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Northern Business College |
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The Northern Business College was founded in Owen Sound in 1881 by Christopher Alexander Fleming [b.1857-d.1945]. C. A. Fleming also served as the school's Principal. It opened on November 1, 1881. The college quickly needed more space to accommodate students, so it moved a couple times before settling at 34 & 36 Scrope St. (where Principal Fleming also resided). Later on, in 1909, Scrope Street became known as a part of 3rd Ave. East (between 10th St. and 9th St.). Among varied business topics, the school taught book-keeping. Ornamental calligraphy for business advertisements was another skill taught there. An obituary for J. C. Kennedy (d. 1921) sai that he once operated a furniture factory for a time in the building that was occupied in 1921 by the Northern Business College. There are various school collage portraits showing the students of the NBC. These class photos are in the Grey County Archives. The collages also included an image of C. A. Fleming. There is a book, C.A. FLEMING: A BIOGRAPHY, by Dorothea Deans, published at Owen Sound in 1953. It has a chapter about the NBC, and mentions: "From its classrooms passed over 11,000 pupils to identify themselves with the business life of Canada and the United States. He founded the school in the fall of 1881. In addition to local students, the college attracted many students from the Parry Sound district and also from Manitoulin Island. At the opening term, there were only seven pupils, with thirty attending the night class. Many of the pupils of the night class were clerks from local stores. The first location of the school was at a stone building at the northwest corner of Third Avenue East and 8th Street, on the second floor. In 1882, the school took up new quarters on the second floor of the Parker Block, in what was later the Masonic Hall, In 1883, the school needed larger premises, and another move was made to the second floor of the building on the northeast corner of Second Avenue East (Main Street) and Tenth Street. The Northern Business College had the first typewriter in Owen Sond. This machine, which was called a Caligraph, was the first one brought to town, in December, 1882. In 1887, Mr. Fleming purchased the Kennedy Bros. furniture factory building (3rd Avenue East). He took possession on April 12th, and had it remodelled to serve as living quarters and school. In 1904, the school was enlarged with an addition at the rear. Eventually the school reached a registration as high as 350 a year. His son, George D. Fleming, wason the teaching staff and was secretary-treasurer at the N.B.C. from 1908 until 1925, with the exception of the years he spent in overseas service during the First World War. The eldest daughter, Jessie Fleming, taught there and assisted in the office, but died at the age of eighteen. Another daughter, Lally Fleming, taught at the school for a number of years. Some of the teachers who worked at the N.B.C. with Mr. Fleming were : E. J. Zabocki, H. Mackensen, W. A. McKay, A. L. MacIntyre, James G. Carrie, F. W. Millhouse and Neil McEachern. When the Owen Sound business college had been in operation for a little over ten year, Mr. Fleming decided to open a second school in Winnipeg, in partnership with his brother-in-law, George W. Donald, who became its Principal. He began the Winnipeg school in 1894, and operated it for ten years (disposing of it in 1904). In 1937, C. A. Fleming sold the N.B.C., but "he retained an advisory relationship with the new management, and continued to give occasional lectures to the students almost until the end of his life. At the same time, he maintained contacts with hundreds of old graduates all over the continent." Mr. and Mrs. Harry Dunbar owned the school from 19__ until its closure. The Northern Business College closed in 1969. Archival Items: Accession #2002.039 has an 1893 NBC composite photograph. It is at the Grey County Archives and they have collected other years as well. |
