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.
D.J. Murchison’s Store – Mulcaster Street
Last week, we spoke of Duncan John Murchison and his magnificent Sunnidale Road home, Woodlawn. He was able to afford to build such an impressive estate as a result of his successful dry goods business.
Murchison, born in Etobicoke in 1833, partnered with Thomas C. Watkins to form Watkins and Murchison, a wholesale firm. Their business later transitioned to become the ‘Right House’, a successful dry goods house in Hamilton, which remained in business as a department store right into the 1980s.
When Murchison came to Barrie in 1868, he purchased property on Mulcaster Street (then known as Market Street) and promptly built his store.
The lower floors of what is now 28-32 Mulcaster St. would have been Murchison’s store. In 1885, Murchison’s son, Duncan Charles, was using the top floor. D.C. was partners with Edward J. Hearn and their business, Hearn and Murchison, Barristers, Solicitors, Conveyancers and Money to Loan Office, was located over D.J. Murchison’s Store on Market Street (now Mulcaster), with a branch office on Potter’s Block in Tottenham.
In the summer of 1889, Duncan Charles Murchison wed Minnie Elvira Ball, the only daughter of builder, George Ball, in a brilliantly fashionable ceremony at Collier Street Methodist Church. Such was the interest in this wedding, given the importance and social standing of the two families, that an hour before the service, the building was packed to the doors with barely even standing room – the body of the church and the galleries filled with “Barrie’s best citizens and the crème de la crème of its society.”
Needless to say, the church was lavishly decorated with rare and fragrant flowers and the bride, her attendants, family and guests were all beautifully turned out. The bride and groom exited the church, walking on a carpet to carriages waiting to whisk them off to the Ball home on John Street (now Maple Avenue) where 100 guests enjoyed an elegant and sumptuous reception.
By June 1900, Duncan Charles was a partner in McCarthy, Boys and Murchison law firm, operating out of offices in the McCarthy Block on Dunlop Street.
The building on Mulcaster Street stayed in the Murchison family until Duncan Sr.’s death in 1900.
By about 1904 or so, the property appeared to have two sections: the three-storey building, or north section, had a grocery on one side and a shoe shop on the side closest to Collier Street, in 1907. The south section (now 24-26 Mulcaster St.) is believed to have had a grocery store in the north half and an engine repair shop in the south half of the building.
This structure had a second-storey balcony at one time and an unusual chimney. The bay window and first-floor changes in the south building likely occurred when it was converted to apartments in the 1940s.
Today, the old Murchison store is part of a tiny stretch of Mulcaster, between Collier and Dunlop streets, that still has all its original buildings, with the exception of the old fire hall and the Victoria Hotel.
