Village Hall

Village Hall. . , Replica Building Built 1979/1980, Originally built to house the A.E. Keough Machine Shop collection dating from the early 20th century. It is now used as rental and programming space at the Village. , Machine shops in urban centres marked the move away from blacksmiths for metal working. Machine tools were faster, stronger, more accurate and more consistent than the work of a blacksmith. Machine shops could also work with a wide variety of metals such as iron casting, steel, brass, and bronze in block, bar, shaft or tube form. The purpose of machine shop equipment is to cut pieces of metal to the shape, size and finish needed for a particular part of a product. The machine tool can provide greater accuracy, speed, and strength than the blacksmith can, and with less manua! skill. Each machine tool is designed to carry out a different variety of operations and despite the large size of many jobs, it can machine surfaces to within a thousandth of an inch of a required dimension., In 1918, Arthur Keough walked into the Warren Brothers Machine Shop, then located at 314 Talbot Street, looking for washing machine parts. When one of the owers offered him an apprenticeship, he enthusiastically agreed. In 1923, the Warren Brothers moved their business to the corner of Rectory Street and Hamilton Road, and in 1927 they erected a new building to house the shop. In 1945, after 27 years working in the Warren Brothers Shop, Keough purchased the building for $4,707. When the A.E. Keough Machine Shop closed in 1979, Keough was still using the same turn of the century machinery which the Warren Brothers had used. The original shop at 109 Rectory Street has since been demolished, but the contents of Keough's shop were donated to Fanshawe Pioneer Village in 1979. The central line shaft and pulleys that once powered machinery are still visible inside.