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It hits you when you walk through the doors: the massive space, the quiet, the rich earth-colours, the soft and strong textures, and a certain pungent smell that only comes from one thing. Here is Canada’s largest store of its kind and one that gives the whole town a nickname — Leathertown! This is Acton, and we are in The Olde Hide House.

The story of Acton and its leather industry began in 1829 when Rufus Adams and his two brothers, Zenas and Ezra, arrived in the area and purchased land to farm. Ezra built a gristmill on his property. The Adams brothers opted to survey their farms into town lots and called the settlement “Adamsville.” In 1833 Rufus Adams purchased the land where the The Olde Hide House is situated today. By 1842 Abraham Nelles established the first tannery in Adamsville. The Adams brothers’ combined holdings, at that time, had reached approximately 500 acres. In 1844 the postmaster, Robert Swan, renamed the village “Acton” in honour of his birthplace in Northumberland, England.

The ownership of the various parcels into which Rufus Adams’s original lot had been divided changed hands several times over the ensuing years. In 1856 the Grand Trunk Railway ran a rail line through it and opened the Acton Train Station.

The tannery industry was flourishing, and in 1852 Abraham Nelles’s tannery was sold to Messrs. Coleman and McIntryre of Dundas, Ontario. It burned down that very same year and was rebuilt. It was, in turn, acquired by the firm of McCloshen and Atcheson, who turned it over to Sessins, Toby and Co.; George L. Beardmore purchased it in 1865. Thus a period of frequent turnover ended, as the tannery stayed in the Beardmore family for more than half a century.

The Beardmore family had been associated with tanning in Ontario since 1840. George Beardmore was born in Islington, London, England, on February 16, 1818. At the age of 14 he sailed from Bristol to Canada. He returned to England in November 1838 in a bit of a quandary. He was a very religious young man and had considerable trouble reconciling his burning desire for wealth with his pastoral beliefs. April 1839 was a turning point, and he and his younger brother, Joseph, left for Canada.

In 1840 the two brothers built the first stone tannery building in Canada, in Hamilton. The foundation for the building was laid on March 31, 1840. The Beardmores worked hard and improved, expanded and created a successful leather business. On the night of July 11, 1840, disaster struck. The tannery was destroyed by fire.

Joseph Beardmore’s health failed and he returned to England on April 15, 1846. He died at the age of 33 in 1852. Two years later George re-established himself in Toronto, where he engaged in business as a leather merchant and at the same time continued to supply the trade in Hamilton. He then bought a small tannery at Grand River which was later destroyed by fire. Next, he bought a tannery in Guelph. In 1865 he closed shop in Guelph and headed to Acton, where he purchased the Sessions, Toby and Co. tannery in 1865.

George Beardmore’s four sons all followed him into the business and became partners. They were Walter D. Beardmore, 1849–1915; George W. Beardmore, 1851–1934; Alfred Beardmore, 1859–1946; and Fred Beardmore, 1871–1967.

The role a tannery played was extremely important to the economics of a settlement. The tannery was a great help to homesteaders who were clearing their land. The settlers felled hemlock trees, peeled their bark, and piled and delivered them to the tannery for cash during the winter months. The Acton Free Press once reported farmers bringing bark to the tannery at a rate of 20 to 30 loads at a time, by teams, in a long string, down the main street of Acton.

The hemlock spruce were not considered to have any other value before the Second World War, and whole stands of these trees were clear-cut just for the bark, the wood left in the bush to rot. The bark, on average, contained 8–10 percent tannin. This tannin solution produced a firm, quality leather with a reddish cast.

In 1872 a serious fire at the Acton tannery destroyed most of the buildings, but the Beardmores rebuilt immediately. By 1876 hemlock bark was in critical supply and the Beardmores decided to move their tanning operations to Bracebridge in the Muskokas. Mr. Charles Knees, a native of Sweden, took over the Acton tannery in 1877 and tanned horsehide for shoe uppers.

By 1887 the Beardmores, while maintaining operations in Muskoka, returned to Acton, repurchased the tannery, and began the tanning of belt leather. The Beardmores’ holdings were considerable by now and new buildings were erected. Eventually, the main Beardmore tanneries in Acton had a combined floor space of nearly 100,000 square metres (1,000,000 square feet), one of the largest tanning operations in the British Empire.

In 1889 Beardmore and Company built a large brick warehouse (the present site of the Olde Hide House) next to the railway line. When the raw hides were brought in by rail, they were stored here and then transported by horse-drawn wagons to the tannery for processing. Finished leather was also stored in this building, while awaiting transportation by rail to other destinations. This arrangement soon proved to be unsatisfactory, as the route from the warehouse to the plant passed through a low-lying, swampy area that proved to be almost impassable in the spring months. The problem was solved when a spur line was built from the main rail line to the Beardmore plant, making direct shipments possible.

In 1933 the warehouse was no longer required and was sold to Amos Mason for $1,500. Mr. Mason established the Mason Knitting Company in the building and continued operation until 1969. That year the property was sold to Frank Heller and Company, a firm that specialized in the production of split leather.

In June 1980 Fred Dawkins, Ron Heller, and Don Dawkins purchased the building and The Olde Hide House Company in an effort to re-establish Acton’s leather heritage. Both families had several generations of experience in various aspects of the leather industry. Don Dawkins, the president and general manager of the Olde Hide House, his wife Faye, and sons Stephen, David, and Jamie, acquired the controlling interest in the firm in 1982.

The nature and scope of the activities conducted in the acre-sized building have varied over the years. At one point, one-third of the building was devoted to arts and crafts studios (including glass-blowing and pottery); from 1983 until 1994 a restaurant called Jack Tanner’s Table occupied almost 20 percent of the building. Today, the entire 3,000-square-metre (32,000 square feet) structure is devoted to the merchandising of leather garments, furniture, accessories, and gifts, making The Olde Hide House not only the largest leather goods store in Canada, but the largest anywhere in the world. In 1999 nearly 250,000 visitors came from more than 43 countries, and they signed the leather-bound guest book in the store’s front foyer. Any trip to Acton should include the sensory experience of The Olde Hide House.

Often a main industry will dominate the profile of a town, but if you like a little mystery, Acton has some of that, too. Most visitors are completely unaware that the town hall is haunted.

The building was constructed in 1882, to house the municipal council, at a cost of $4,574. An expansive public hall and stage on the second floor, with dancing and other entertainments, served as a social centre for the village. The main floor of the building accommodated the village constable and a lock-up cell for prisoners — it’s still in place today. During the onset of regional government in 1974, the town hall was slated for demolition, but a group of concerned citizens saved the historic building. In 1983 Heritage Acton purchased the town hall for $1.00 and began renovations. They did not, however, manage to renovate or relocate the ghost!

Some people believe Jimmy, the former caretaker of the building, is the ghost. Jimmy was a very quiet, hermit-like individual who shied away from people. Sometime after his death, in 1946, footsteps and sweeping sounds would be heard on the upper floor of the town hall.

The architect hired to work on the restoration project in the 1980s actually managed to photograph the shadowy outline of a human form on the empty second floor. On another occasion a reporter, touring the building, was taken upstairs and suddenly felt a cold shiver down one side of her body. She thought a window had been left open, but soon discovered that the windows hadn’t been opened in years.

In the fall of 1997, a reporter from Acton’s Halton Cable Network slept overnight in an attempt to capture Jimmy on film. Although he felt nothing unusual, he left his camera turned on, just in case. The next day when the film was developed, he discovered a fleeting image of a floating light in the shape of a face. The shape was suspended in space. Jimmy was well-known for not wishing to be disturbed at night.

Whether you like a sensory experience or an extra-sensory experience, Acton will give you both, so be sure to add it to your itinerary.