24A THE OSHAWA TIMES, Tuesday, February 28, 1967 THE NEW GEORGIAN MOTOR HOTEL IS A FAVORITE MECCA FOR MANY IN CITY AND DISTRICT -+-It Is Located At Thornton And Champlain In City's Southwest Area ' Old Hotel Recalled Earliest records show that in 1828 the Crown made land grants of some 200 acres in the area of Skea's Corners. Some- |where around 1855 Richard Woon obtained some of this land jand on it he built the Commer- 'cial Hotel. _ This was a small hotel. Later jit passed on to John Cornelius |Woon and in 1898 it was willed jat_ his death to his nephew, |John Beverley Cummins. | John Cummins did not re- \tain the property very long and it passed into the hands of Mr, Van Buren Woodruff who in turn leased it in 1900 to John Smith. Shortly after the turn of the century the Cooper fam- ily in Oshawa came into pos- session of the hotel and op- erated it until 1923. From 1923 to 1936 it was own- ed and operated by the Mc- Taggart family, Mr. and Mrs. woe STARTED HERE 1 956 Natural Gas Into Two Separate Units Use Grows The story of the growth of Oshawa is reflected in the ex- pansion of the use of natural gas in the area -- in the home, in the store, in institutions and in industry. And, in 1966, The Consumers' Gas Company marked a decade of natural gas service in Osh: awa. The new fuel was intro- duced to the city in 1956. IN NEW HOMES As it is throughout Con. sumers' service areas, natural gas in Oshawa is being in- stalled in 85 per cent of new homes, in more and more apart- ment buildings, restaurants, schools, churches and other in- stitutions and is being adapted to ever-increasing number of industrial uses, This year Consumers' Gas entered its 119th year of un- interrupted manufactured then natural gas service, first to customers in Toronto and _ to- day to 167 communities through- out southern and central On- tario, the Niagara Peninsula, Ottawa Valley, in Quebec Pro- vince and Northern New York State. Last year the Company's years since Consumers' first brought the new fuel to its service area, have been reduced voluntarily 19 times. Since 1956, in Oshawa, the total of natural gas customers has _ increased jfrom 1,542 to 9,313 and the use jof natural gas has risen from 69,390,000 to 2,814,569,000 cubic feet per year. In the same year Oshawa appliance dealers, plumbing and heating contractors have equipment. The increasing acceptance of natural gas for home heating, water heating, cooking, clothes drying, swimming pool heating, patio and other outdoor light-! ing and for commercial and industrial uses has made a major contribution to the over- all economy of Oshawa. Con- sumers' Gas Company _pur- chases from. 24 local industries in 1966 amounted to more than| $70,000.00 and helped materially | to provide steady employment| in those industries. | 654 VEHICLES customer total reach 344,000 in all categories. Natural gas rates, in the 12 Across Consumers' operations in Ontario, the Company oper. ates 654 vehicles, 49 per cent 'New Truck Plant Divided The week of September 13, ;bled and painted in GM's West' 1965 saw the very first 1966} Plant, located in downtown GMC and Chevrolet trucks roll-| Oshawa. They are trucked down ing off the final assembly lines|to the new plant in vans for in GM's new 860,000 square-foot final assembly. Current expan- truck plant in South Oshawa.|sion of facilities at the truck |The plant was completed just } plant will mean the eventual jin time for 1966 production, and|transfer of all assembly opera- ada started operations at Whit- by September 25, 1882. It then decided that Oshawa should be its next point for representation and opened there the following day. benefited from the increasing |ling t sale and installation of gas!ance and final assembly, -and jhas given GM the capability of building some 339 different mo- ldels of GMC and Chevrolet /Trucks in Oshawa. | Basically, the new truck plant, located south of GM's |passenger car Body Plant on |Park Road, is divided into two main departments -- Dept. 4, an 800,000 square-foot area for jframe build-up, material hand- storage, feeder convey- Department 6, covering 60,000 square feet for front and sheet metal painting. Truck bodies and cabs continue to be assem- of which are produced in Osh- awa. The Company employs 54 people in Oshawa and has a yearly payroll here in excess of $290,000.00. All employees are members of the International Chemical Workers' Union. | In 1966, Consumers' Gas hk taxes to the City of Oshawa on its buildings and _ installa- tions totalling $37,414.00. Over 10 years of operations, the Com- pany has. paid the City a total tions to the South Plant, |FOUR HOURS It takes approximately four |hours from the time a regular jtruck body arrives at the spe- {cial scheduling ramp on the north side of the Truck Plant until it is driven off the end of the line fully-assembled, At the present time 1,011 GM people are employed in all de- partments at the new Truck Plant. A number of these were transferred to South Oshawa when the North Plant truck assembly operations were phas- ed out. At the present time, GM's truck production people build approximately 280 trucks of all kinds each day. DEPRESSION NOTE The businesses of the Stand- ard Bank and the Canadian Bank of Commerce were com- bined in Oshawa as from Nov. 16, 1929 under the management of. E, €. Hodgins who, as the depression started, was suc- of $246,000.00 in taxes. ceeded by C. D. Lyons. OLD QUEEN'S HOTEL, OSHAWA, IN LATE 1800's «--Note Horse-Drawn Vehicles, Radial. Cars McTaggart Sr. and their daugh- ter Gertrude. In 1936 the Lancaster family, present owners of the hotel : purchased in from the McTag-|Since the turn of the Century|{he sample rooms used in those |of the second World War, Chan zarts. who would recount how thejdays for this purpose. les ,Lancaster's sons, Charles Until a few years back there|trunks of samples were pickec}| The Lancaster family has|Junior and Reg Lancaster re- were several regular guests|up by horse and wagon at the]spent a lifetime in the hote'|turned from the Canadian Army who had been travellers andjrailway station and brought|business in England, Montrealjand took over the operation of regular patrons of the Hotellup to the Hotel for display in'Toronto and Oshawa. At the endithe Hotel for the family. STARTS OPERATIONS The old Western Bank of Can- IN AX YY YY TV a nnn Wr @ With ~ An We at T. G Eye To The Future... . Gale Limited take pride in having contributed to the growth and development of a bigger and better Oshawa ... we have devoted our energies toward a better standard of liv- ing... a better cerned. So, It is with life for all con- a great deal of pleasure that we salute the works of people in the past. And we look forward to even greater efforts in the future.and promise our time and knowledge shall be spent in constructing a bet- ter tomorrow, T. G. GALE umorrp 284 RITSON RD. N. 725-4221 Proud to share, proud to serve our community Great things happen . « « when people get together to work together, for the good and the growth of a community. From such efforts come the greatness of a nation, and the achievements of an era, We are proud to serve our neighbors in this community, and proud, too, to share with them in working toward future goals, growth and gains. We're Proud of Our Part in Community Progress LOCALS 1500, 1817, 2784, 6571 and 6958 UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA 115 ALBERT ST., OSHAWA 725-0612