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Well-trained, service-minded employees. A friendly atmosphere. Quality products at competitive prices. Those are part of the "Homecare" promise - but they have always been the goals at Spence Homecare, even when the business was primarily a lumber yard. Spence Lumber was founded in 1919 by James Spence, on the site of what is now MacDonald's Restaurant and South Simcoe Square. James was followed by his son, A.W., then grandson, Keith Noble. Now it's the 4th generation, great grandson Ron Noble, who runs the operation. Spence Lumber weathered the Roaring Twenties, the Dirty Thirties, the war years, the post-war baby boom, the changes of the '60s and '70s, at its old site. But in the '80s, the increasing trend towards home renovation, and "do-it-yourself" repairs led to a decision to move, and expand. The old retail space, notes Ron, covered only 800 to 1,000 square feet. "We were kind of land-locked, and there was no real growth potential." In 1900, the store moved to its current site at 90 Dissette,where it has 6,000 square feet of retail space, and over four acres of lumber yard - and joined 160 other stores in Ontario under the "Homecare" banner. "It was always a traditional lumber yard, whereas now I would consider it...a building centre," Ron says, explaining the change. The Centre offers "a complete range of everything you need for building, renovating, decorating." The transition from lumber yard to building supply centre has been a smooth one, he says, helped in part by the affiliation with Homecare, "which gives us volume buying power - which, in turn, can be turned over to the consumer," as a competitive prices. But the best part has been the consumer response. "When we moved to this location, the support we've had from our customers and friends was just about the nicest thing." To say thank-you to those customers, Spence Homecare celebrated its 75th anniversary, October 14th to 16th, with a special sales, lucky draws and a charity barbecue.

Photograph of the remains of the Thompson's Hardware business sign. See Related Descriptions to see the business in the early 1900s.

View of Bridge Street and of the flowers/produce outside of Bak's Market. Photo taken sometime between 1989 and 1992.

A newspaper article detailing the history of the Bradford Public Library.

A newspaper clipping about fundraising to raise funds for a new Bradford Public Library at 100 Holland Court. Included in the article is a newspaper photograph of Adrienne Price (Librarian), Eleanor Sherbo ( Library Board Chairperson), Mr. Lacasse (President of Gang-Nail Canada Inc.) and Mr. Carter (Vice-President of Gang-Nail Canada Inc.).

"Firefighters battle stubborn 7-hour blaze which ripped through industrial complex last Friday afternoon

On April 28, 1988 at approximately 2:20 p.m., a major fire broke out in an industrial complex on Bridge Street (Hwy. 11) in the Town of Bradford, which necessitated the closing of Hwy. 11 both northbound and southbound for a period of six hours." ...

Clipping of the 1988 industrial fire in Bradford from the Era Banner. Contains two articles on the fire.

A newspaper clipping about fundraising to raise funds for a new Bradford Public Library at 100 Holland Court. Included in the article is a newspaper photograph of Tony Gratton (Business Owner), Carlos Beloso (Business Owner) and Debbie Jeske (Library Rep.)

Article of brief history on the Great Fire of Bradford (1871). Scanned from a donation of the Bradford Today supplement to the Bradford Witness.