Kate Jannetta-Nippard
Kate Janetta-Nippard is the co-owner of Hillcrest Home Hardware on Vaughan Road, just south of St. Clair. The Janetta family have had a hardware store in the neighbourhood for over 45 years. Kate’s great-grandfather immigrated from Italy in 1925 and opened up Janetta's Fruit Shop on Bathurst and Alcina, now known as Green Farms. She talks about the importance of community, and her memories of growing up in the area and joining the family business.
AUDIO INTERVIEW
TRANSCRIPT
00:01 MARNY (interviewer): Today is November 12th, 2024. My name is Marny Gibson, and I'm interviewing Kate Nippard, who is the co-owner of the Hillcrest Home Hardware on Vaughan Road, just south of St. Clair. This interview is for the St. Clair West Oral History Project. Hi, Kate.
00:21 KATE (guest): Hi, Marny, thank you for having me.
00:23 MARNY: My first question for you is how long have you been working at the Hillcrest Home Hardware?
00:35 KATE: So I've been officially working in the store for 12 years. I started just after having my second son who's 13. But my family have had the hardware store either on Bathurst or on Vaughan Road, or on St. Clair for 45 years. My dad is Vince Jannetta. We have been a member of the community for almost a hundred years.
00:55 KATE: My great-grandfather immigrated from Italy in 1925 and opened up Jannetta's Fruit Shop, which is on Bathurst and Alcina, now known as Green Farms. But we have had the hardware store, there's been a hardware store on Vaughn Road or on St. Clair for a hundred years. And my parents purchased it in 1978 and took over as the owners. And then now my husband and I are officially co-owners as of last year.
01:21 MARNY: Cool. Well, tell me more about the Jannetta connection to this neighborhood.
01:28 KATE: So my great -grandfather came in 1925, opened up Jannetta's fruit shop. My grandparents had six children and my dad worked in that store and all of his brothers and sister worked in that store.
01:42 KATE: My uncle Paul is Paul Jannetta of Urban Fare Catering who has also been established in the neighborhood for, I believe, probably almost 40 years at this point. He's had various food shops and now has the catering business. And so we have sort of always been around in the neighborhood, and you know, always came back to it. It feels like it's our home.
02:04 MARNY: Yeah. So your great -grandfather purchased the store and it was on Bathurst and Alcina, right?
02:12 KATE: Yes, yes. My grandfather then took it over. I don't know the exact timing on that because it was much, much before me. But my grandfather then sold it in his 60s to the, I believe, the same owners who now own it as Green Farms. So that was probably in the late ‘90s.
02:31 MARNY: Okay. So he ran it until the late ‘90s.
02:34 KATE: Yeah. Yeah. He did.
02:35 MARNY: Okay. My personal note here, I, as a young girl, would go into the Jannetta store almost every day after school. And we would run up my parents’ tab by buying, my, my sisters and I, buying candies and having a nice chat with Mrs. Jannetta or Mr. Jannetta. Such nice people.
02:54 KATE: Yeah. They both worked in there, so both my grandparents were in there, and then the kids all worked in there at some point as well.
03:00 MARNY: Yes, and how did it become that your grandfather was the one out of the six children that bought the store?
03:09 KATE: So my dad is the one of the six. My grandfather was actually the only son of my great-grandfather.
03:12 MARNY: Oh, I see.
03:13 KATE: Yeah, so he only had sisters. He was the only son. And in traditional Italian families, you pass on your business to your son. So my grandfather was then the owner when my great-grandfather passed away.
03:26 MARNY: Right, okay. And then Vince didn't want to run a fruit store.
03:40 KATE: No, he did not, nor did any of the other kids as far as I know. So my dad purchased the hardware store from a gentleman named Sid, don't know his last name, in 1978. He wanted to remain a businessman in the neighborhood because he had grown up in the neighborhood and had strong connections to it and wanted to make sure he, you know, had something here so he purchased the hardware store. He did work in it - very short term - before purchasing it and then was 26. I may be wrong on that one, when he purchased it.
04:03 MARNY: Wow
04:04 KATE: Yeah and so yeah.
04:06 MARNY: Good for him. So that hardware store has been in the family since 1978, which, um, help me with my math, that makes it nearly 50, 45 years, did you say?
04:20 KATE: Yeah, yeah, we celebrated 45 years this year, so next year it'll be 46.
04:24 MARNY: Fantastic, fantastic. Well, so there's going to be a lot to talk about in terms of how St. Clair has evolved over time. But first of all, did you yourself grow up in this neighborhood?
04:38 KATE: So I lived in the neighborhood on Tyrrell Avenue until I was five. When I was five, we moved up to Thornhill. Mainly because at the time my parents wanted a bigger home and there weren't a lot of bigger homes in this neighborhood at the time. Lived up there until I was 21 and then I moved back with my now husband in an apartment above the store; in the building we're currently in, 'cause we do own that building.
05:03 KATE: So, but even when I was out of here, growing up in Thornhill, my grandparents still lived on Burnside and we still had the store. So I was down here every weekend and spent all of my weekends in the neighborhood because my parents had to run the store. They ran it together. And so we were down here all the time, walking in the neighborhood.
05:25 MARNY: Right, and visiting with your grandparents as well as your own parents. So how has St. Clair changed, or the neighborhood changed over the years?
05:35 KATE: A lot. I mean, I remember walking from my grandmother's house up to the corner, which is now Popeye's restaurant, but used to be 7 -Eleven. And I remember walking up to 7-Eleven and they used to have a little candy pick and mix and we would go in with our loonies and get a little bag of pick and mix and then walk over to the store. 'Cause at one point we were on St. Clair so we would just walk into the store and visit my parents and then we would all go back to my grandparents and have dinner on Saturday night. Always had family dinner on Saturday night at their house.
06:05 KATE: So I remember the 7-Eleven there, I remember the Petro gas station which is now going to become a condo on the north east corner. I remember, I mean, I remember it all pre-condo, no condos at all, all of, you know. The north side of St. Clair was all just little shops like it was on the south side. So I definitely remember it all pre-condo, that's for sure.
06:29 KATE: But yeah, walking around the neighborhood and going into all the local stores and getting all our little treats that we could take back to my grandmother's. Playing in Hillcrest School Community. We played in their playground all the time because it was directly across the street from Burnside so we played there all the time as kids
06:46 MARNY: Oh, yeah. And did you - was the Kresge’s still there when you were young, or no?
06:52: KATE: Where’s that?
06:54 MARNY: Kresge was where the Shoppers Drug Mart is now. Was it a -
06:59 KATE: - uh I wouldn't say that I remember the name of the store. I remember there being stores there before it was Shoppers. Yeah, because we had the hardware store, it was where the health food store is now. We were there at one point before the health food store was there.
07:13 KATE: Oh, Evergreen.
07:14 KATE: Yes, yes, yeah. So we were in there - it was our hardware store for a little while until the building where we are now went up for sale. 'Cause it used to be a restaurant. And then my parents purchased the building in 1995, I believe.
07:28 MARNY: So it must have been quite a reno to change from a restaurant to a hardware store. -
07:33 KATE: Yes, it was a lot, a lot of gutting, a lot of, you know, taking out booths and like all of that sort of stuff. And then getting all of the shelving in and stocking it. And yeah, it was. I was in high school at the time, so I do remember being put to work and coming down and being like, all right, you're going to fill the walls with stuff.
07:51 MARNY: Oh my gosh, so you got some practical experience in the business.
07:56 KATE: Absolutely, and then I went into marketing and advertising so I learned how to do store setup and things like that.
08:06 MARNY: So we've seen a change. There's far more development now in St. Clair at that end around the Bathurst area. Do you ever go further west on St. Clair?
08:19 Kate: Yeah, I actually live further west. So my home is actually closer to Scarlet Road all the way at the end of St. Clair. But yeah, my children go to Saint, went to St. Alphonsus elementary school, which is just on Atlas. Yes, so we spent a lot of time walking from the store to the school and back. And so yeah, we frequent a lot of the shops along that way probably even as far over as Dufferin. You know, on good days when it's nice out and you want to walk that far.
08:46 MARNY: Yes. Yeah. And so have you seen much change in that part of the further west part of St. Clair?
08:52 KATE: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I remember a lot of it being car repair shops. There was a lot of car repair shops between that section.
08:59 MARNY: Yes, that's right.
09:00 KATE: On both sides, north and south side. I mean, there was also a lot of banks that they've now converted into, you know, I know there's Capoeira studio there over near Oakwood that used to be a bank. So yeah, no, definitely a lot. And then a lot of condos, you know, a lot of condos near Winona there now, you know. Not too many over closer to Dufferin I guess, but definitely in between there's definitely been a lot.
09:27 MARNY: And a lot of restaurants, too.
09:29 KATE: A lot of restaurants. But I love the local restaurants
09:31 MARNY: You do?
09:32 KATE: Yeah, oh yeah. Absolutely. A lot of them are frequent customers so it's, it's great to have, you know, people who come in and say, oh come in, you know we're opening this up soon. Like, we do get a lot of insider information in that aspect because a lot of people when they're getting prepared to open need to frequent a hardware store, so we have been
fortunate to get a lot of inside information as to who's opening new businesses in the neighborhood which has been lovely.
09:58 MARNY: Right. And so you go to - You go out to restaurants?
10:02 KATE: Oh yes, absolutely.
10:03 MARNY: I wouldn't have thought you did much as a younger person because your grandmother was such a cook -
10:08 KATE: She was, and I did learn a lot from her and I do enjoy cooking. But my kids love, you know, when it's a birthday, or a special occasion like that we frequent Ferro very often. We know the family very well. They shop in the store all the time. You know, that's a huge favorite. Emma's [Country] Kitchen, now on the north side is- my mom and dad go there every Sunday morning for brunch before they open the store.
10:31 KATE: So yeah, it's, it's definitely something we love to do. Because they support us so we always want to support them. That's one thing I've seen also change drastically in this community versus others is the push to support local and the push to stay within, you know, your however many blocks it may be. But to really, really try to, you know, support the people who are in here. Because most of us are family businesses still, which a lot of people are quite
surprised by.
10:58 MARNY: Yeah, that's true. Just last week, I was interviewing Tony and Ann Maria Mazza.
11:05 KATE: Oh, yes. Yes, I frequent, that's my butcher. Yeah.
11:10 MARNY: Yeah. And they were saying that things have changed a lot because of the street streetcar for them. How has the streetcar affected your business?
11:19 KATE: I'd say during the construction of the dedicated streetcar lanes, that was a large impact. It was definitely, we saw a much slower traffic. I mean, that was quite some time ago now, but it certainly has helped recently. There was a Home Hardware, Deer Park Home Hardware that used to be over at Yonge and St. Clair, and they had to close last year due to condo development. And we've had an increase in customers based on people who can travel the streetcar from Yonge and St. Clair over to us. So it's definitely helped with bringing new people to us.
11:54 KATE: And in some ways it helped. People don't want to have to travel all the way to Keele, even though the streetcar goes there, to bring back hardware and larger items and such. So it's helped us in a sense that you know they don't want to have to take it sometimes and we can be walked to. But you know the construction definitely slowed down traffic, foot traffic, for a while. But it's brought it back and we've gotten reach from communities that are a little further out than ours that are able to come in because of the streetcar.
12:27 MARNY: So as a young girl did you use the streetcar?
12:30 KATE: I did, I definitely did. Living in Thornhill at the time, there was no public transit when I was up there. I know there is now, but we came down and learned everything about how to get around the city on the TTC because of the streetcar. You know, and even now, my kid now, he's at St. Alphonsus. He's graduating this year, my younger one, but he takes the streetcar all the way west towards Guns Loop, where it ends up. And our house is not too far from there, so he's now learning how to take the TTC because of the streetcar. And he takes it from there to the store and it's definitely been something that I feel comfortable being able to navigate the city because of the streetcars that we've been able to use here.
13:11 MARNY: Yeah, it's been an asset, I would say, a big asset to St. Clair. With some hiccups.
13:18 KATE: Yes.
13:19 MARNY: That's for sure. Can you tell me a bit about your customers?
13:24 KATE: Absolutely. We have, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, the push to shop local has meant that we have had a tremendous amount of customer base who are strictly loyal to the local community shops. We have people talk about it with us, we have people who, you know, my dad has seen their parents and that we are in there and it's kids of people from the community and people who remember my dad as a kid. A lot of that happens and a lot of people coming in and saying “Oh I remember when you were in here as a kid and now my kids are in there sometimes”.
14:00 KATE: So it's nice to have customers who we've seen, you know their families change as the years have gone on. They've watched our family change and then now they've you know they'll come in with their daughters and sons and be like, this is the store where I came when I was little and I got to buy, you know, whatever small item their parents will let them get at the time. So we've definitely seen an increase in that in the community, which is lovely.
14:25 KATE: We also have gotten a lot of new customers based on the condos. You know, as much as everybody's like, oh, they're eyesores and what have you, it has brought us a lot of customers. You know, condos are your own, just like a home. - So you get to do all your own jobs inside and it brings a lot of people in and a lot of people who wanna know how do I hang my photos? How do I paint? What can I paint? What can I, all of those sorts of things. So it's increased customer base for us, and it's nice to have familiar faces who are constantly coming in.
14:54 MARNY: Yes, I mean, that is one of the big advantages of your store is that you can give advice. You can tell people this will work better than this, in this situation. Or this is how to do it and so on, whereas when you do go to those big stores you're not very likely to find somebody that can give you that kind of advice.
15:14 KATE: Yeah, and my dad and my husband who's in there now are also quite handy and thankfully are able to advise based on what they have been doing. We've also got homes in the community. So you're dealing with homes that are plus 100 years old and the walls aren't the same as new walls and a lot of it takes some MacGyvering. And I have to say that my dad and my husband are both excellent at helping to MacGyver repairs in people's homes and in 100 + year-old houses. So it's definitely been a fun one to watch. I mean I'm learning, still as the new counterpart but yes.
15:49 MARNY: Well, I expect that your marketing skills and so on are a lot more necessary than - because you've got the others, you've got the other advice. What about memorable people? Have there been any people that stand out in your mind?
16:07 KATE: There's definitely ones, that - I think my dad may remember people's names a bit better than I do - but there was one particular gentleman who lived on Wychwood. His name is leaving me now at this point, but he shopped in our store for all of my life that I can remember. I remember seeing him in there on Saturdays. He was always doing repairs. He was right at the corner; his home was right at the corner of Wychwood and Benson. And he was in all the time and he was always coming in and chatting with my parents. And his family were from Jamaica and he would tell us all about where he lived and where he grew up. And how, you know, coming into a local store reminded him of being back home and, and having people he went and saw. And he would just sit around and chat.
16:53 KATE: My grandfather was in the store for quite some time before he passed. And people would come in that shopped from him when they were in Janetta's fruit shop and would come into our store and sit and chat with him. And, you know, there's a lot of families that live on Burnside that we remember, the Ambrico family. They were very close to my grandparents. So I have very good memories of them. Also people from inside Wychwood Park. Gabby and her husband, Mel, I can't remember their last name now.
17:23 MARNY: Gabby and Mel Mekinda.
17:24 KATE: Yeah. They have been coming in. Yeah, they had the home, it was a senior's home inside at one point. They have been coming in for years and years and years. Yeah, they're definitely some that stand out to me for sure, that I remember as a child being around my grandparents' house and then having them still come in now to this day.
17:46 MARNY: What about memorable events? Let's start with the store. Have there been any particularly memorable things that have happened in your store?
17:55 KATE: A big one that I remember was moving into the location that we are now. So when we were on St. Clair and then renting for years and years and then being able to purchase a building in the neighborhood was a very monumental occasion. I remember for my parents, because for you know renting was the only option for the longest time. And then when, you know, I was 16 at the time, they were able to get the money and buy the building, and now have ownership in the neighborhood was absolutely phenomenal. So I remember that vividly.
18:27 KATE: We had David Suzuki film a show in the store at one point, not long after we purchased it; about environment and how products have changed and the impact that they've had on the environment. I'm sure there's a recording of that somewhere but I could not tell you where.
18:46 MARNY: Oh, the Nature of Things somewhere.
18:50 KATE: Absolutely. So that, he filmed that in the shop at one point I feel like it was ‘98. That, we did that. So I remember that also being there and having a camera crew and it was, you know, very exciting at the time. Yeah I think that might be a couple of big ones in the store
19:06 KATE: In the neighborhood you know I remember Salsa on St. Clair starting. You know, that wasn't around when I was a kid, but having it startup and having that be a huge draw to the neighborhood, which is fantastic. Yeah, celebrations of people in the community like Albert, Albert's Jamaican, he did a big celebration when they named the laneway after him [Note: Albert Wiggan Lane]. And then when Dutch Dreams - we know the family there as well, the Aben family - when they named the lane after his father [Note: Theo Aben Lane] I remember that as well. So those celebrations of like, you know, community, like pillar community members, you know, and things like that. I definitely have strong memories of those for sure.
19:50 MARNY: Yeah. What about when the Barns opened up? Did that have any impact on your business or just was it a -
19:57 KATE: - I do remember it. I remember when the streetcar still went in there. So I do remember that. I remember going in and watching. My oldest son was fascinated with trains. So I remember always being, you know, going and watching that. I do remember that. I don't know that had a large impact. We do have people who work in the Barns, who are artists in the Barns and part of the art community in there that come in as customers.
20:21 KATE: But, you know, I know the impact it has on my family even now, like my mom frequents the Farmers Market every Saturday. And my brother and sister -in -law live in the neighborhood, well they live above the store as well. And my niece and nephew go to Hillcrest Community School. And they also frequent the Barns. And when they put up the community skating rink, remember doing that all the time, which was at the Barns - yeah, so my brother helped with it a few years ago, making sure to go and flood it when it's cold enough and that, so, yeah.
20:52 MARNY: Oh, good neighbors. They're very good neighbours. Very good neighbours.
20:58 KATE: Well, the community's given so much to us, so we always like to try to give back. And, you know, even my brother, like I may live further west, but I do spend most of my day, most of my time here, and still come back even from home. I'll drive this way to, you know, frequent something here, to support who supports us. And my brother is now living above the store and will never probably leave the community because it has been so like fruitful and just you know that local rink and all of those things that like you almost see those in like Hallmark movies and we live in a Hallmark movie in this community I have to say, so I think that's such a special thing about it.
21:40 MARNY: So Kate, I've heard you mention about your kids going to school in the neighborhood and so I wanted to ask you about the schools that you know of and -
21:56: KATE: - Yeah, absolutely so we, when my husband and I got married we lived above the store. We had our first son who's now 17 while we were living above the store. And was here until he was two in a bit. So he went to St. Alphonsus Daycare, which was inside St. Alphonsus Church, and then affiliated with St. Alphonsus school over on Atlas, and it's a lovely, small community school. So what we loved most about it and what drew us to it - like, was a draw for us was that it's very community-based. They constantly do things, you know, whenever we do fundraisers, we do fundraisers to bring in canned goods or any sort of socks and mittens they do in the winter and then they bring them to local churches so St. Alphonsus church will get some, St. Matthew's will get some, St. Michael's will get some. You know we're always trying to look for schools that also give back to the community, that they're supporting things in the community as well.
22:54 KATE: My niece and few are now at Hillcrest Community School, which I do remember as a kid. I didn't go there as a kid, but we frequented the park and we frequented the playground. And whenever they had like, they always had their Hillcrest Fair in the spring or the summer, we would go to that as kids as well. And I go to it now with my niece and nephew to support the school because they also come in our store, and they support our store. So we like to help support the local schools and we always try to donate to their fundraisers. And teachers come in and buy supplies for projects and science projects. And Hillcrest science teacher comes in every year and purchases batteries and little flashlight lamps to do some sort of science project teaching the kids about electricity. So it's a strong memory for sure to have the schools supporting us and we like to support the schools. And they like to keep it for a community-based as well.
23:49 MARNY: It's been like that for a long time. Hillcrest, I think, is over 100 years old as a school. What about St. Alphonsus?
23:54 KATE: St. Alphonsus had their 50th celebration, 50th year celebration. Oh my goodness, my sons were both there so I can't remember the year, but just a few years ago, they had their 50th celebration. And we were a part of that, it was excellent. We had a big celebration at the school and we had all of the local representatives come in, and we had, you know, people from the Catholic School Board come in, and we had a great big party. It was wonderful.
24:21 MARNY: So, in many ways, what you've been describing has been very positive. Have there been any ways that St. Clair has changed to be more positive? Like, are these things that have gradually got better, or has it always been this type of a neighborhood from your point of view?
24:42 KATE: I think it's always been this sort of a neighborhood. I mean, there was definitely a point, probably when I wasn't living down here as a kid, that I remember there being quite a lot of homelessness in the neighborhood, quite a lot of businesses run down, and all of a sudden it seemed like there was a big focus on rejuvenating the neighborhood. Couldn't tell you the time frame on that exactly, but I feel like it was probably the late 80s, early 90s. And I remember my dad really saying like we need something, like we need some change.
25:13 KATE: And I feel like at the time Councillor Mihevc was around. And he came in and he introduced the streetcar changes and you know was really, really positive on revitalizing the neighborhood. And I think it was always sort of a local community, support community type of place, but it really improved. It really drastically changed, I would say, in the last 10, 15 years that I've seen a really, really big significant change. And that it's been, you know, the “shop local” and “support local” and even new members to the community who are like, “Oh, I didn't think communities like this existed”. You know, and a lot of people think they need to leave the city to find that sort of community. And I don't think that's the case. I think this is like an absolutely treasure of a community for sure.
26:00 MARNY: Yes, you're right about the community activism. I'm old enough to remember the “Stop Spadina Expressway”.
26:09 KATE: I remember, yeah.
26:10 MARNY: Do you remember it?
26:11 KATE: I remember signage about it. I remember, yeah, conversations around it. I mean, I remember my grandmother would take me down to Spadina. We would go all the time and shop for fabric because she loved to sew and there was always fabric shops down there. And yeah, I do have memory of that, but yeah, of the whole project.
26:29 MARNY: The Allen Expressway was supposed to go all the way down right through our community, actually. And people from this community really became very active against it. Was your family involved in that at all, do you know? -
26:45 KATE: Not that I know of. I mean, they've always been supportive of whatever the community is working towards. If there's ever petitions and requests, especially things that are gonna try to keep the community as it is and keep businesses in the community. And we have tons of people now coming and be like, “Please don't close, don't close, don't sell your store to a condo”. And I was like, “I have no intention of doing that. I have no intention of doing that. You know, we don't plan on going anywhere”. So yeah, we've definitely seen a lot of that.
27:18 MARNY: I am sure that your support has really contributed to the feeling of this as a worthwhile project. You know having, even if you don't actually get out, if you're supporting from the background, it makes a difference. So, I think we've pretty much answered my last question: "What is special about the St. Clair neighborhood?" So, I just want to say thank you so much -
27:47 KATE: - oh, thank you -
27:48 MARNY: - for helping us with this interview.
27:51 KATE: Yeah, of course.
Hillcrest Home Hardware
https://www.homehardware.ca/en/store/15827
Phone: (416) 656-9700
Email: hillcrestorders@gmail.com