The story of the Bridge to Nowhere tells a lot about Barrie.
And it’s just one in the treasure trove that is the Barrie Historical Archive, a volunteer-driven resource that’s continuing to grow but which needs some donors to get behind the project to help the stories be told. (To donate, please click here)
“During the month of February, we want to be done our fundraising. We have $12,000 to raise now and need people to step up and invest in Barrie’s history,” said archive chairman Travis Doucette, noting the project has an annual budget of $20,000.
That budget covers not just web hosting, but scanning the material, transferring film images to digital, computer costs and website design.
Since launching last year, the Barrie Historical Archive has received more than 7,000 photos, documents and maps. The archive has applied for a charitable number, but has not yet received one.
“We’re Barrie’s free, online museum. We sell prints and historical services,” said Doucette, noting it’s been a hard sell to find 50 people willing to donate $20/month or $240 year to cover the $12,000 needed.
Because it’s so new, the Barrie Historical Archive doesn’t qualify for a Barrie cultural operating grant.
“One of the restrictions for a cultural grant is you have to exist for two years. We’re not eligible for any city money,” said Doucette, although the focus is to share Barrie’s history and instill a pride among children and adults alike.
As Barrie continues to grow, he noted, it’s important to share the past, not just the photos and the maps, but the people and their stories. After all, the Barrie Historical Archive’s tagline is Our City, Your Story.
The archive team is telling those stories through photos and memorabilia, as well as in a new mini-series that traces the city’s growth from its incorporation as a separated city n 1959 to the present day.
“When people know where they’ve come from, they can be proud. They become good citizens,” said Doucette.
He appreciates the work of the Willard Kinzie, who served as mayor from 1957 to 1961.
Committed to the city’s economic well-being, Kinzie advocated the town become a city, that it take control of its tax dollars and attract business itself, rather than depend on the County of Simcoe.
But that wasn’t the only gutsy move Kinzie made.
Kinzie walked into Premier Leslie Frost’s office and demanded what then became known as the Bridge to Nowhere.
When the province built Highway 400, it built certain overpasses, bridges it felt were strategic – like Dunlop and Bayfield streets. Even the Sunnidale Road one – still two lanes today – was approved. But Kinzie said Anne Street needed a highway overpass too.
Although the map of that era shows just a few streets, like Shirley and Letitia, not extending nearly as far west as they do today, Kinzie could see the area as a growth area, home to many, now including Doucette.
After Kinzie walked into Frost’s office and told him what he envisioned, Frost called in the transportation minister and declared the Anne Street overpass shall be built.
“Frost stood up and said, ‘You build that overpass – now.’ (The civil service) didn’t think it was needed. It was the Bridge to Nowhere, to Vespra Township.”
The Bridge to Nowhere was not far from the city’s western built boundary and quite close to its only shopping plaza of the day, the Barrie Shopping Plaza – built in the 1950s but expanded and renovated a few times. It’s known today as the Wellington Plaza. The Barrie Shopping Plaza proudly produced the map of the time, marking the shopping destination’s location with a flag.
Having grown up in Barrie, Doucette has seen lots of changes and lots of growth. The 36-year-old was just a youngster when the tornado ripped through the city in May 1985. He helped his mother close the door as the winds grew and blew up the hill from their old Allandale home.
He loves to listen to the stories of former mayors, former neighbours and his Kindergarten teacher, who wrote an insightful comment on his report card in December 1986: “Travis is talkative and expresses his ideas orally.”
And as the Barrie Historical Archive meets the first Wednesday of each month at the Creative Space on Dunlop Street East, Doucette works on sharing the stories, attracting more people and building more bridges, bridges that link the past with the present and the future, bridges that aren’t to nowhere but to somewhere every community wants to be: a place of pride in its past and its present.
