The founding date of H.H. Phinnemore and Sons on our business cards reads since 1920, but the early 1880's is when James Phinnemore started Phinnemore Painting.  Before the turn of the century James had a thriving business and two sons interested in working with him, Herb and Roy.  Before 1920 James, wise that he was, suggested one son embark on residential painting in New York (Herb) and one in commercial work in Chicago (Roy).  Herb being the independent type rigged up an old bicycle to carry ladders, paint and sundries, and headed off looking for business.    Horse and wagon were not his thing after losing control and putting a rig through a store window on Yonge Street.  James missed the boys and went to ask them to come back to Toronto.  Herb said that he would come back but wished to remain doing his own thing, and  Roy was willing to work with his father and eventually took over and made the company into a thriving business for generations to come.  Herb did the same with the residential business, trading in his bike for a model A Ford, (the headlights had to be manually lit which meant stopping usually at the top of Hogs Hollow on his way home to Drewry Ave.), at his doctors request.

Herbs' three sons, Vic, Herb Jr. and Roger followed him into the business.  Grandsons and great grandsons came and went over the years, and when the dust settled Steve (that's me) was left looking after the shop.  Through all these years from James who brought his trade credentials, business savy and quest for quality, our goal has been customer satisfaction.  In real estate the motto for buying is location, location, location, in painting at H.H. Phinnemore and Sons it is preparation, preparation preparation.

Today we are scaled down to a four or five man crew which enables us to handle any size residential job or commercial offices in a timely and efficient manner.  I am a working boss and enjoy being on the jobs myself to see them through start to finish.