Remaking history

When Sir John Craig Eaton died at 46 in 1922, none of his sons was ready to take over Eaton’s, the company his father, Timothy, had founded in 1869. Cousin R. Y. Eaton stepped in until the designated son, John David Eaton, was old enough.
I wrote a book, The Eatons, in 1998 so I thought about all this history and more when I read in my morning paper today about fresh plans for the former Eaton’s College Street, first opened in 1930. Lady Eaton, wife of Sir John, and their second son, John David, officiated at those ceremonies.
Behind the scenes Eaton’s had cut back plans drastically because they could see the Great Depression coming. What had been meant to be 5 million square feet shrank to 600,000. Thirty-six stories became seven. Some of their thinking, however, lacked foresight. While a tower was projected, there was no provision for elevators or staircases.
In those days the family looked down at many in society. Non-British, non-Protestant, non-Canadian employees were sent to work in an Eaton’s factory rather than serve customers on the sales floor.
Eaton’s was also out of touch with pocketbooks and built a two-storey, four-bedroom home inside the College Street store at a cost of $30,000 when the average annual wage was well under $1,000.
The Dirty Thirties sank any expectation for brisk sales at College Street or the family’s other stores across Canada. World trade was devastated. Unemployment in Canada rose to 30 percent. In the decades that followed, Eaton’s tried to sail along but below decks the dry rot had begun that would eventually lead to bankruptcy in 1997.
Maybe one of the causes for the sad ending was that profit had become a dirty word along the way. Even in the 1950s the manager of one of the large Eaton’s store was reprimanded for making too much money and told to stop at once.
Eaton’s sold the College Street store in 1977 to a consortium that in 1979 reopened the building containing provincial court services, as well as retail, office and residential space. Last time I visited to buy some drapes the place just seemed to be a hodgepodge.
All of this bad-luck history ran through my head when I read about today’s brave redevelopment plans consisting of three towers, boldly rising 65-, 75-, and 96-storeys amid the current College Street. I wish the new crowd better luck than Eaton’s had on the same site, lo those many years ago.