Safe found in walls of Ontario antique store belonged to Prime Minister Paul Martin's great-grandfather

A safe found during the demolition of the former Harrow Antique Store in southwestern Ontario belonged to a great grandfather of former Prime Minister Paul Martin, documents from the town show. 

The safe bears the name T.B. Adams, and according to a commemorative document called Colchester 225: 150 Historical Facts put out by the Town of Essex in 2017, Adams owned a general store at the same location as the antique store and was the maternal great grandfather of Paul Martin.

That would also mean Adams was the grandfather of the wife of Paul Martin Sr., Nell Martin.

The passage in the commemorative history document reads on page 26: "Paul Martin, spent his childhood summers at the family cottage in Colchester and as a teenager worked in the Lake Erie fishery and on local farms. His maternal grandparents, Edgar and Amelia Adams, owned a general store in McGregor. His great grandfather, T.B. Adams, owned the general store at the end of Queen Street in Harrow."

Katharine Gagnon and her husband Marc, own Gagnon Demolition and Salvage, and found the safe. She was surprised by the connection.

"Oh really. That's a coincidence yeah," said Gagnon.

"There was rumour before we started the demolition that there might have been a safe in the building," said Marc Gagnon. " And as it happened, my machine operator, Tim Thornton, found the back of the safe after he tore one of the walls down. So we went around and there was another wall on the front of it. So we took it all apart and exposed and found it."

The safe — which about the size of two apartment-sized refrigerators — was built by the J & J Taylor company in Toronto. The company was founded in 1855 and went out of business in 1924.

The Harrow Antique Store building was once a Stedman's dime store. It was built in 1870.

To make matters even more interesting, while the main exterior door of the safe was unlocked, there is another safe inside which is locked with a combination. The Gagnon's have hired a locksmith to open that part of the safe and hope there's something interesting inside.

"I was thinking there'd be documents in there that you might want to share with the town of Harrow and donate ... any of the important papers that might lead back to that time," said Katharine Gagnon.

The safe is now sitting in the Gagnon's warehouse in McGregor, Ont. The locksmith is planning to visit the warehouse on Friday to open the safe.

Katharine Gagnon said the new owner of the Harrow Antique Store property,  now a vacant lot, wants to buy the safe and incorporate it into the new residential and retail complex he is building on the site.