Person Record

Metadata

Name

McKay, Tom

Places of residence

Owen Sound, Grey County

Father

James B. McKay

Nationality

Canadian

Education

________Public School, Owen Sound
Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute?

Notes

Tom McKay's father, James B. McKay, was one of the owners of the McKay Bros. department store in Owen Sound. Tom started working in the family business when he was eleven years old, helping after school. He eventually became the manager of the store in 1968.

The store location had formerly been the Ryan Brothers drygoods store. The McKay brothers acquired it in 1923 (or 1924) and moved there from their previous location. However, they kept a lot of the circa 1905 store fixtures that Ryan Brothers had used, and kept many of them in use right up to the closing of the McKay Brothers store, which gave the store a charming, old-fashioned appeal in its later years.

There is a video of the McKay Bros. store money monorail (a Lamson Cash Carrier) in operation before the store was sold. Mr. McKay often did the maintenance and repairs needed to the cash carrier over the years.

"His pride in his business is evident when he talks about his "money monorail". This money changing system is the centerpiece of McKay's. Suspended from the ceiling, the system has little metal boxes which ride on cord rails. Each box has its own switching device allowing it to travel to the mezzanine of the store where change is made and transactions noted and returned to the proper station.
The system pre-dates the more familiar but now equally antiquated pneumatic tube device of a later era. The monorail changer of McKay's is probably a sole survivor. The only other operational system known is in the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Originally water-powered, this antique of early dry goods history is kept alive and functioning by the store's manager.
Tom claims that he has little trouble with the monorail but he can be often found tinkering with it as he splices in new cords and adjusts wheels and gears. Tourists often purchase an item merely to see their money whisked off across the store and upstairs to return with a clang minutes later."
- - - -
THE OWEN SOUND SUN-TIMES, Sat. Jan. 10, 1976, p. 5

The store building (located at 942 2nd Ave. East) was designed in 1905 by Forster & Clark (architects) of Owen Sound for the Ryan Brothers drygoods store business (G. B. Ryan & Co.). In 1924, the store building was acquired by the McKay Brothers (who had a previous location along main street).
The McKay Brothers store closed down in June of 1989. Some of the store equipment formerly used there is now in the collection at Grey Roots Museum & Archives.

In 2015, the Artist's Co-op opened for business in the former McKay building, and some artifacts from the business were placed on exhibit in the store, including one of the female wax heads that many Owen Sounders recall seeing in the store in the 20th-century.

Occupation

McKay Bros. Drygoods / Department store (became Manager in 1968, but had started work at the store when 11 years old).
Merchant

Publications

Armitage, Andrew, "Shopping at McKay's A Visit to the Past", THE OWEN SOUND SUN-TIMES, Sat. Jan. 10, 1976, p. 5 (mentions that when the McKay brothers purchased the store, they purchased all of the Ryan Brothers c. 1905 fixtures as well).
Armitage, Andrew, "Shopping At McKay's A Visit to the Past", OWEN SOUND STEAM BOAT DAYS, 1981, pp. 11-__
Walker, Bill, "Dawning of a New McKay's: Revamped McKay's Holds 18 Shops", THE SUN-TIMES, Owen Sound, Oct. 8, 1994.