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.
Parkside Gospel Hall – 19 Parkside Dr.
It is so worth a stroll around the Queen’s Park historic neighbourhood.
Surrounding the park area are many heritage homes to be admired. The obvious standout ones are the Robinson-Burton house, the Boys home and Maple Hill on Toronto Street, and the row of majestic houses on High Street.
When homes such as Maplehurst and Glenholme were first built on High Street, these magnificent houses sat on a large properties that stretched all the way back to Small Street.
Don’t recognize that name? Well, for a ‘small’ street, it has a rather large history, dating as far back as 1852.
Small Street was mapped as running one block north of Wellington Street south to Elizabeth Street (known as Dunlop Street West these days), and later plans even showed Small Street extending south of Elizabeth Street.
There was no Queen’s Park at that time; it would come later.
Small Street is thought to have been named for James Edward Small, a lawyer, politician and judge, the second son of John Small who was the first clerk of the executive council of Upper Canada from 1793 until 1831.
James Edward Small was considered a member of one of Upper Canada’s founding families, later clerking for William Warren Baldwin, and then as a lawyer, establishing a partnership with former student James Robert Gowan. Small arranged the appointment of Gowan as the first judge of the new District of Simcoe.
By 1879, a ‘park’ began appearing on maps and Small Street continued to be shown as running from Sunnidale Road (now Ross Street) to Elizabeth Street.
In 1931, Small Street was renamed Parkside Drive, based on its location on the west side of Queen’s Park.
Like many of the grand homes about town, the enormous estates on High Street gradually began severing their properties.
In the late 1930s, a stable that was once belonged to such an estate, became the new home to a local congregation.
The Gospel Hall on Parkside Drive thrived and grew for many, many years in the historic Queen’s Park neighbourhood until it expanded to larger premises on Mapleton Avenue in the south end of Barrie.
Today, the former stable on this lovely side street continues to be a place of worship — for the Holy Cross Ukrainian Catholic Church.
