Mark Fell Rebuilt Downtown Fenelon Falls, Beginning in 1919
Mark Fell grew up near Bury’s Green, his father died when he was young and he joined the military during the Great War to escape his unfortunate situation. He later said that when he volunteered, he had just $1 in his pocket. He served in the 21st Battalion, near Ypres from 1917 to the end of the War—in time to witness some of the most intense fighting. He was wounded with shrapnel in the left foot, but returned to active duty, and wondered if a shell hole in no man’s land would be his final resting place. While living in the trenches he wrote poetry to capture his sentiments. But he was one of the fortunate soldiers who survived the war and returned to Fenelon Falls.
He invested his gratuity to buy a cement block maker, cement mixer and 6 hp – 1 cylinder Fairbanks-Morse gas engine to run it. Mixing together sand, stone, water and cement, he was very particular about how he mixed each batch to produce high quality cement blocks, from a few forms. At his peak, he would make 60 blocks at a time. By the fall of 1919, he had made enough concrete blocks to cover the initial $1900 investment, and built a large proportion of Fenelon Falls—one block at a time. Examples of his buildings include the Fenelon Theatre, the Fenelon Dairy (Slices and Scoops), Pogue’s Garage (Daisy Mart, Re-max and Pharmasave), Bill Black’s Barber Shop (Fenelon Marketplace) and McFarland’s Store (Diana’s Gift Shop and Greenleaf Cannabis).
Needless to say, it took a very long time to make all the blocks, then lay them to create a building. Mark carried on making blocks until after the Second World War, but then curtailed his operations when Len Jubb started selling them at his building centre located at the Glenarm Road and Highway 35 (Now MR Flooring). Yet, Mark carried on his masonry and carpentry well into the age of commercial cement blocks. He was one of the hardest workers around, and earned a reputation as one of the region’s best builders, often labouring by himself. Not only did he build a significant proportion of downtown Fenelon Falls, but he built many local barns.
