Editor's note: To mark the 100th (now 101st!) instalment of Deb Exel's popular Then and Now column, this week we offer up the conclusion of 100 places you’ll never see in the Sunday feature. This is the finale of a two-part series. Please note the numbers in the story do not correlate with the images in the gallery.
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OK! We’re back at it, finishing off our top 100 gone but hopefully not forgotten places around Barrie!
1. The Mechanics Institute on Owen Street was the location of one of Barrie’s earliest libraries. Its façade changed a bit over the years, but was still mostly recognizable until it was demolished. The Masonic Hall was also located in this building.
2. Victoria School, or Central School as it was known before the royal visit, was located at the northwest corner of Collier and Owen streets. Like most of the larger schools of that time, there were separate entrances for boys and girls. It was demolished about 1958 to build the new federal building.
3. The federal building, or post office as most referred to it, was built in the late 1950s on the site of Victoria/Central School.
4. Barrie once had some very grand buildings, including an Opera House located on the south side of Collier Street, between Clapperton and Owen streets. There’s lots of history – both good and bad – for this building. It lost its upper floor to a fire around 1926 before being demolished about 2006.
5. The post office and Bank of Toronto building was designed by Shearman Bird and built on the east side of Owen Street in 1872. The bank was in the north side of the building and the post office in the south end. Here is the building in the 1970s with a new façade.
6. The building on the north side of Dunlop Street at Owen Street was designed by Thomas Kennedy for E. Hinds, built by George Ball and completed after the fire of 1880. It was the first of a string of outstanding commercial buildings, such as the Sanders and Bothwell Blocks. It was demolished in order to build the new Toronto Dominion bank. See the progress here, here, here and here.
7. The Grammar School was built in 1849 on the northwest corner of Blake and Rodney streets. The headmaster, Frederic Gore, built this boarding house for out of town students, which still stands.
8. The Barrie Collegiate Institute opened in 1879, to replace the grammar school, which had been outgrown. An enclosed hall connected the new facilities to the old school, which was used as a gymnasium. The collegiate was destroyed in a December 1916 fire. Classes were relocated temporarily to the Mechanic’s Institute.
9. Barrie Central Collegiate on Bradford Street… all that remains is the chimney as the Fisher Auditorium was being torn down this week. Here’s a few photos of the demolition of the beautiful, original building. Does anyone know where this monument was relocated to?
10. St. Mary’s church, designed by Shearman Bird, was built in 1872 on the east side of Mulcaster Street, on courthouse hill. It was demolished 100 years later and rebuilt on Amelia Street.
11. Inchiquin was built about 1864 and finished about 1870, the completion of the construction supervised by the O’Briens (the Shanty Bay O’Briens) who owned it after the death of the wife of Col. Robert Loring who started the building of the house. The home was also owned by Col. J.H. Campbell and Judge Hewson before it was purchased by the Order of the Holy Redeemer as a monastery. It was demolished in 1972 so the new St. Mary’s church could be built on the property.
12. St. Mary’s School on courthouse hill was located behind St. Mary’s church. Built about 1918, it was demolished to build the new school situated at Berczy and Codrington streets.
13. Springbank, located on William Street, was built by lumberman James Burton. His brother Martin Burton had a beautiful home as well, on Toronto Street. After James’ death in 1910, Springbank became the Simcoe Hall Sanitarium in 1912 before it becoming a retirement home run by the International Order of Oddfellows. When the IOOF complex was expanded in the 1990s, the home was demolished.
14. Here’s the South Ward School or Burton Avenue School before it was demolished, rebuilt and later renamed King Edward School.
15. Ingleside, on the south side of Dunlop Street at Albert Street, was the home of Henry Bird, a former town clerk.
16. Is it possible that J.H. McKeggie’s home, Ingle Nook, was also Bird’s Ingleside? McKeggie had a bank overlooking post office square.
17. Checkley House was just one of the large and gracious homes that were springing up in the neighbourhood of the Grammar School on Blake Street. Built in 1864 by Reverend Checkley, the Grammar School headmaster, it’s believed to have been destroyed in a fire in 1886.
18. The Lower House, which was located at the northwest corner of Clapperton and Collier streets, was built by Christopher Harrison. It was the childhood home of historian Dr. A.R. M. Lowers.
19. George Ball, one of the best known Barrie builders, with many outstanding structures to his credit, had a magnificent house himself on John Street (now Maple Avenue).
20. William Taylor first owned a flower shop in Allandale in 1879 before opening Taylor Greenhouses on Dunlop Street about 1897. Taylor also had additional greenhouses on Eugenia Street.
21. Dougal’s furniture factory was located on the east side of Market Square, recognizable by their tall smoke stack. They also had a store front on Dunlop Street.
22. The Barrie Foundry and Agricultural Works (Sewery Foundry) was located at the corner of Ross and Bayfield Streets.
23. Andrew Graham built a tannery and woolen mill on Dunlop Street, east of Poyntz Street, in 1850. But he also had the Barrie Woolen Mill on High Street.
24. Barrie had many downtown hotels back in the day. The Vespra House Hotel was on Bayfield Street, behind the Wellington Hotel.
25. Long before Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery there was the Simpson Brewery. The family home of the brewer and former mayor still stands on Mary Street.
26. In 1875, The Examiner Printing Office stood at the southeast corner of Dunlop and Mulcaster streets. Its competitor, the Advance, was right next door. It’s interesting that such rival and diverse newspapers had adjoining properties!
27. The Sevigny Carriage Works was established in 1871 in the Marrin Block building, which was located between Market Square and Collier Street Methodist Church. As a result of a fire in 1895, the Marrin Block collapsed and the carriage works along with it.
28. We’re not done with the Sevigny Carriage Shop! Rebuilt on the same site after the Marrin Block fire of 1895, the old carriage works building was later known as Norris Dairy. Check out their delivery system. Here’s the building prior to its demolition in the 1970s.
29. The Supertest Station sat at the junction of Louisa Street (now Dunlop) and Charlotte Street (now Collier). The breathtakingly steep (and deadly) crest and drop of Dundonald Street before it meets the gas station intersection has always been referred to by locals as Supertest hill. The Bay Club now sit on that wedge of land.
30. The Fraser residence was another fine home that was demolished to build the Bay Club. R.I. Fraser was a downtown merchant and son-in-law to the Harpers, who lived a short walk way in the Smith-Thompson House.
31. The Agricultural Hall and racetrack were once located on a large track of land, the Agricultural Park, bounded by Elizabeth Street (now Dunlop Street West), Bradford Street and Innisfil Street. In the 1940s, the Agricultural Society relocated its fairgrounds to the Dyment stockyards on Essa Road and the new Canadian General Electric plant was built on the Bradford Street site.
32. Check out the coal chute in the Allandale rail yard in the days before diesel. Impressive!
33. Central United Church had been a church on the move for generations, but its striking building on Toronto Street was its last.
34. The Presbyterian Church on Collier Street, was later sold to the Salvation Army. The Presbyterians went on to build their beautiful St. Andrew’s church on Owen Street.
35. The Salvation Army built an impressive new church on Collier Street which was later replaced with yet another new building.
36. The Allandale Lawn Bowling club on Essa Road was demolished to make way for the Allandale transportation hub.
37. Rankin’s Sash, Door and Blind factory was located at 120 Bayfield St., on the northwest corner of Bayfield and Sophia streets. Where the poutine truck is today!
38. The Barrie water works was located on Mary Street, just north of Simcoe Street.
39. The waterworks standpipe on Codrington Street was gigantic part of the neighbourhood behind court house hill until the reservoir was removed in 1984.
40. A nondescript building that sat next to the YMCA on Bradford Street, had stood on station land for many years.
41. Camping and tourist camps were frowned upon at one time, but Lakeside cabins on Blake Street seems to be remembered fondly!
42. St. Vincent Park’s gazebo was a popular recreation spot and rest stop long before the annual Rotary chicken barbecues!
43. Barrie is all about the bay and Delaney boats was a longtime business on the waterfront.
44. Also on the waterfront near the government dock was the Speedy Bay Car Wash. Yeah, not so ancient, but lots of folks remember it. Read on...
45. Another downtown hotel that has disappeared over time is the Victoria hotel, which was located on the future site of the Carnegie building (library) at the southeast corner of Mulcaster and Collier streets.
46. The Wilkinson Mill was located at 20 John St., now Maple Avenue. Later, as the Fisher Flour Mill, the building burned in 1952 and was not rebuilt.
47. The Sargent Company has a long, long history in Barrie and Simcoe County since 1889. Their coal, fuel and cement company was located at the foot of Toronto Street at Simcoe Street until it was demolished.
48. Reader challenge: Mystery house! The second photo in our gallery, where the heck was this place and who lived there?
49. So the West Ward School (Prince of Wales) is not entirely gone – the walls of the original structure are to be incorporated into the future development.
50. The M.H. Spencer Toronto Tea store – the famous Roy Lem’s Restaurant to most of us. Built in 1867, its quality design was far above the standard for stores of that era. Constructed of brick, the building’s parapet walls were erected three feet above the roof and the shingles were laid in mortar to create a cement roof, so it was as fireproof as possible. This building was also the topic of my very first Then and Now column. It’s still here, for now, but take a good look at one of the oldest buildings on Dunlop Street as its days are numbered.
The passage of time, fires, progress and development all impact the lifespan of our built heritage. It’s what makes photographs so important… and sometimes it’s all we have left to help document our history and our story for future generations.
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.
