A Barrie waterfront landmark — the Allandale train station — represents the city’s past.
Overlooking Kempenfelt Bay, the station located on Lakeshore Drive, east of Tiffin Street, was a hub of activity in the early 1900s and consisted of a passenger depot and restaurant as well as a two-storey office building.
Rail services diminished over the years and the station was last used in the 1990s by VIA Rail and GO Transit as a passenger waiting room and for ticket sales, according to Dawn McAlpine, the city’s general manager of community and corporate services.
But while those services were winding down, Barrie-area families were still connected to the rails.
Enter local musician Joe Huron, who was dispensing VIA Rail tickets from a trailer type of office on the site in the early '90s.
“My dad, Arnold, was an agent and worked there before that from 1979 to 1993 or ’94, which is when he passed. We were the last two people who actually worked in the building. That’s our claim to fame,” Huron says with a chuckle while standing in front of the sprawling structure, the exterior of which has been refurbished.
The station was designated under the Federal Heritage Railway Stations Act, which is administered by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, McAlpine says.
“The heritage value of the Allandale train station resides in its picturesque massing, the composition of its elevations, its residential scale, ‘Italianate villa’ detailing and its visual as well as symbolic identity with the community,” she says.
The wide overhanging eaves and the covered outdoor waiting areas of the station — not to mention office areas, a top-notch restaurant and passenger depot — made it a striking example of a high-end railroad building of the day.
In 2009, the city initiated the overall restoration of the Allandale Station land, which included the construction of a second GO train station.
“With the station's past popularity and history in mind, the city began restorations based on previous site assessments and feedback from public consultations,” McAlpine says. “Specialized restoration experts were engaged to refurbish historical artifacts on site and to perform the restorative external work. The Allandale train station is important to this city’s history, so we wanted to ensure that we honoured that in our preservation efforts.”
Restoration of the Allandale train station — which is currently before the courts and fenced off to the public — was under the guidance of the Ontario Heritage Trust.
The City of Barrie’s work to restore the former Allandale Station was recognized in 2015 by Ontario Heritage Trust with the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation. This award recognizes the most exceptional achievements of individuals, groups and organizations in conserving Ontario’s cultural and/or natural heritage through the completion of a specific project.
Huron appreciates the historical significance of the station from a personal level.
“It was a place to be, a place to go,” he says. “Before my day, people used to take the train up from Toronto and have a meal in the station and maybe go to a dance or something and make a night of it after a trip to Barrie.
“When I was there, the only part that was open was the part of the building near Tiffin Street. My dad started on the other side (of the building) back in 1979. By the end, they had closed down the building and we were in a trailer (for ticket sales). (Arnold) was an agent for 50 years. And his dad was a railroad guy, too. My brother, Peter, worked on the railway, too.
“So we had three generations on the railway. I never met my grandfather, Peter, because he got hit by a train. He was inspecting tracks for CN.”
