History
The dry goods store that later became the Robert Simpson Company opened in 1858 in Newmarket, Ontario. The store was destroyed by a fire in 1870 and reopened two years later, in 1872, in Toronto. The company was renamed the Robert Simpson Company Limited in May 1896 shortly before Robert Simpson's death in 1897. His sudden death on 14 December 1897, at the age of 63, with no son to inherit the business, placed a heavy burden on his wife and his daughter, Margaret. The business was sold in March 1898 for $135,000 to a syndicate of three Toronto businessmen, Harris Henry Fudger, Joseph Flavelle, and Alfred Ernest Ames.
Charles Luther (C.L.) Burton - In 1912 became assistant general manager at the Robert Simpson Company then under the directorship of his old friend and mentor H. H. Fudger. By 1929, Burton was president of Simpson’s, becoming chairman of the board in 1948 when his son Edgar assumed the presidency.
The store in downtown Toronto included one of Toronto's most exclusive restaurants, the Arcadian Court, which opened in 1929. The store was acquired by Hudson's Bay Company in 1978, and the restaurant is still in operation today. Throughout its history Simpsons was the traditional carriage trade department store in Toronto, competing with T. Eaton Co. The motto "You'll enjoy shopping at Simpson's" was conceived by Robert Simpson and remained the company's slogan until its acquisition by the Hudson's Bay Company.
Read more about this topic: Simpsons (department Store)
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“We said that the history of mankind depicts man; in the same way one can maintain that the history of science is science itself.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)