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City of Stratford Historical Directories Now Available Online!

27 September 2021

In 1924, John Richea lived at 242 Huron Street in Stratford and he was employed at the Stratford Beacon Herald as linotype operator. His neighbour two doors down, at 323 Huron Street, was Mrs. Mary Kinsman, the widow of William J. Kinsman. Down the street at 286 Huron Street, on the corner of Huron and Avondale, their neighbour was Herber J. L. Eedy who was the owner of Eedy’s Bakery, which was located at 27 Market Place, where he sold breads, cakes, and other assorted baked goods.

How can one discover this much information, particularly when 1924 was not a census year? From Vernon City Directories of course! Directories can help fill in gaps between census’ and help track family members or local businesses on a yearly basis.

City Directories were a popular form of publication from the mid-1870’s until the mid-2010’s. Each directory typically contained both an alphabetical listing of all residents by last name and a listing of residents by street. It also included a business index as well as various advertisements for local businesses on each page.

The first two directories of the City of Stratford, 1876 and 1880-1881, were compiled and published by William W. Evans. The third, 1896, was published by Union Publishing Company. From 1898 and onward the directories were published by Vernon’s City Directories.

Vernon Directories was started by Henry Vernon (1850-1919) who was born in Kent, England. Around 1874, he immigrated to Hamilton, Ontario and began working for William Henry Irwin. William Irwin (1832-1900), originally from Ireland, had been publishing directories for about thirty years in many cities including Toronto, Hamilton, and Montreal. Vernon began taking over the business around 1897 and established Henry Vernon & Son publishing.

Vernon ran the business until his death in 1919; his son Alfred Vernon (1882-1941) took over as the heir of the company. Alfred eventually became president of the Canadian Division of the Association of North American Directory Publishers for a period while still maintaining Vernon’s Directories. In 1933, Vernon moved the office in Hamilton from the Lister Block to 29-31 Rebecca Street. The printer of the directories also changed from the Hamilton Typesetting Company to Griffin & Richmond Company Limited.

Over the next several decades, Vernon’s Directories became a subsidiary of many other companies while maintaining its trademark Vernon name. Some of the owners include: The Richmond Brothers (Bert and Ken), owners from ca. 1941 to 1955; The Seldon Family including Don Seldon, David Seldon, and Stuart Seldon from 1955 to 2009; and finally, the last owners from 2009-2016, Wally and Beth Cooper.

The Stratford-Perth Archives is proud to announce that their historical directories for the City of Stratford are now equally available to all researchers through their website. To access them, navigate to the Archives homepage and click the Finding Aids and Digitized Collections tab. Once the page has loaded, scroll down to the bottom and open the "City of Stratford Directories" tab. Most of the directories are keyword searchable, please click Ctrl + F on your keyboard to bring up the search bar in the document once it has opened in a new bowser window. Happy searching! 

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