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.
26 Lizzie Street
Whether it was a space constraint, fondness for a colloquialism or just a sense of playfulness, we may never know what inspired the unique lettering “26 Lizzie Street” over the doorway of the little market on Elizabeth Street (now Dunlop Street West).
It’s fair to say that dozens of businesses along Elizabeth Street have come and gone in the past 150 years or so. Some companies operated for generations, while frequent turnover was not uncommon either, as people embarked on their ventures, moving up or on.
Many merchants passed through the shop on ‘Lizzie’ Street.
Richard Oxenham was born in Devon County, Ireland about 1814 and married Eleanor Swift, born about 1820, in 1842. It’s unclear when they came to the New World, but all five of their children were born here: Hannah, Matilda, Mary and Richard Jr. in Canada, and William in Buffalo, N.Y., where the family lived while Richard worked construction in 1850.
By 1861, the Oxenhams were living in Barrie, residing on Mary Street by 1867. Richard, a mason and plasterer by trade, had a sweet sideline.
Besides his construction work, he had a bakery and candy store at the corner of Mary and Elizabeth streets, and later a stall in the market.
At some point, Oxenham must have moved his business to Dunlop Street as he suffered a partial loss of stock and a total loss of building, insured to the tune of $3,000, in the 1875 fire that destroyed the entire block between Clapperton and Owen streets, all the way up to Collier Street.
His son, Richard Jr. a teacher, who was living on Dunlop Street, in the late 1870s, was listed at teaching at the Craighurst School in 1879. As Oxenham was said to have operated his candy store out of the shop at 26 Lizzie Street, he likely moved to those premises after the fire.
Richard’s wife Eleanor, died of paralysis in 1877 and he remarried the following year. His second wife Jessie Cecilia (Pae) McMahon, 28, had one young son and had lost two sons as infants, with her first husband, a grocer, in Collingwood.
After marrying, Richard in 1878, the couple lost two infants themselves: in 1879 and 1881. Jessie, who had suffered so many heartbreaks, died of dropsy in 1888. Richard Oxenham was said to have been ‘thrice married’ when his death, while visiting his daughter in Buffalo, was announced.
It’s probably safe to assume that the lettering on the transom of 26 Lizzie Street was the work of shopkeeper Thomas Hobley.
Thomas, born in England in 1861, then moving to Scotland that same year, came to Canada with his family in 1870. Settling in Barrie, and married to Henrietta Ross Boyes in 1899, Thomas worked for merchant J.M. Bothwell for many years, before opening his own store, ‘the Hub’ Tea and Coffee House, at 26 Elizabeth St.
His brother John, who was in business with him for a period time, went on to hold the position of bookkeeper with the Water and Light Commission for seven years, and later worked in A.E.H. Creswicke’s law office. But John’s greatest pleasure came from music and his membership in the Simcoe Foresters Regimental Band.
By the early 1920s, Thomas Hobley was renting a house at 17 Poyntz St. and had vacated the store at 26 Lizzie Street, having moved his business east to Dunlop Street. Thomas retired a few years later and passed away in 1926.
R.L. Jay, took over the old Hub grocery, fruit and confectionary stand at 26 Lizzie Street in 1922. Roy Leslie Jay, born 1893 into a family of six boys and one girl, had arrived from Broadview, Sask. where he had been manager of the grocery department of A.R. Colquhoun for four years.
Along with Roy came his wife, Hazel, who had a sister in Ivy, and baby June. Hazel’s mother joined them a few months later. The couple would have a son, Vernon, in Barrie, in 1923.
Jay brought industry and energy to his new business in Barrie, advertising:
Our Motto: Not a few specials, but everything a reasonable prices.
Try us and be convinced that it’s the best place to shop, after all.
Delivery after 4 o’clock and all day Saturday, and prompt attention is assured.
Fresh produce for pickles and preserves.
R.L. Jay and Co. was bursting with all sorts goods and products for his customers: seedless raisins 25 cents per pound, blue plums in heavy syrup, Tiger Brand Cohoe salmon 30 cents per tin or Demonte Red Salmon for 40 cents a tin, French ground coffee 60 cents a pound, Molly O’Biscuit, chocolate, Fisher’s Flour, 20 types of laundry soap and Wilson’s Fly pads, fly coils and fly swatters. Something for everyone!
Turnover arrived again on Elizabeth Street, in the fall of 1928. At auction, the balance of R.L. Jay’s grocery stock and store fixtures were offered for sale. Dayton scale, McCaskey Bookkeeping System, Blue Bird Meat Slicer, electric coffee mill, candy scale, show cases, large refrigerator, biscuit racks, awning, barrels, cans, shelves, counters, lighting, measures and more.
The shop at 26 Lizzie Street was ready to welcome a new entrepreneur.
