Skyline of a Community: Imperial Oil 1918-2008

By Lori McKay - The Weekly News
George Fullerton began his career at the Dartmouth Oil Refinery soon after graduating from high school in December 1951.
He started out as an office boy, then moved into the accounting department. He felt he wasn't making enough money in that position, so he worked his way up to senior operator and later became a safety co-ordinator.
"I have nothing bad to say about working there. I enjoyed mostly everything about my work," said Fullerton, 77. "It was a great group of people to work with."
Fullerton was one of about 30 people at last month's Dartmouth Heritage Museum exhibit opening, Skyline of a Community: Imperial Oil 1918-2008.
The 35-year refinery employee said he thought the exhibit had a nice cross-section of pictures from the past.
"A lot of the photos were before my time, but I did recognize people in some of the pictures."
Fullerton said he still meets regularly with a group of retired refinery staff.
"About 15 or 20 of us workers get together for lunch every month, at least those of us that are still young enough, or just barely," he said with a laugh.
Although he says his memory isn't the greatest, he does recall a few things from his early days with Imperial.
"We used to have this old lunch room that was heated with pipes, with steam going through them.?We had no way to heat up anything back then, except by putting your tea bottle or tin can on the pipes. You had to make sure you punched a hole in your tin can first, though, or there would be trouble," he said. "That was before we had microwaves making life easier."
On Feb. 18, 1918, the Imperial Oil company began producing in Dartmouth to meet the demands of the First World War. Since then, it has grown continuously and now occupies about 260 hectares. It has a processing capacity of up to 90,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
A constant in the community, the company has had a significant influence on the surrounding area of Woodside over the years, as well as the rest of Dartmouth.
Museum curator Crystal Martin said of all the facts she came across during her exhibit research, she was most surprised about the sense of community behind the company.
"They actually created a village for their employees," said Martin.
Imperoyal Village was built in the 1920s with about 33 homes. (It was dismantled in 1962 and the houses sold off to make room for a refinery expansion.)
"They (Imperial) would do things like use the company trucks to pick up kids for Sunday school events, and held an annual staff picnic on McNab's Island."
In the 1920s there was no ambulance service in Dartmouth, and Halifax had only a horse-drawn emergency service, so because of the location of the refinery and Imperoyal Village, Martin said the company bought the first motor ambulance in the city.
"It was things like that, that made the company's contribution to the area so significant," she said.
The exhibit takes up the two showcase rooms on the second floor of Evergreen House, and the wall panels are filled with little tidbits of refinery trivia that many residents will recall, including popular slogans from the past. "Put a tiger in your tank" was the company's greatest fuel-promotion slogan of all time, which came out in the 1960s. People might also remember the 1990s slogan, "You're on your way with Esso." And did you know that in the 1920s Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindburgh actually stayed overnight at the home of the refinery's superintendent?
One of the display cases holds popular memorabilia such as the tiger tails (which people would hang around the neck of their gas tank and then shut the door, so it looked like a tiger tail hanging out), Extra Motor Oil matches and drinking glasses sporting the Tiger mascot.
The exhibit's detailed wall panels are on loan from the Dartmouth refinery's 90th anniversary committee, a milestone that was celebrated last year. Martin said some artifacts were contributed from past and present employees, and others were added from the museum's collection.
Skyline of a Community: Imperial Oil 1918-2008 is on display at the Dartmouth Heritage Museum until March 21. For information, call 464-2300.
lmckay@hfxnews.ca
In conjunction with the exhibit, Dr. John Hartley, who was born in Imperoyal Village and lived there for 17 years, will give a presentation, A Little of Dartmouth's Past, Imperoyal Village: The Wonder-Town, on Friday, Feb. 27 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Helen Creighton Room, Alderney Gate Library; and Saturday, Feb. 28, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the basement of Evergreen House, 26 Newcastle Street, Dartmouth. Admission by donation (due to limited space, RSVP required for Saturday only).

OVER THE YEARS

* 1754: The Imperial Oil refinery in Dartmouth was built on the former site of a fort constructed to protect the city from enemy vessels coming up the south eastern passage. In 1798 it was named Fort Clarence.
* 1885: Brothers Sid and Frank Shatford owned the first oil business in Nova Scotia, opening an office in north-end Halifax in order to distribute kerosene, which was in high demand.
* 1916: Imperial purchased 228 acres from Peter McNab and 151 acres from John F. Grant. 1,500 men were hired for the construction of the refinery; 300 of them lived in company camps.
* 1917: During the Halifax Explosion, Imperial camps provided food and shelter for the victims.
* 1918: On Feb. 18 the refinery went into production, processing 2,000 barrels of crude oil each day to meet the demands of the First World War.
* 1919: First annual picnic at McNab's Island on Aug. 30.
* 1920: One of the first paved roads in Nova Scotia was laid from Dartmouth to the refinery.
* 1920s: The Imperoyal Village consisted of 33 homes.
* 1924: The refinery employed 414 employees and was producing 8,000 barrels a day.
* 1927: The refinery needed more space for expansion and purchased the 34-acre site of old Fort Clarence for a price of $19,000. It was producing up to 10,000 barrels a day.
* 1940s: Fort Clarence was levelled to make room for the refinery expansion.
* 1946: The company of Imperial Oil introduced the brand name Esso.
* 1956: The refinery underwent a complete rebuilding and plant modernization.
* 1960: The refinery was processing 60,000 barrels of oil a day.
* 1962: Imperial Village was dismantled and the houses were sold off to make room for a new plant.
TODAY: The refinery employs between 180 and 190 people and between 50 to 200 contractors at any one time. It currently processes 90,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The parent organization of Imperial Oil is Exxon Mobile.