Windsor’s Scottish Heritage – People – Scots of Windsor’s Past: Bartlet, MacDonald & Gow
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People > Scots of Windsor’s Past > Bartlet, MacDonald & Gow
People: Scots of Windsor’s Past
Bartlet, MacDonald & Gow:
“[Bartlet, MacDonald & Gow] offers character … that feeling comparable to a handshake of an old friend, whose word is sound and whose sincerity has been proved.”
~ Border Cities Star [21 April 1927]
“Scotch in its inception, Scotch in its tradition but developed in line with the talent and personality of its younger Canadian
associates, the business is representative of much that is soundest and best in our native character.” More than just a department
store, Bartlet, MacDonald & Gow was an integral part of downtown Windsor’s cityscape, serving local residents for more than a
century before its demolition. The partners of the firm were pioneers of the retail business in Windsor, ensuring that the store –
which had become a hallmark of the downtown experience by the 1910s – grew and expanded with the city.
The operation began in 1860, when Donald Cameron, a native of Scotland, opened a general store on
the southeast corner of Ferry and Sandwich (Riverside Drive) Streets next door to Windsor Castle Hotel. Customers were welcomed into
the 600-square-foot establishment with a simple sign that read, “D. Cameron, Dry-goods.” Less than two years later, Cameron entered into
a partnership with another Scottish immigrant, John Thorburn. The new firm of Cameron & Thorburn commanded a total stock of $14,001,
with Cameron’s shares amounting to $7,934, and Thorburn holding $6,067 in cash. Sales averaged around $100 a day; on especially busy and
rare occasions, they exceeded $200. They spent $20 a month on rent, and an additional $20 on advertising their wares, which included
things like molasses, eggs, flour, coffee, and cloth.
Donald Cameron�s store
Windsor Castle
Customers could take advantage of low produce prices, but manufactured articles were priced correspondingly high. While staples such
as eggs sold for 8 cents per dozen and coffee could be purchased for 20 cents per pound, cotton ticking commanded a remarkable price of
$1.25 per yard. And unbleached cotton, which sold for 12 cents per yard in the 1930s, cost over four times as much in 1862 at 50 cents
per yard. Given the high prices of merchandise obtained from factories, Cameron & Thorburn often bartered with the local farmers for their
wares, accepting produce such as oats, shorts, and eggs for payment. Ashes were another negotiable farm product, which could be converted
into potash.
The partnership of Cameron & Thorburn thrived until 1871, when the store burned down in the great October, 1871 fire that consumed
much of Windsor’s business district. The partners temporarily conducted business in the auditorium of the old town hall while a new store
was built atop the rubble of the old. However, Cameron reopened in 1872 alone, Thorburn having withdrawn to make a foray into the grocery
business with James Gibson.
Cameron carried on as sole owner until 1877, the year of great economic panic on the North American continent. While other companies
were collapsing, Cameron was expanding, and took George Bartlet, an Amherstburgh native and a senior
staffer who had been a bookkeeper with the firm for fifteen years, into partnership. The firm, which now operated under the name
Cameron & Bartlet, continued to enjoy success for another decade before Cameron decided to retire and return to his native home
following a serious illness. He transferred his interests to Colin MacDonald, who had been with
the firm since 1873, and retired to Scotland.
Cameron & Thornburn
Bartlet & MacDonald
George Bartlet became the firm’s president following Cameron’s retirement. Alexander Gow, a native of
Guelph, Ontario, was taken into partnership in 1903 and became vice-president of the firm after George Bartlet passed away in 1912. While
the store enjoyed continued growth under Bartlet’s tutelage, it wasn’t until Colin MacDonald took over in 1912 upon Bartlet’s death that
Bartlet, MacDonald & Gow became the titan of Windsor retailers.
“Each one of these [partners] grew up in the store, soaked in its policy, absorbed its atmosphere, made it a part of himself as he made himself a part of it.”
~ Border Cities Star [21 April 1927]
Bartlet, MacDonald & Gow
In 1872, the firm occupied the ground floor of the building situated next to the Windsor Castle Hotel on Sandwich Street (Riverside
Drive), while the Masonic Temple and private offices used the upper two floors. As the business expanded, the upper floors were taken
over, and in 1912 the old Bank Hotel at 23 Sandwich Street East was incorporated into the premises. Four years later, Colin MacDonald
invested in a massive expansion, adding another three-storey wing on Ouellette Avenue. The store now boasted two entrances, one on each
of the two principal streets in the city of Windsor. On the top floor, patrons could enjoy a break in the lounge while eyeing the
displays of draperies, rugs, and carpets. Ladies’ and children’s clothing filled the second floor, and the ground floor boasted an
assortment of specialized departments, including haberdashery, hosiery, and more.
Alexander Gow became company president in 1922 when Colin MacDonald passed away. George Fortune MacDonald took over his father’s
interests and served as secretary-treasurer until Gow himself died in 1928. George was then promoted to president, and James S. Gow,
Alexander’s son, assumed the position of vice-president and general manager.
Under the tutelage of an executive that was one hundred percent Canadian, Bartlet, MacDonald & Gow made important changes. While the
majority of its products had come from Great Britain or other parts of Europe in the 1910s, for example, the firm began to carry an
increasing amount of Canadian-made goods on its shelves during and after the First World War. And while other similar firms were expanding
into department stores in the late 1920s, carrying a little bit of everything from kitchen aides to children’s shoes, Bartlet, MacDonald
& Gow chose to differentiate itself after a 1929 remodeling by specializing in a single type of merchandise: dry-goods. Every article
in the store was fabric “of some description, made up into a thousand different forms, but fabric still,” the one exception being a small
case of perfumes and toiletries just inside the main entrance. 2
Ladies� Specialty Department
Mens� Specialty Department
Prior to the remodeling and refitting, interior designers and dry-goods experts surveyed and studied the entire store for its
conversion to the exclusive service of dry-goods. Display requirements were different from those of an ordinary department store simply
because all departments of a specialized dry-goods store handled fabrics. The result was an arrangement that was rather unique among
similar stores at the time.
Bartlet, MacDonald & Gow, with its elevators, automatic fire protection, electric clocks, and 4,100 square feet of floor space,
earned the distinction of becoming the largest dry-goods store in the Dominion. Secondly, “the fact that all departments handle fabric
in some form or another, thus avoiding sharp clashes between any different types of display, has been utilized to create a store layout
that is remarkable alike for its simplicity, beauty, and convenience.” 3 An open floor plan and deliberate
arrangement of displays allowed visitors (who often commented on the store’s peculiar sense of “hominess”) to survey the stock of the
entire floor from the elevator doors.
The stock on the ground floor included gloves, hosiery, fine fabrics for dress construction, and everything in menswear from
handkerchiefs to tailored suits. On the second floor, customers shopped for ladies’ and children’s clothing, lingerie, and frequented the
millinery department. Carpets, oriental rugs, linoleums, and window treatments filled the third level.
When James Gow was called for service in the Second World War, his wife, Marion, took over his role in the company’s administration.
When he returned, she acted as assistant treasurer, and became Bartlet, MacDonald & Gow’s first female president upon the death of
George F. MacDonald in 1959. Following in the pattern established by her predecessors, she oversaw an expansion of the store’sinventory
just one year into office. In the fall of 1960 (the 100th anniversary of the store), Bartlet’s added two
additional departments to its repertoire, one for teen boys and another for teen girls.
J.S. Gow
Marion Gow
“There is no standing still in the business of modern merchandising,” Mrs. Gow (n�e Bartlet) explained to the
Windsor Star. “Our store always has aimed at the highest quality of service as well as the most dependable
quality of merchandise. We cannot mark time. We must always be thinking of expansion and improvement. While we respect and cherish the
achievements of the past, they are part of that past and the presentday leaders of the firm must always be looking
ahead.” 4
Under Marion Gow’s leadership, Bartlet, MacDonald & Gow staffed one hundred fifty employees, a far cry from the pioneer store, which
counted just two men – Donald Cameron and John Thorburn – on its payroll. Unfortunately, she also witnessed the store’s demise. In
November 1971, she announced to the staff that the store would close at the end of March in order to make way for a fourteen-storey
office building and retail high-rise, thus bringing the store’s one hundred twelve-year-old history to a close.
Losing a Landmark
BM&G Bids Farewell
“Bartlet’s name may disappear from the mercantile scene, but the name and the fame will go on living in memory,” mused
Windsor Star journalist Angus Munro. 5 It
took the demolition crew two months to level the department store, so solidly had it been built. But by the beginning of August 1972 “there
was nothing at all to remind anybody of a century of service,” Bruce Blackadar lamented. “Just bricks and boards and twisted
steel.” 6
“Windsor Business Founded in 1862,” Border Cities Star, 21 April 1927. Windsor Public Library Historical Scrapbook: Retail Merchants, Vol. 17, p. 20
“Fine Dry Goods to be Merchandised,” Border Cities Star, 18 April 1929
“Fine Dry Goods,” Star, 18 April 1929
“Store Celebrating 100th Anniversary,” Windsor Star, 18 April 1960
Munro, Angus, “The Way Things Were,” Windsor Star, 27 November 1971
Blackadar, Bruce, “The end!” Windsor Star, 3 August 1972
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