John Craig Eaton
Sir John Craig Eaton was a Canadian businessman and a member of the prominent Eaton family. He was born in Toronto, the youngest son of department store magnate Timothy Eaton and his wife, Margaret Wilson Beattie, he married Flora McCrea in 1901, they had six children: Timothy Craig, John David, Edgar Allison, Gilbert McCrea, Florence Mary, Evlyn. Upon the death of his father in 1907, he inherited five million dollars and the T. Eaton Company, he became its president at this time, the company flourished under his control. He influenced the company and expanded the stores nationally, he built Ardwold, an enormous residence of 50 rooms in Toronto, beginning in 1909 and finishing in 1911. He acquired a resort home from his mother in Oakville, called the Raymar Estate. In 1915, Eaton was made a Knight Bachelor in recognition of his participation in the war effort, he thus became Sir John Craig Eaton, his wife was known as Lady Eaton. He was a noted philanthropist, his most lavish public contribution was the gift, made together with his mother, of land and funds for a large Methodist church on St Clair Avenue in Toronto.
Named Timothy Eaton Memorial Church after his father, it was constructed in 1912–14. He made many donations to Omemee, the home town of his wife Flora; these donations included Coronation Hall, the manse and organ for Trinity United Church. He died of pneumonia following influenza in 1922 at the age of 45, his cousin Robert Young Eaton became president of the company until Sir John's son, John David Eaton, reached an appropriate age to take over. Sir John's grandson, John Craig Eaton II, served as chairman of Eaton's in its years. Eatonia, Saskatchewan Santink, Joy L.. "Eaton, John Craig". In Cook, Ramsay. Dictionary of Canadian Biography. XV. University of Toronto Press. John Craig Eaton and Flora McCrea Eaton fonds, Archives of Ontario
Anchor tenant
In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a larger tenant in a shopping mall a department store or retail chain. With their broad appeal, they are intended to attract a significant cross-section of the shopping public to the center, they are offered steep discounts on rent in exchange for signing long-term leases in order to provide steady cash flows for the mall owners. When the planned shopping centre format was developed by Victor Gruen in the early to mid-1950s, signing larger department stores was necessary for the financial stability of the projects, to draw retail traffic that would result in visits to the smaller shops in the centre as well. Anchors have their rents discounted, may receive cash inducements from the centre to remain open. Early on, grocery stores were a common type of anchor store. However, research on consumer behavior revealed that most trips to the grocery store did not result in visits to surrounding shops.
Large supermarkets remain common anchor stores within power centers however. As of 2005, the declining popularity of old-line department stores makes it necessary for mall management companies to consider re-anchoring with other retail alternatives, or mix commercial development with residential development to guarantee a captive clientele; the challenges faced by the traditional large department stores have led to a resurgence in the use of supermarkets and gyms as anchors. The International Council of Shopping Centers makes the presence of anchors one of the main defining characteristics of the two largest categories of centres, the regional center with 400,000 to 800,000 square feet in gross leasable area, the superregional center with more than 800,000 square feet of space; the regional center has two or more anchors, while the superregional has three or more. In each case, the anchors account for 50–70% of the centre's leasable space. Shopping centres with anchor stores have outperformed those without one, as the anchor helps draw shoppers attracted to the anchor to shop at other shops in the mall.
Retail Shopping centre Supermarket
Robert Young Eaton
Robert Young "R. Y." Eaton was a member of the prominent Eaton family. He was a nephew of the founder of Eaton's department store, he was born in 1875 to Margaret Eaton. He was related to the Eaton's department store founder, as they shared the same grandfather, John Eaton Sr, he took over control of the department stores when his cousin Sir John Craig Eaton died of pneumonia in 1922. Sir John's children were too young to run the company, so he filled in until one of the children reached an appropriate age to take over, he proved to be an capable president, he expanded the company tenfold. His cousin-in-law, Lady Eaton, the widow of Sir John, never liked him. Throughout her life, she always referred to her branch of the family as the "owner Eatons" and his branch as the "worker Eatons". Lady Eaton's son, John David Eaton took over the presidency of the company at the age of 33, R. Y. Eaton retired from business life, he had a resort home, built in Port Credit, in Georgian Bay. He served as president of the Art Gallery of Ontario from 1924 to 1941.
He had 5 children. His son John Wallace Eaton ran the Montreal store, his son Captain Erskine Robert Eaton graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1934. At the outbreak of World War II, he was a member of the staff at Eaton's Montreal store, he died in the Dieppe Raid on August 1942, at 27 years of age. His name is listed on the Memorial Arch at the Royal Military College of Canada
Sears Canada
Sears Canada Inc. was the Canadian subsidiary of the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1953 until January 14, 2018, headquartered in Toronto, the company's roots were in Simpsons-Sears—a joint venture between the Simpsons retail chain and the U. S. Sears chain—which operated a national mail order business and co-branded Simpsons-Sears stores modelled after the U. S. Sears chain. Following the purchase of Simpsons by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1978, the joint venture was dismantled, the Simpsons-Sears stores became owned by Sears. In 1999, Sears Canada acquired the remaining assets and locations of the historic Canadian chain Eaton's. From 2014, Sears Holdings owned a 10% share in the company. ESL Investments was the largest shareholder of Sears Canada. In 2016, the retailer had a network that included 140 corporate stores, 71 Hometown stores, over 900 catalogue and online merchandise pick-up locations, 69 Sears Travel offices and a nationwide repair and service network.
The company published a general merchandise catalogue until the last quarter of 2016 and offered shopping online at sears.ca until October 19, 2017. After filing for creditor protection in June 2017, Sears Canada announced that they would be closing 20 full-line locations, 15 Home stores, 10 Outlet stores and 14 Sears Hometown stores; the stores closings resulted 2,900 employee layoffs. These stores closed on Sunday, October 1, 2017. In September 2017, Sears Canada announced the closing of 10 additional stores, in addition to the 59 store closings announced in June. On October 10, 2017, Sears Canada announced that it would seek court approval to shut down all of its remaining stores in Canada and lay off 11,240 remaining staff; the approval was granted by the Ontario Superior Court on October 13, 2017. Liquidation sales began on October 19, 2017; the remaining Sears stores closed on January 14, 2018. Store fixtures and equipment from the closed stores were sold until January 26, 2018. Sears Canada began its operations as Simpsons-Sears Limited, a catalogue and mid-market suburban retailer, as a joint-venture between the Simpsons Limited, a Canadian department store chain, Sears, Roebuck and Co. of the United States.
In 1952, General Robert E. Wood, the Chairman of U. S. retailer Sears, sent a letter to Edgar G. Burton, President of the Robert Simpson Company of Toronto, proposing a partnership between their two companies in order to serve the Canadian market; the deal to create Simpsons-Sears Limited, a Canadian catalogue and department store chain separate from the Simpson's chain, was signed on September 18, 1952 and the terms were 50-50. Each company invested $20 million and had equal representation on the new company's Board of Directors; the new company was to have two main objectives. The first was to expand Simpson's mail order business, sold to the new company; the second goal was to build a string of stores modelled on Sears, Roebuck's format across the country. The agreement contained a provision that would prove to be a major challenge in years. Under its terms, Simpsons-Sears could not open a retail store within 25 miles of Simpson's existing stores in Toronto, Halifax and London. In return, Simpson's promised not to build any stores outside of those five cities.
Simpsons-Sears mail order business, was free to operate anywhere in Canada as was the new Simpsons-Sears Acceptance Company, the credit arm of the operation. The business operations of Simpsons-Sears began when the first Simpsons-Sears Spring/Summer Catalogue was printed by Photo-Engravers and Electrotypers, Ltd. and delivered to 300,000 Canadian homes in early 1953. On September 17, 1953, the first Simpsons-Sears retail store opened in Ontario; the second Simpsons-Sears store opened in Kamloops, British Columbia in December of that year. In 1954, Simpsons-Sears opened Canada’s first large suburban department store, in Vancouver – Burnaby, BC, based on new the modern Sears, Roebuck model, spreading across the U. S. Simpsons-Sears introduced “We Service What We Sell”, in 1955, a slogan backed up by a trained nationwide corps of service technicians. In 1963, Simpsons-Sears opened its first full-line store in Quebec, in Quebec City’s Fleur de Lys complex; the company made its public debut on the Toronto and Montreal stock exchanges on April 5, 1965, with the listing of its Class “A” non-voting shares.
That year, Sears began its long-standing partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, to support its youth programming. In 1968, Simpsons-Sears became the first Canadian retailer to begin buying products from Mainland China. In 1971, Simpsons-Sears opened a new head office building in downtown Toronto. In 1972, Simpsons and Simpsons-Sears agreed to end the 25-mile restriction and permit Simpsons and Simpsons-Sears stores anywhere; the following year Simpsons-Sears opened a store in the city of Mississauga 30 km west of Toronto. To avoid confusing customers used to Simpsons, new stores were opened under the "Sears" banner. All existing Simpsons-Sears stores were rebranded to the Sears banner as well. However, the name of the company remained Simpsons-Sears Limited. In 1973, Sears achieved its first billion-dollar sales year. In 1974, Simpsons-Sears opened a Sears store at Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, its first location in a mall that had a Simpsons store. In 1978, Simpsons and Simpsons-Sears put forward a plan to merge their businesses.
This plan had to have approval of the Foreign Investment Review Agency, as Sears, Roebuck would become the prime shareholder. Before approval could be attained, the Hudson’s Bay Company made a counter bid and acquired Simpsons Limited. Simpson
Ardwold
Ardwold was the residence of Sir John Craig Eaton and Lady Eaton of Toronto, Canada. Sir John was the youngest son of Timothy Eaton, the founder of the T. Eaton Company Department Store, or Eaton's, he inherited the business and became its president upon his father's death in 1907. Sir John was one of the wealthiest men in Canada, in 1909 he commissioned a home to be built on "The Hill", a name used to describe the neighborhood on the Davenport Hill in Toronto where many wealthy families built their homes. Casa Loma, built by Henry Pellatt and the largest private house constructed in Canada, was near Ardwold, as were Spadina House, the mansion of James Austin, Glenedyth, the estate of Samuel Nordheimer. Ardwold is a Gaelic term meaning "high, green hill"; the massive mansion was designed by Toronto architect Frank Wickson of Wickson and Gregg Architectural firm. It was in the Georgian style, influenced by English and Irish country homes, namely Belton House in Lincolnshire. Ardwold had fifty rooms, fourteen bathrooms, its own hospital.
Situated on eleven acres of landscaped grounds, which included a half-acre glassed area housing conservatory and swimming pool, Ardwold was one of the largest and most luxurious residences in Toronto and the country. Sir John Craig Eaton died in 1922, his widow Lady Eaton kept the home until 1936, when she decided to make her headquarters the enormous chateau named Eaton Hall at King City, Ontario. After an auction of much of its contents, Ardwold was blown up, the property was divided into an exclusive housing development, named Ardwold Gate. Only the gate lodge on Spadina Road near Austin Terrace remains. Lundell, Liz; the Estates of Old Toronto. Boston Mill Press. P. 88. ISBN 1-55046-219-9
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 85,792, while the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria has a population of 367,770, making it the 15th most populous Canadian metropolitan area. Victoria is the 7th most densely populated city in Canada with 4,405.8 people per square kilometre, a greater population density than Toronto. Victoria is the southernmost major city in Western Canada, is about 100 kilometres from British Columbia's largest city of Vancouver on the mainland; the city is about 100 km from Seattle by airplane, ferry, or the Victoria Clipper passenger-only ferry which operates daily, year round between Seattle and Victoria, 40 kilometres from Port Angeles, Washington, by ferry Coho across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Named after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and, at the time, British North America, Victoria is one of the oldest cities in the Pacific Northwest, with British settlement beginning in 1843.
The city has retained a large number of its historic buildings, in particular its two most famous landmarks, Parliament Buildings and the Empress hotel. The city's Chinatown is the second oldest in North America after San Francisco's; the region's Coast Salish First Nations peoples established communities in the area long before non-native settlement several thousand years earlier, which had large populations at the time of European exploration. Known as "The Garden City", Victoria is an attractive city and a popular tourism destination with a thriving technology sector that has risen to be its largest revenue-generating private industry. Victoria is according to Numbeo; the city has a large non-local student population, who come to attend the University of Victoria, Camosun College, Royal Roads University, the Victoria College of Art, the Canadian College of Performing Arts, high school programs run by the region's three school districts. Victoria is popular with boaters with its rugged beaches.
Victoria is popular with retirees, who come to enjoy the temperate and snow-free climate of the area as well as the relaxed pace of the city. Prior to the arrival of European navigators in the late 1700s, the Victoria area was home to several communities of Coast Salish peoples, including the Songhees; the Spanish and British took up the exploration of the northwest coast, beginning with the visits of Juan Pérez in 1774, of James Cook in 1778. Although the Victoria area of the Strait of Juan de Fuca was not penetrated until 1790, Spanish sailors visited Esquimalt Harbour in 1790, 1791, 1792. In 1841 James Douglas was charged with the duty of setting up a trading post on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, upon the recommendation by George Simpson a new more northerly post be built in case Fort Vancouver fell into American hands. Douglas founded Fort Victoria on the site of present-day Victoria in anticipation of the outcome of the Oregon Treaty in 1846, extending the British North America/United States border along the 49th parallel from the Rockies to the Strait of Georgia.
Erected in 1843 as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post on a site called Camosun known as "Fort Albert", the settlement was renamed Fort Victoria in November 1843, in honour of Queen Victoria. The Songhees established a village across the harbour from the fort; the Songhees' village was moved north of Esquimalt. The crown colony was established in 1849. Between the years 1850-1854 a series of treaty agreements known as the Douglas Treaties were made with indigenous communities to purchase certain plots of land in exchange for goods; these agreements contributed to a town being laid out on the site and made the capital of the colony, though controversy has followed about the ethical negotiation and upholding of rights by the colonial government. The superintendent of the fort, Chief Factor James Douglas was made the second governor of the Vancouver Island Colony, would be the leading figure in the early development of the city until his retirement in 1864; when news of the discovery of gold on the British Columbia mainland reached San Francisco in 1858, Victoria became the port, supply base, outfitting centre for miners on their way to the Fraser Canyon gold fields, mushrooming from a population of 300 to over 5000 within a few days.
Victoria was incorporated as a city in 1862. In 1865, the North Pacific home of the Royal Navy was established in Esquimalt and today is Canada's Pacific coast naval base. In 1866 when the island was politically united with the mainland, Victoria was designated the capital of the new united colony instead of New Westminster – an unpopular move on the Mainland – and became the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871. In the latter half of the 19th century, the Port of Victoria became one of North America's largest importers of opium, serving the opium trade from Hong Kong and distribution into North America. Opium trade was legal and unregulated until 1865 the legislature issued licences and levied duties on its import and sale; the opium trade was banned in 1908. In 1886, with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway terminus on Burrard Inlet, Victoria's position as the commercial centre of British Columbia was irrevocably lost to the city of Vancouver, British Columbia.
The city subsequently began culti
Flora Eaton
Flora McCrea Eaton, Lady Eaton was the wife of Toronto department store president and heir Sir John Craig Eaton. Raised in a large family in Omemee, Canada, Flora McCrea moved to Toronto to become a nurse at Rotherham House, a private hospital on Sherbourne Street. While working as a nurse, Flora met a young patient, John Craig Eaton, the son of Eaton's department store founder Timothy Eaton; the two fell in love, were married. They built a massive mansion in 1911 to accommodate their growing family. Named Ardwold, the home was one of the most lavish constructed in Toronto, they were one girl with one adopted daughter. In 1915, John Craig Eaton was knighted and became Sir John Craig Eaton, his wife became known as Lady Eaton. After her husband's death in 1922, Lady Eaton continued to live in the Ardwold mansion until the mid-1930s when she decided to retire to her summer residence, Eaton Hall in King City, north of Toronto; the contents of Ardwold were auctioned off and the mansion was demolished.
Lady Eaton was interested in the occult, had a séance room built in the turret of Eaton Hall. The ceiling of this circular room is painted with the zodiac; when she died in 1970, her maid was so distraught. Lady Eaton was a member of the Board of Directors of Eaton's of Canada and took an active role in the company, overseeing the development of restaurants in the Eaton's stores, she was very active with local charities and allowed Eaton Hall to be used as a military hospital for Canadian soldiers during the war. In addition to Eaton Hall, once part of Seneca College and now a public hotel, Lady Eaton Elementary School in Omemee, Lady Eaton College at Trent University, are named in her honour; the Eaton family donated several buildings to the village of Omemee including the United Church Rectory, Coronation Hall at the corner of King and Sturgeon Streets, as well as the pipe organ in Trinity United Church. The Eatons had proposed Omemee change its name to Eatonville and offered to be benefactors of the village.
The town fathers refused. In 1994 Royal Doulton produced a figurine in Lady Eaton's image. Limited to a production of 2,500, each figurine was marked with its production sequence, was intended to celebrate 125 years since the founding of the T. Eaton Co. Ltd. Chung, Andrew. "Deprived of an art deco wonder". Toronto Star. John Craig Eaton and Flora McCrea Eaton fonds, Archives of Ontario
