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.
37 Dunlop St. W.
Look beyond the glittering marquee of the Capitol Theatre and the handsome store next to it that some may remember as Robinson’s Hardware or more likely, Roy Lem’s Café to the roughcast building on the southeast corner of Elizabeth and John Streets (now Dunlop Street West and Maple Avenue).
In the 1920s, this building was J.V. Brett’s Flour and Feed store. Joseph Victor Brett sold seeds, garden supplies and hardware from his main street store, and bought oats, buckwheat, rye, peas, beans, red clover and other seeds as well as potatoes, cabbage, hay and straw for resale to his customers.
When good farm help was said to be scarce, Brett promoted seeding land that couldn’t be cultivated with his government standard timothy seed!
J.V. Brett’s Flour and Feed also sold high grade hog tankage and was a distributor for Panyard Piston Rings.
Commercial life on Elizabeth Street was not without its challenges.
In the early 1920s, a train passing through downtown on a summer Friday night, frantically blew its whistle to alert anyone to a fire in a shed on the Sarjeant Coal Company’s property, between the tannery and the railroad tracks.
Once engaged, the fire brigade responded quickly to the fire that they believed was ignited by a cigarette butt or a spark from a passing train.
The firemen were able to prevent the blaze from spreading to an adjoining building but the first shed had been destroyed. In the ruined shed had been a dozen Sarjeant Company sleighs, a set of sleighs that were the property of undertaker W.D. Minnikin and a carload of baled hay belonging to J.V. Brett.
A second fire broke out in the half-charred, sodden hay the following afternoon but was extinguished. While the loss of the sleighs was partially covered by insurance, Brett’s hay, valued at $250, was not.
While there was little control over accidents such as fires, the area businesses worked to improve conditions in their neighbourhood.
J.V. Brett was among the many shop owners and companies, recognizable names such as R.A. Stephens, John Saso, W.A. Lowe, Bell Telephone, the Lem Brothers, W.D. Minnikin and A. Rayner, who petitioned city council in 1924 for better lighting along Elizabeth Street, equivalent to the lighting available on Dunlop Street.
Herbert Jarvis, deputy reeve and former fruit and vegetable peddler, would buy the Brett Flour and Feed building next, his shop in plain view of the competition, John Saso’s Barrie Fruit Market. Later, in the 1930s, the fruit store housed Robert Powell Books.
But scores of people will recall with great fondness, other occupants of the corner building: Camera Craft’s Joe and Vi Waterer.
Born in Preston, England in 1913, Joe Waterer came to Canada in 1927 as a Bernardo Homes child. Placed on a farm in Orangeville, Joe left there to work at a woolen mill at 18, moonlighting delivering flowers. It was while making a delivery to a Toronto hospital that he met Violet. The couple married in 1940.
Joe joined the army in 1941 as a radiologist, and played saxophone in a band. Vi also contributed to the war effort at Victory Aircraft (later Avro Canada) in Malton, building Lancaster bombers. When Joe was released from the armed forces in 1946, Joe and Vi opened their camera store in Barrie.
Joe and Vi were among the most popular and interesting downtown merchants. Not only a photographer, Joe was a self-taught musician, a painter who studied at the Ontario College of Art, and a poet. His creativity extended to the design and fabrication of surgical garments, and he developed and sold a patent.
Vi was Joe’s partner in the camera store and raised their four daughters. Her kindness and warmth was well-known in the business community and to all who entered their friendly and welcoming shop.
As captivating as the Waterer’s themselves were, equally fascinating was their incredible store – a virtual museum of photographic equipment and musical instruments. Joe and Vi operated their wonder-filled camera business for 54 years … no doubt creating countless memories and experiences for generations of visitors to their very cool store.
For several years since the closing of Camera Craft, restaurants, currently Mexhico, have enjoyed this historic downtown location.
