In 1894, when Vancouver’s first bookseller, Seth Thorne Tilley, exited the bookselling business, he handed the baton to Harold Clarke and James Duff-Stuart.
The two were former clerks with Thomson Bros., one of Tilley’s main rivals in Vancouver. After purchasing the business, they renamed it Clarke & Stuart.
Initially they remained in Tilley’s location at 11 Cordova, but by 1896, they had moved to a new store across the street, at 28 Cordova, and that is where this photo was taken.
Clarke & Stuart’s store at 28 Cordova Street, Vancouver, c. 1898. Harold Clarke is at right and James Duff-Stuart is at left in the doorway (Vancouver Archives, AM54-54-: Bu N283.1).
Viewed at full size, the photo reveals so much detail, giving us more than just a fuzzy glimpse into booksellers and stationers of the past.
In the window at the right hang newspaper broadsheets and posters promoting Scaife’s Comparative and Synoptical Chart, the 19th-century version of an infographic. We can also see guitars and violins in that window, and wagons, a bicycle, and brooms out front.
In the left window we can see a sign advertising Tiger cards, Bicycle cards, and Capitol cards, and a string of what look like clipboards, perhaps notices of community goings-on. And are those baskets of some kind? And lightbulbs! And a row of leather-bound books lined up inside.
On each side of the door are what appear to be stands with books or greeting cards, and above the entrance hang lacrosse rackets. Inside, we can just make out a bank of filing cabinets. A banner above the door proclaims that pianos, organs, and typewriters can also be had here, along with, of course, books and stationery.
The faces of the two men—whom I believe to be Duff-Stuart (left) and Clarke (right)—and the woman, presumably a clerk, standing in the entrance are alert and intelligent, the woman’s expression especially welcoming. And the boy—a messenger or delivery boy?—at left looks like just the sort of chap to get things done quickly and well.
Don’t you wish you could step inside and buy a book?
The only known photo to exist of Seth Thorne Tilley. Even with the grainy image, Tilley’s sharp eyes and handlebar mustache are distinguishing features. (Vancouver Daily World, June 20, 1896, p. 16)
Judging by his ability to rebound after losing his Vancouver book and stationery store to fire not once, in June 1886, but twice, the second in February 1889, Seth Thorne Tilley must have been a man of spirit and some financial means. The losses he suffered in the fires were not adequately covered by insurance, yet he was able to rebuild and restock quickly and get right back into business.
Judging by his ability to rebound after losing his Vancouver book and stationery store to fire not once, but twice, Seth Thorne Tilley must have been a man of spirit and some financial means.
In May 1889, Tilley could once again be found at 11 Cordova Street, the same site as his second burned-out store, in the newly built Ferguson Block (1). Developed by A.G. Ferguson, the building would soon also house the popular Boulder Saloon, which opened in November 1890 (2).
The Ferguson Block, right, at the corner of W. Cordova and Carrall Streets, about 1891. The Boulder Saloon is on the corner, and S.T. Tilley’s shop is behind the third awning, next door to G.L. Allan’s boot and shoe store. (City of Vancouver Archives, AM54-S4-: Str P344)
The Ferguson Block is still standing in Vancouver’s Gastown neighbourhood, seen here in 2016. A third storey was added at some point after the building’s initial construction. (Lana Okerlund photo)
Noting the “splendid stock of goods” in the article announcing the bookseller’s reopening, the Vancouver Daily World encouraged the public “to look at Mr. Tilley’s store for their purchases” (3). Tilley’s store continued to receive the support of the newspaper, and a December 21, 1889, article gives us an excellent picture of what the establishment was like:
The Vancouver Daily World was exuberant in its praise for Tilley’s book and stationery store. (Vancouver Daily World, December 21, 1889, p. 4)
“Among Vancouver’s most energetic citizens” and one who took “a strong interest in everything affecting the city’s progress” (4), Seth Tilley was a member of Vancouver society. In 1892, when Edgar Dewdney, newly appointed as lieutenant-governor, arrived in Vancouver aboard a private train car, greeting him were the mayor and city officials, along with “Mr. Dewdney’s pioneer friends—David Oppenheimer, Isaac Oppenheimer, James Orr, S.T. Tilley, and John McLennan” (5). Said Walter Graveley to Vancouver archivist Major Matthews in 1936, “The only time I saw Sir William [Van Horne, president of the CPR] in Vancouver was when he took Mrs. Tilley of the book store to supper at a Hotel Vancouver ball” (6).
(Vancouver Daily World, August 6, 1891, p. 8)
Seth’s son, Charles (Charlie) joined his father’s business as a partner in August 1891, with the store becoming known as S.T. Tilley & Son. “[Charles] is an estimable young man, having many good social and business qualities,” read a notice in the trade periodical Books and Notions (8).
But their partnership would be fairly short-lived. In April 1894, Tilley announced that he had sold his store to Harold Clarke and J. Duff-Stuart, both former clerks at one of Tilley’s competitors, Thomson Brothers (9). Tilley was not yet fifty-eight years old, and he would go on to participate in various business ventures for the remaining decades of his life (10). But it was the end of his bookselling days, and the end of the S.T. Tilley Book and Stationery Store in Vancouver.
Notes
(1) “Tilley’s New Bookstore,” Vancouver Daily World (May 27, 1889): 3.
(2) “A Handsome Resort,” Vancouver Daily World (November 1, 1890): 2.
(3) “Tilley’s New Bookstore,” 3.
(4) John Blaine Kerr, Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians (Vancouver, BC: Kerr & Begg, 1890), 306.
(5) “The Lieut.-Governor Arrives” Vancouver Daily World (November 8, 1892): 8.
(6) Cited in Major James Skitt Matthews, Early Vancouver, Vol. 4 (Vancouver: City of Vancouver, 2011), 189.
(7) “Co-Partnership Notice,” Vancouver Daily World (August 8, 1891): 8.
(8) Books and Notions (September 1891): 16.
(9) “New Firm,” Vancouver Daily World (April 12, 1894): 3.
(10) Tilley died on August 20, 1910, just shy of his seventy-fourth birthday. He is buried in Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery. His son, Charles, predeceased him, dying of an unspecified illness in 1898 (Daily Colonist [February 17, 1898]: 1). Tilley’s wife, Jeanne, died in 1931 (Major James Skitt Matthews, Early Vancouver, Vol. 4, memo of conversation with Mrs. Jennie Beck [Mrs. N.D. Tilley Beck], April 20, 1937). Their daughter, Jennie (sometimes recorded as Jeanne), died in Vancouver in 1971.
