The year 1902 was a momentous year in the life of our congregation. St. Catharines was beginning a very active period of growth following the completion of the Third Welland Canal which ran behind St. Paul Street, the downtown’s main thoroughfare. St. Catharines was in the geographical centre of the Niagara Peninsula, which possessed rich agricultural land and moderate climate year round making it a centre of the tender fruit industry in Canada. But it also was rich in hydro-electric power which attracted many new industries that grew up along the banks of the very busy canal, used to carry boat traffic through Niagara and traversing the Escarpment through a series of locks.
These are pictures of the Shikluna Shipbuilding operations in Port Dalhousie (above) and the Market Square in downtown St. Catharines (right), both indicative of the growth of the community at the time. Shikluna built boats specifically for the commerce along the lakes and up and down the canal using streams and lift locks to climb the considerable height of the Niagara escarpment. Market Square thrived on the fruits and vegetables always plentiful and of excellent quality.
Another important driver of growth in St. Catharines was the newly established automobile industry. St. Catharines was already home to McKinnon Dash & Hardware which was producing parts for the new machine called the automobile. But it really came into its own when St. Catharines became the site of the first automobile manufacturing company in Canada. REO was the company that was the forerunner of the Oldsmobile Company, R E O being the initials of its founder Ransom E. Olds. It began production here in St. Catharines, along what was called Race Street, in 1909 but the First World War and production of war materiel led to its being moved to Windsor. However, McKinnon Carriage Makers was bought up by the then growing General Motors and St Catharines grew along with G. M..
Prior to 1914, the Canadian Government let it be known it was going to build another channel for the Welland Ship Canal and reduce it from the original 28 locks to only 8. This was occurring at the peak of immigration of the Jews of Eastern Europe coming to North America in search of a better life for themselves and their families. The poor Jews from the Pale of Settlement in Eastern Europe came to Toronto first where they found huge numbers like themselves. However, they also heard about opportunities beyond that city and St. Catharines was one place where they spread out to. This was the way all the small towns in southern Ontario came to be the host of small numbers of Jews. The Jewish community here was on its way.