The Yellow Club
"To house the management, clerical, professional, and technical employees, the Canadian Copper Company built a residential club house, the Yellow Club. The building was on the northeast corner of Serpentine and Granite Streets. It also served as a hotel for visiting company officials and other dignitaries.” A Corporate View of Housing and Community in a Company Town: Copper Cliff, 1886-1920 by Eileen A. Goltz
K.Z. Postcard collection. City of Greater Sudbury Heritage Museums Collection
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Yellow Club was the first residential club-house, built in 1888 on the site of Bank of Toronto, and was the official residence for Canadian Copper Co. officials. To accommodate the growing bachelor population, several other clubs were built about 1902-1903. On Park St. the Matte and Red Club housed the superintendent and staff of the smelter, as well as Phil R. Bradley, H. J. Baird, Roger Taylor. Serpentine St. had three clubhouses, The Central, at the head of the street going down the subway, another near Gribble St., and Brays, near Mahons Tailor Shop. These clubs housed budding engineers and smelter superintendents. Reminiscences of the Early Days By J. E. McKerrow The Inco Triangle February 1, 1953
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From the 1911 Census of the Yellow Club, 17 Serpentine Street, Copper Cliff, McKim Township, Nipissing District Mary Frances Awerell, age 28, Head, born February 1883 in Ontario, Irish origin, Housekeeper at Clubhouse, employed 52 weeks, earnings in 1910 $360.; Annie Elizabeth Martey, age 14, Domestic, born July 1897 in Ontario, English origin, employed 52 weeks earning $180.; Lodgers Duncan John MacKinnon, age 28, born in Ontario, Scotch origin, Time Clerk at the Smelter, employed 52 weeks earning $950.; Paul E. Vallmer, age 47, born in USA, immigrated in 1910, English origin, employed 52 weeks earning $2500.; Laurence Franklin Earls, age 28, born in Ontario, Irish origin, Scale Clerk at Scalehouse, employed 52 weeks, earning $960.; Elmer Earls, age 22, born in Ontario, Irish origin, Student; Frank Learned, age 21, born in Quebec, English origin, Student; Norman F. Gamell, age 20, born in Quebec, English origin, Sampler at Cobalt Plant, employed 52 weeks, earning $840.; John E. Campbell, age 26, born in Ontario, Scotch origin, Assistant Chemist Canadian Copper Company, employed 52 weeks, earnings $900.; Allan Forster Brock, age 21, born in Ontario, English origin, Mining Engineer, employed 16 weeks, earnings $200.; Charles S. Phillips, age 25, born in Ontario , Italian origin, Draughtsman, Canadian Copper Company, employed 52 weeks, earnings $1000.; Oswald Stanley, age 25, born in Ontario, Irish origin, Student; John St. Germain, age 23, born USA, immigrated in 1910, French origin, Assistant Mine Surveyor, employed 11 weeks, earning $195.; Edgar F. Annin, age 23, born in Ontario, Scotch origin, Draftsperson.
According to the 1911 Vernon’s Directory or Copper Cliff, additional residents at the Yellow Club were Chas Morris, Assistant Mine Surveyor, Canadian Copper Company and Gustav Nyblum, Assistant Chemist Canadian Copper Company.
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Lloyd Sleaver of Copper Cliff was one year old when his father was killed in a logging accident In 1905 in St. Charles. There were six children in the family and five went into an orphanage in Toronto while Lloyd's mother came to Copper Cliff with the youngest and found work at the Yellow Club as housekeeper. When Lloyd was nine his mother remarried and brought the children to Copper Cliff, "We came on the train to Copper Cliff station and I got a big kick out of riding in the two-horse surrey with the fringe that shuttled between the station and the town." Inco Triangle August 1, 1965
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K.Z. Postcard collection. City of Greater Sudbury Heritage Museums Collection
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In November of 1913, The Yellow Club minstrel troupe gave an impromptu performance on the clubhouse verandah.
In 1914 A Landmark Departs..."The wreckers commenced work on the Yellow Club building on Monday morning, and thus we say good-bye to one of the oldest buildings in Copper Cliff, a building that has been a landmark for over 25 years. The building was bought by Isaac Hayer and Sam Lehto who will use the lumber to build two houses in Shanty Town. The site will be occupied by the new Bank of Toronto building which will occupy a frontage of forty feet on the Main Street will be 37 feet deep. It will be a handsome two-storey structure built of brick and stone and the upstairs will consist of residential quarters for Manager McNab. The building will be arranged with special reference to the pay day rush, so that the crowd will enter at one door pass in single file behind a heavy brass rail to the paying teller and out through another door, thus obviating all the crushing which is a feature of pay day now. We congratulate the Bank of Toronto on their foresight in erecting such a substantial structure which is only another proof of the permanence of Copper Cliff as a town." The Sudbury Star May 23, 1914
In 1914 A Landmark Departs..."The wreckers commenced work on the Yellow Club building on Monday morning, and thus we say good-bye to one of the oldest buildings in Copper Cliff, a building that has been a landmark for over 25 years. The building was bought by Isaac Hayer and Sam Lehto who will use the lumber to build two houses in Shanty Town. The site will be occupied by the new Bank of Toronto building which will occupy a frontage of forty feet on the Main Street will be 37 feet deep. It will be a handsome two-storey structure built of brick and stone and the upstairs will consist of residential quarters for Manager McNab. The building will be arranged with special reference to the pay day rush, so that the crowd will enter at one door pass in single file behind a heavy brass rail to the paying teller and out through another door, thus obviating all the crushing which is a feature of pay day now. We congratulate the Bank of Toronto on their foresight in erecting such a substantial structure which is only another proof of the permanence of Copper Cliff as a town." The Sudbury Star May 23, 1914
