The Heritage Corner, Springhill Record
Nov. 15, 2006
Nov. 15, 2006 – Springhill Medical Centre
The first building at the bottom of Main St. was a store owned by E.B. Paul who later sold the building to Daniel Rogers. Rogers then moved the building to the other side of the road and then built a store where the first store had been. It was a popular store for many years until it was burned in a disastrous fire and it was never rebuilt.
In 1948 Dr. Harold Simpson along with Drs. J.C. Murray, J.R. Ryan and Carl Adams formed the Springhill Medical Centre and in 1949 the Centre was built on the site where Roger’s store used to be. These four doctors worked out of the Medical Centre until 1952 when Dr. Simpson passed away. Shortly after that Dr. Adams left to do post graduate work in surgery. Dr. Murray and Dr. Ryan were joined by Dr. D.H. Fisher and Dr. Moffat, Dr. Ryan later retired and moved to Florida and Dr. Moffat also left. The two remaining doctors were then joined by Dr. Arnold Burden. These three doctors remained in the Medical Centre until their retirement. With the doctors offices no longer in use the upstairs had a few business such as Sim Rushton’s Music Store. Bob LeBlanc’s Guitar Store and the last occupant was Jeremy Demings Consulting.
Wardrope’s Drugstore was on the first floor of the Medical building for many years. Then there were a number of other drugstores after that with Guardian Drugstore being the last. Sears had their order office on the first floor for many years and finally moved up the street to the former C.R. Murray’s Store. Ken Brown of Ross Anderson’s Pharmacy bought the building and closed the drugstore in Medical Centre. It then housed the Cumberland Home Health Care Centre which also moved to the C.R. Murray building. The last business to be in the Medical Centre was a second hand clothing store. When it closed it became the office for Murray Scott during the last election.
There was an extension added to the building in the 1980’s and for a while it housed Dr. Burden’s office and then Sears followed by Rhonda’s Beauty shop and after that left Sears was in it again for a short time.
Have you ever heard of the fighting miner? Edgar Martin was a Springhill man who, during WW1, was known for his boxing skills. He went from a middleweight to a light heavyweight but often fought heavyweights because of his powerful punch. He fought the best of the allied boxers and won more than his share of fights. After his discharge after the war he went out west to continue his boxing. He fought out of Calgary and had great success for a number of years.
Later, he returned to Springhill and went to work in the mines. He was known as being soft spoken and a real gentleman. His greatest thrill was when he had his gloves on for a sparring session with the great Sam Langford.
The first store built in Springhill was built in 1872 by Daniel McLeod. It was built on the corner of Main and Church Streets and later was sold to Wilsons . The only other store around at that time was at Miller Corner and owned by James Hickman. When the town was incorporated in 1889 Daniel McLeod was elected Town Clerk. A position he held for 34 years.
The first barber in Springhill was Dog Rory McDonald. Who gave home haircuts. McDonald raised fighting dogs and often there were dog fights on Main Street and Rory’s dogs were always in the middle of them. Merchants and shoppers would come outside to watch and some small bets were often made.
