11/09/2026
👞 In 1861, Fredericton was home to a remarkable 26 boot and shoe makers despite being home to only 6,000 people. Perhaps the best known was the Hartt Boot and Shoe Factory.
The company’s factory, whose building still stands on York Street, took a decade to construct, with the building being completed in 1899.
The company’s name was confusing. It was named after Odbur Hartt, a successful shoe company owner in New York City, who didn’t really have much of anything to do with the Fredericton shoe company.
Naming the factory after Hartt seemed to have been a curious strong-arm effort to lure Hartt to Fredericton.
Hartt’s brother-in-law, John Kilburn, a big investor in the factory and its main promoter, had come up with the name, and kept pestering Hartt to actually become involved explains historian Austin Squires in his book ‘History of Fredericton: The First 200 Years.’
Only five years after the shoe company was named after Hartt did he actually relent and become involved, moving to Fredericton in 1898.
It was a success, and the Hartt Shoe Factory earned an international reputation for its products. In the early 1900s, the company started a national retail expansion. Hartt stores were located in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax, and other Canadian cities.
As for Odbur Hartt, the reluctant namesake, it turned out that Fredericton wasn’t for him. After only six years in Fredericton, he resigned from the company named after him and returned to New York City.
The company thrived without him, continuing until the year 2000. Today, the Hartt Shoe brand also lives on after being "refounded" in 2017.
📸 Photo: The Hartt Shoe Shop’s storefront. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick P194\533
📚Find more forgotten stories from The Maritimes past in the Backyard History books: backyardhistory.ca/books
