Al McGrath doesn’t know what’s to become of the business he’s owned since the early 1990s.

“Operating the auction hall was a “wonderful” experience, says Al McGrath.

“Auction is the best place to buy anything.” — Al McGrath

Article/images by John Campbell

Hastings - A chapter is about to close on the history of the Riverside Auction Hall in Hastings.
Owner Al McGrath has sold the business he bought in the early 1990s.

“I’m out at the end of this month,” he said recently. “It is the end of an era. There’s not many of us around anymore.”
McGrath wouldn’t reveal who purchased the Front Street West property and he said he doesn’t know what the new owner’s plans are for the hall, where auctions were held long before he took over.
“I have no idea what they’re going to do,” he said.

Now 73, he decided it was “time to do something else … Nobody wants me to go but at some point (you have to leave), you can’t go on forever.”

An auctioneer for many years, McGrath bought and sold antiques “all over the place – Toronto, Peterborough, everywhere –” prior to becoming the owner-operator of Riverside.

“It’s been wonderful, I loved it, I totally enjoyed it,” he said. “I’ll miss the people, because I made a lot of friendships.”

Al McGrath says he’s going to miss the people

Before COVID-19 turned the world upside down, roughly 100 of his “regulars” would turn up for the auctions held every Tuesday night (except in the winter).

After the pandemic took hold, people could no longer make their bids in person. Until he made the transition to online sales last year, “it just was awful, awful, awful, awful,” McGrath said.
Sales were put on hold for several months and “I used all my savings up … because there was no business.”

His income was derived from the commission he earned on articles that people brought to him to sell. They were “every single thing you can think of,” he said. “You name it, I’ve sold it,” from books and swords to cars and mobile homes, not to mention farm machinery dating back to the 1800s.
“Lots of war medals,” he added.

Among the items that stand out in his mind is a Little Red Riding china doll that included the grandmother and the wolf. “That went to New Zealand for almost $5,000,” McGrath said.

He’s a firm believer there’s no better way to acquire stuff than at an auction.
“If you want to buy something, why would you go anywhere else?” he asked. “Auction is the best place to buy anything.”
The purchases are of good quality and the prices are reasonable, he said.
“That’s why dealers all go to auction halls, to buy stuff … to fill their stores.”

More than auctions were held at the hall. There were Halloween parties for children — “We’d get a couple hundred kids for that. It was huge. We used to have a deejay.” — as well as parties for up to 30 of his customers every Christmas.

The 3,000-sq. ft. hall, built in the 1930s to hold dances, has a six-bedroom house attached. McGrath plans to move in with his son Blair and daughter-in-law Kate in their new home in Campbellford.

He’ll continue to pursue his hobby of collecting non-sport cards.
“Most of my stuff is from the early ’40s, ’50s and ’60s,” he said.