This ongoing series from Barrie Historical Archive curator Deb Exel shows old photos from the collection and one from the present day, as well as the story behind them.
Bayview Park — 151 Dunlop St. E.
This modest, mostly unnoticed little gazebo crouching at the eastern edge of a small, downtown parkette once had its 15 minutes of fame.
The land for this municipal park was purchased in 1927 from two prominent estates: Judge John Anderson Ardagh’s and Dr. Edward Morton’s, which were both directly across the street. Ardagh’s Blythe Cottage was occupied at the time by his daughter, Gladys. Annie Morton, Dr. Morton’s wife, resided on the other property, in what is commonly referred to today as the Morton-Turnbull home.
The Parks Commission invited residents to suggest a name for the new park, but response from the community was not particularly enthusiastic. The name ‘Bayview’ seemed to have the most support, and given the relative lack of interest from the public in the naming exercise, the Parks Commission adopted Bayview as the name for the new park.
Work got underway to ready the site for use. The lot sloped down from Dunlop Street to the railway tracks and shoreline. A pond at the bottom of the hill had been filled, but more earth and clean ashes were still required to prepare the grounds. Meanwhile, the chair of the committee proceeded with ordering 12 new combination park seats. Lewis Ord, a civil engineer and Ontario and Dominion land surveyor, was contracted to arrange for the cement pad for the drinking fountain. Ord’s sister, Violet, was married to Arthur Gowan Ardagh. She and her husband lived at 30 Theresa St., along with another sister, Mabel, who would later live across the street at Mrs. W.D. Ardagh’s mansion, the Hill.
Bayview Park was opened in July 1927. It wasn’t quite finished, though.
The park was to include a pavilion with washrooms, but it would be nearly 10 years before that vision was realized.
In the fall of 1935, the Bayview Park pavilion was ‘officially’ opened. Designed at no charge to the town by Canadian National Railway architect J. Walker, it was built by William Rusk, an Allandale councillor and future reeve of Barrie. The pavilion, which cost $1,550 to build, was said to be one of the finest of its kind north of Toronto. Mayor W.J. Blair welcomed the public to the new pavilion and the Barrie Citizens Band entertained the crowd with a concert. Bayview Park joined the other municipal parks that were used for summer music events.
Post-Second World War growth in Barrie strained the old water supply infrastructure. The town appropriated land in Bayview Park and the Public Utilities Commission drilled a new well, constructing a reservoir and pump house to provide relief. With the Bayview well in operation by the summer of 1948, water was being pumped directly to the facility on Bayfield Street, eliminating the need to use the Mary Street pumps during regular business hours and leaving the Berczy Street standpipe as a reserve. Restrictions imposed on residents, such as lawn watering, were lifted.
Eighty-eight years after it was built, the question of a name for this park was put to the community again. This time, when the public was consulted about the renaming of the park, the response was anything but lacklustre. In 2015, with overwhelming support from residents, Bayview Park was renamed Sam Cancilla Park after the alderman who fought to protect it from development, prior to his death.
But as the original bandstands and pavilions of the local parks began to disappear, the purpose or usefulness to justify maintaining older structures such as the little gazebo at Bayview Park were challenged. Council voted to demolish, thrusting the pavilion’s fate into the headlines.
The gazebo, neglected, its washrooms closed years ago, and the site no longer used for civic events, had seen better days. None of that mattered. Residents rallied in support of saving the Bayview Park — ‘Sam’s’ — pavilion.
In May 2016, former mayor Janice Laking told city council Cancilla would have been in favour of saving the gazebo.
“He thought buildings needed to be used, history needed to be preserved.”
The decision to tear down the pavilion was reversed. The Kiwanis club stepped up with $25,000 toward the restoration, matched by the city, and the gazebo was beautifully refurbished and updated.
The friendly little pavilion in the heart of downtown may not host concerts anymore (but it could). However, it still can have purpose: maybe just as a place to enjoy a coffee and a pleasant view of Kempenfelt Bay.
