In response to the story “ Dempsey- Famous General Store,” posted May 7 on out website, we received this fascinating information from Donald Benjamin Brown, a grandson of the store’s second owner, Benjamin R. Brown.

In the photo showing the STORE, that is my grandfather in the white  apron. The chap standing by the hydro pole is one of his sons, my Uncle Bill.

Ben Brown ran the store from 1888 when he was twenty-six and completed purchase payments for it in 1904.  He sold it for $20,000 in 1921 to the Dempseys. 

Ben Brown was the Lansing postmaster for 33 years. It was rather incorrect in the story to suggest that Ben Brown and his family “lived nearby” since their living quarters were in the store building.(I remember my Dad showing me the location of his bedroom, upstairs.) After selling the store Ben and his family moved into a new house he had built immediately north of the store. Later, it became the original location of Kane’s Funeral Home.

I remember my dad telling me that Ben was a public-school trustee and a treasurer of North York’s school board and every Friday night would hitch up the buggy or the sleigh and go to the old school (almost opposite the Willow Theatre) on Yonge Street to pay the teacher. For many years, that old school was known as the Brown School; I think because he was a trustee and there were six Browns going to it.

Benjamin R. Brown died in July 1939 at age 77 at his North York residence.

According to the book Pioneering in North York by Patricia Hart: “North York Council meetings originally were held in the Brown (Willowdale) School. It was a two-story elementary school building that served the Willowdale-Lansing area before Queen Mary (now McKee Avenue) and Duke of Kent (now Spring Garden) Schools were built.”  ……………………………………………………………………………………………… We’d love to get more North York reminiscences for publishing on our website.  350 words maximum.  Please send by attachment to info@nyhs.ca