Freeze Creamery – 5 Church St N
It’s kind of hard to believe that the Old Fire Hall on Church street north was once a creamery. After getting a degree at Guelph College and working with his uncle at a creamery in Belleville, Elwood Free decided to go into business for himself. In 1936, he and his wife Helen Rae, drew up plans and built a creamery at this location. After four years, the building was sold to Brock Township as a fire hall and the creamery was relocated to the east side of Highway 12 opposite Morrow Farm Equipment Elwood’s first task was to drive all over the township to collect cream from various farms. The churned butter was molded using a wooden press and individually wrapped into 1-pound packages.
The large cream cans were steamed and cleaned by hand. As new machinery was installed, the process was sped up and eventually 2,200 pounds of butter could be ready in an hour. Now they could deliver butter to Toronto by truck and often return with a load of feed for local farmers. After 1969, the Fries retired and Don Brooks was the manager from 1977 until 1991. Back in 1936, when the township of Brock bought the original creamery site to use as fire hall, there was not that much equipment and during the 1949 fire the local fire truck broke down. In 1950 the township bought a new $10,000 GMC fire truck and that vehicle, in mint condition, is still kept on hand for parades and community events. Another GMC truck was added to the fire hall about 1970.
2. Saint Andrews United Church – 10 Church St N
3. Sunderland Town Hall – 120 River St
4. Dr. Joseph Henry Oliver Home – 128 River St
5. St. Mary’s Anglican Church – 134 River St
6. Dr. James McDermott Home – 160 River St
7. The Fogg House – 198 River St
8. The Blacksmith Shop – 135 River St
9. The Nipissing House Hotel – 123 River St
10. Stop 4 Variety – 111 River St
11. The Old Drug Store – 108 River St
12. The Gigantic Hand Saw, Guardian Pharmacy – 103 River St
13. Flindell’s Fresh Mart – 97 River St
14. The Beall Block – 93 River St
15. The Harness Shop – 89 River St
16. Taylor’s Store – 85 River St
17. The William Doble Home – 32 Albert St
18. The Sunderland Presbyterian Church – 5 Albert St
19. Doyle’s General Store – 3 Albert St
20. The McDermott Block – 1 Albert Street S
21. The Sunderland Telephone Company. – 63 River St
22. James Doble Home – 3 Cedar St S
23. William Nassau Doble Home – 12 River St
24. Thomas Welsh Home – 20 River St
25. Robert Doble Home – 48 River St
26. The Bank – River Street (CIBC) – 74 River St
27. The Brock House Hotel – 82 River St
28. The Hardware Store – 92 River St
29. The Early Undertaker – 96 River St
30. The Printing Shop – 98 River St
31. The Magic Door – 100 River St
32. The Sunderland Legion – 104 River St
33. 108 River Street – 108 River Street
34. Freeze Creamery – 5 Church St N
35. The Sunderland Memorial Arena 1948-2009 – 20 Park St