Name/Title
J. W. VanDyke CollectionScope and Content
HIGHLIGHTS FROM ONE OF OUR SPECIAL COLLECTIONS - The J. W. VanDyke Collection
How We Acquired the Collection
In Spring 2022, during renovations to Teddy's Food, Fun, and Spirits at 30 Main Street West, workers discovered stacks of old papers on the top floor of the building. Realizing this material could have historical value, the renovator contacted the Grimsby Historical Society. Although there was no order to the material and the paper was fragile, stained, and covered in fine black particular matter, the Archives accepted everything recognizing it's importance to the history of not only of the hotel but of John VanDyke's other business interests during the late 1800s and early 1900s. After considerable sorting, dusting, and weeding, the collection was found to include business letters, receipts, account statements, invoices for beer and liquour, banking records, employee time books, and ledger books.
John Wesley VanDyke
J. W. VanDyke was a prominent Grimsby citizen from the 1880s until his death in 1913. He was born in Grimsby in 1857, one of six sons of Ann and John VanDyke. The men in the VanDyke family made a name for themselves as carriage makers and blacksmiths. John, or Jack as he was called, was ambitious and inventive and struck out on his own, engaging in a number of enterprises that contributed to the growing Village of Grimsby.
VanDyke's Businesses
Evaporator Plant
In the early 1890s, Jack moved an old military shed on Adelaide Street to the corner of Elizabeth and Victoria Street and started up a fruit and vegetable evaporation factory there. After a fire destroyed the wooden shed in 1897, VanDyke built new cement block building at 18 Victoria Avenue and continued his evaporation business there. Dehydrated whole apples and pears were put into barrels and shipped to destinations in Canada and the United States. Due to the waning market for dried fruits, the business no longer became viable and plant closed in 1907. Even when operational, the main level of the evaporation building was used as a skating rink, and later a roller rink was added on the upper floor.
Grimsby Electric Plant
After buying a small street lighting system in 1895 from William Lewis, a mill operator near Patton Street, VanDyke made arrangements with Grimsby Village to supply the town with an expanded lighting system that eventually provided lighting for the whole village. He set up a power house just west of his evaporator plant on Victoria Avenue and received power from the lines of the Cataract Power Company in Hamilton. VanDyke’s plant serviced the village with lighting until his death in 1913. The electric plant was sold to Dominion Power which operated until 1942 when the Grimsby Hydro Electric Commission took over.
Farms
Jack VanDyke owned two large farms, one a 74 acre farm on Main Street West, just east of the present Casablanca Blvd., and another 76 acre farm on the east side of Kerman Avenue between the present QEW and the lake. While engaged in his other business interests, VanDyke left the management of his farms to others including William “Skip” Wilson, and Jim Wentworth. Skip Wilson was killed tragically in a train accident in 1901, and Jim Wentworth was later a police officer and truant officer. The fruit from the farms likely was used in VanDyke’s evaporator plant.
Hotel Grimsby
In the late 1880s, VanDyke and Charles Mabey became joint owners of the Lincoln Hotel. The partnership lasted about a decade before VanDyke took sole ownership. By all accounts, VanDyke was a friendly and genial host who ran a clean, well-managed hotel. His boarders and guests enjoyed good food, fine liquour, cigars and beer. In 1896, the rates were $1 to $1.50 per room. He had a livery and a large lawn bowling green behind the hotel. After renovations in 1910, the hotel was renamed Hotel Grimsby. VanDyke suffered poor health for a time, and died at the age of 56. Many years later, under different owners and name changes, the former hotel became Teddy’s Sports Bar in 2022.
