A FAMILY AFFAIR: HOW WOOD DEVELOPMENT GROUP IS INVESTING, AGAIN

WORDS & PHOTOS BY CHRIS TIESSEN

What’s in a number? When it comes to the bold ‘9’ stencilled onto the side of 9 Elizabeth Street – a sleek adaptive re-use project situated at the corner of Elizabeth and Duke Streets in Guelph’s historic ‘Ward’ neighbourhood – quite a lot, actually. But don’t take my word for it. Next time you’re in the Ward – for an americano at Double Rainbow Café, or negroni at Spring Mill Distillery, or pint at Standing Room Only (which might just be the smallest bar in the world) – take a look for yourself. Because while most street numbers are small-scale affairs, rudimentary wayfinding markers for delivery drivers, the large number at 9 Elizabeth holds deeper meaning and signals lofty ambitions.

‘It’s an original Seth,’ Wood Development Group’s VP of Development, Ian Panabaker, tells me while we stand on the sidewalk at Elizabeth and Duke – gazing up at the numeral.

‘The artist Seth?’, I ask, eyebrows raised, referring to Guelph’s most famous creative son – the eccentric and brilliant (and worldrenowned) illustrator and graphic novelist whose pieces have graced the pages and/or covers of the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Walrus and more. ‘You bet,’ Ian replies, ‘we commissioned Seth to design the piece as a sort of ‘easter egg’ for passersby – as a representation of the inventive and industrious spirit of the neighbourhood.’ I've seen enough of Seth's work to recognize the distinctive signature font. Ian continues: ‘Seth actually lives in the neighbourhood – just down the street. It seemed only fitting to have his work on the side of this building that not only serves as a sort of entranceway to the Ward, but also signals our commitment to the development of this historic working class Royal City community.’

Ian pauses, and I take time to marvel at every aspect of Seth’s modest but impactful piece – its whimsical nature, perfect proportions (that echo the shape of the building’s original window openings). I marvel perhaps most of all at the fact that a developer would make the effort to identify and invest in such a seemingly minor detail. ‘Wood Development Group,' Ian reminds me, 'has a vested interest in this part of town.’

Indeed, it does.

The Wood name is synonymous with the Ward, and has been for almost one hundred years. The Wood family, beginning with WC ‘Bert’ Wood and continuing with his son John Wood, owned and operated WC Wood Company – a global pioneer in the design and manufacture of home appliances (particularly refrigerators, freezers and dehumidifiers), agricultural machinery and more – out of large factories in the neighbhourhood from the 1940s right up until the business was sold in 2007. To be sure, there was a time when you couldn’t throw a baseball in the Ward without hitting a WC Wood employee. And while the manufacturing business has been sold, a number of its old factories remain under Wood family ownership, waiting to be revived.

Which brings us to today – and here. In this neighbourhood. With Ian. And, now, up the street a couple of blocks, with Susan Frasson too – President of Wood Development Group. Susan, who happens to be John Wood’s daughter, is meeting us at the former WC Wood Company Plant No.2 – a nine-acre site that remains a property of the family. It’s Susan’s ambition to reimagine this piece of land over the coming years with new parkland, public green spaces, and residences that embody the charm and character of the neighbourhood.

‘I can vividly remember working in this factory as a teenager,’ Susan tells me as our small group enters Plant No.2 for a tour. At the top of the narrow staircase leading to the second floor I marvel at the size of the space. ‘We’re actually standing in the former factory’s original concrete and brick core,’ Susan tells me, ‘that well pre-dates WC Wood operations.’ She continues: ‘This historic building was constructed in the teens and twenties for the Partridge Rubber Company and later the Guelph Paper Box Company before being swallowed up by Plant No.2, which was built up all around it.’ She continues: ‘My dad simply referred to this plant as the Guelph Paper Box building.’ Old ways of seeing things die hard, it would seem. And sometimes old buildings do too. But not this one, if Susan and Ian have anything to say about it.

‘The original Guelph Paper Box building is a fantastic piece of historic Guelph industrial architecture,’ Ian tells me, ‘spanning over three hundred feet by sixty feet with just a single row of columns supporting the heavily beamed ceilings.’ He walks over to one of the columns, pats it, and adds: ‘When we develop the Plant No.2 site, we will be restoring this heritage building – effectively making it a jewel in the crown of this new development.’ And of the Royal City.

As we walk around the space, we see vestiges of the building’s storied manufacturing past everywhere – from painted lines on the worn wood floors that would have guided workers safely past heavy machinery to hand-painted murals on the corrugated-metal walls, depicting colourful fridges, ice chests, air conditioners and more. ‘The murals,’ Susan tells Ian and me, ‘are illustrations of the products that would have been manufactured on this site.’ As I spot several more murals – of lakes, and forests, and birds – it occurs to me that the workers took pleasure in the landscape within which they made these products, too. I wonder aloud who would have painted them. ‘The landscapes were done by an employee named John Feenstra. I worked with him in those years. He loved to paint, he loved it here,’ Susan replies, adding: ‘The employees really were so proud of what they made here.'

As we continue, Susan has a story to tell about almost every nook and cranny of this massive site: about the products that were manufactured here, and the processes involved and, most often, about the people she worked with at WC Wood from her teens into her twenties. She is proud of her family’s legacy supporting employees, her community, even the war effort. ‘At one point the company made a part for the Avro Arrow, and Dad insisted on hand delivering it himself just so he could have a chance to see the Arrow up front,’ she laughs.

As we make our way down a side staircase and toward the front door Susan pauses to reflect: ‘For me, WC Wood has always been about the people. Everything that my grandfather and father built here, from the factories themselves right down to the refrigerators that kept folks’ food from spoiling, was for people – the people who worked here, or who bought products manufactured here. And,' she adds as we reach the door and tumble into the sunlight, 'we're coming full circle as we begin to explore how we can continue to create space for life with this site. What Wood Development Group is trying to do here over the next handful of years – build greenlands and parks and muchneeded residential units – is also about people. This much has never changed.’

I imagine how this site will look in a decade or so. How it will enrich the neighbourhood. As a tenured resident of the Ward myself whose century home is just a stone’s throw from this redevelopment project, I have a stake in what will happen here. I think back to 9 Elizabeth Street – the beginning of Wood Development Group’s ambitious plans – and picture the stencilled ‘9’ on the side of this gorgeous adaptive re-use project. I envisage Seth – a Ward resident like me – sketching up the ‘easter egg’ for passersby. I recall Susan's reminiscing about her Dad's favourite saying: ‘The best is yet to come.’ I see clearly her enthusiasm for this project, and hear her saying: ‘That’s what’s guiding us now. Getting the best out of this property with such an important history.’ .