The Independent

The home of the first business in Courtright – said to be the former haunt of gangster Al Capone – is being torn down.

Demolition of what once was the Cathcart General Store started July 21.

Local historian Kip Cuthbert says the building dates back to around the 1850’s as a general store. “William Cathcart established his general store here around 1860, making it one of the earliest businesses in what would become the village of Courtright. It was already serving the community years before the railway arrived,” he says in a Facebook post in the Lambton County History Rocks page.

In the 1900s and 1910s – the beginning of the war years – the front part was still a grocery store, Cuthbert said, while in the back they slaughtered older horses and packaged the meat to be sent to the U.S. to be mixed with hamburger meat and sold as hamburgers.

Cuthbert says there was a brothel upstairs at that time.

In the 1920s and 30s it was a popular burlesque hall. Al Capone, who hid at the Bedard Hotel during his rum running days, crossed the street to take a gander.

The general store was run by the Bonnett family.

Eventually, the building was used by the Order of the Eastern Star and Masons and the main floor was rented out to the LCBO, with locals recalling how they had to go into the liquor store, write down what they wanted and it was retrieved for them.

There are also tales of a number of thefts there, including when the culprits removed three layers of brick to get their ill-gotten gains.

The owners of the building in a July 7th letter to St. Clair Township council, said it will take about two weeks for the building to be demolished. The building had also been damaged during the July 18th storm which swept across the St. Clair River causing damage from Corunna to Courtright.