REMEMBER THIS: Little house, little bit of mystery (6 photos)

With some regularity, I start out researching a local history topic and find myself falling down rabbit holes that take me in the opposite direction of my original subject. Today was one of those days.

Looking back, I’m not even sure why I took a photograph of this particular building. It certainly wasn’t glamorous in any way and could easily have been described as a shack. Yet, it made me wonder.

I wondered what it had been, why it stood in this overgrown spot surrounded by discarded objects, who built it and when. It was a mystery structure and has remained so for the 30-plus years since I held a camera up in front of it.

Fortunately, there are some fantastic photographs of the area in the barriearchive.ca collections and they were very beneficial in putting most of the puzzle pieces together.

A photograph from the 1950s, depicting the east side of Bradford Street as seen from the former General Electric plant, started me wondering again. Is that the little house in better times?

Always eager to help me with my mysteries, eagle-eyed social media users noticed that the little house across from the GE plant appeared to have a sign affixed with the name Cameron on it.

In the early 1950s, Cameron, Ellis and Gibson a operated coal, wood and fuel oil business at 65 Bradford St., an address that would definitely be in line with that location although the small structure was located well back from the street, closer to the railway tracks.

G. Oliver Cameron and Harry D. Ellis took over the fuel supply business of T.D. O’Neill in March 1927. O’Neill had been operating what had been the coal and wood business of Mickle, Dyment & Son.

Mickle, Dyment & Son had a long history in this vicinity. Lumbermen Charles Mickle and Nathaniel Dyment created a business partnership in 1886 and two years later they built a lumber mill in the area of Bradford, Vespra and Ellen streets.

The mill produced shingles and other wood products until it burned down in 1892. The mill was rebuilt only to burn again in 1906. A third building was erected and Mickle, Dyment carried on until after 1930.

Was this little house left over from the lumber mill days, perhaps a worker’s home? It certainly looked to be clad in the very same kind of wooden siding that Mickle, Dyment might have produced in its heyday.

Once again, photographic evidence provided useful information. An aerial photo, taken around the time of the 1946 opening of the GE plant, offers a fantastic view of the new factory and its neighbours – the tannery, the old arena, a gas station but no little mystery house.

It would seem now that the most likely conclusion to the story is not rooted as far back in time as I had originally thought, or hoped. The little house, although appearing to have weathered one hundred of Barrie’s harshest winters, was perhaps a relic from more recent decades.

Cameron and Ellis may have built this structure as their business office after 1946. Of course, those who have spent many years living in Barrie may provide some more colourful stories about my little mystery house. I remain hopeful.