September 1976.
The Quonset hut was sold to Dave and Nancy Mortimer. They had been running a business providing meat, freezer orders and Scottish specialties such as Ayrshire bacon, haggis and black pudding, from the back of the old Sunnyside Dairy building on Mill Street South, since September 1969. After a two-year battle with Flamborough Council and neighbours on Cedar Street, approval was finally given to renovate, and the retail butcher and bakery business opened in October 1978.
Mortimer’s Meats and Bakery was, judging from various comments, the best place to buy meat and baked goods and many people remember it fondly. In 1983 Mortimer’s sold the business to a group of investors who grew the business even more and relocated the manufacturing end to a state-of-the-art building in Burlington.
Dave Mortimer died in 1996 and the company closed the Waterdown store in January 1997. They hoped to reopen in a smaller facility within the planned 12,000 square foot strip plaza but they could not find an anchor store and the property was put up for sale. It was sold to Roam Developments and in January 1998 the iconic building was demolished. Mortimer’s Fine Foods changed hands again in 2003, and Mortimer’s Products were established in grocery stores nationwide, still available if you look carefully!
The new single-storey building which was eventually constructed on the site was occupied by Amity Goodwill, which opened in August 2000. Part of the building was available to rent and Cedars Business Centre was established there.
In 2010, Goodwill closed their store and Cedars Business Centre moved to the former Feilde House at the corner of John Street West and Hamilton Street (now demolished). The Goodwill building was purchased by Goodness Me! and this site, their fourth location, opened on January 13, 2011.
For almost 70 years, this location has housed entities that reflected the needs of society at the time, all of them based on the well-being of the individual, be it through food, volunteering, social gatherings or giving back to the community. Quite the legacy.
