Location: 667 Glen Tay Road
Legal Description: CON 2 PT LOT 20 RP 27R2666; PART 2
Description
The former Chaplin Dairy factory, located at 667 Glen Tay Road, Glen Tay Hamlet, Bathurst Ward (now the Little Steam Bakery building).
Heritage and Cultural Value
This building housed the Chaplin Dairy, one of eastern Ontario’s largest dairy firms, which processed and distributed milk from this site between 1935 and 1974. In its time, the Dairy was a major contributor to the economy of Bathurst Township and area, providing employment to local families and implanting the township’s name in households throughout the region.
The dairy operation was a family enterprise, launched in the early 1900s by the Chaplin family of Glen Tay, and eventually owned and operated by Delbert Chaplin (m. Mabel Miller) and brother Edgar (m. Laura Jackson, Beatrice). It had succeeded the Miller Dairy, Tayside Dairy, located off Glen Tay Road on present-day Miller Lane, which operated from the 1920’s to about 1935.
In 1966, Delbert’s children John A. Chaplin (Orpha Korry), Donald Miller Chaplin (Doris Gamble) and Robert Cameron Chaplin (Betty Trueman) assumed the property and dairy. In 1974, processing on the site was discontinued (the family’s 300 acre farm on the west side of Glen Tay had been sold in 1970), and milk was purchased for distribution from an Ottawa company. In 1977, the Chaplin family sold the dairy operation to William McConachie, who continued deliveries to area homes until 1982. Not long after that the dairy closed.
After 1977, the dairy building and property changed hands several times until September 1997, when Graham Beck, founder and owner of Little Stream Bakery, purchased it. The bakery produces whole grain breads and baked products, which are distributed throughout eastern Canada.
Character Defining Elements
The historical and cultural significance of this building and property derives from:
- Its role as a major regional dairy processing facility, in a small rural township
- Its connection to a successful enterprise by a local family that had widespread impact in the area, and
- The importance of the early farming, and particularly dairy, sector to the economy of this region.
The building:
- Is a one-story, wood-frame structure, measuring 43‘ by 63‘, assumed to be the original dimensions, and shape, of the 1935 dairy facility.
- The lower area of the exterior is of rough, unfinished wood board and batten, which was added in the 1990s, although it is typical of the siding that could have been on a 1935 rural commercial building of this type. The upper section under the roofline is metal, presumably replacing earlier wood siding.
- The roofing, which originally would have been wood or asphalt shingles, has been replaced by metal roofing.
- Since the interior of the building was empty when acquired by Little Stream Bakery, the layout and fixtures are very different from what would been in place for the dairy – including the addition of an open fireplace. However, the present commercial cooler facilities are on the site of the original dairy cooler.
- The Little Steam Bakery has added modern energy-saving equipment and systems, including solar hot water panels on the roof.
References
1. Book by Arlene Stafford Wilson, “Lanark County Kid: My Travels Up and Down the Third Line” (article, https://arlenestaffordwilson.wordpress.com/2020/09/18/chaplins-dairy-in-glen-tay/)
2. Gordon Chaplin, of Perth, son of John Chaplin, provided information on the Chaplin family and dairy.
3. Book by Barbara Jordan, ‘Glen Tay, Then and Now’ (1997).
4. Book by Diane Miller Duncan, ‘Tayside Memories: The Story of a Lanark County Lad’ (2018).
5. Research by the Heritage Property Recognition Program Committee.