THEN AND NOW: Arthur Smith's return coincides with dramatic municipal changes

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.

144 Maple Avenue

When Maple Avenue was still John Street, a young man purchased some property in 1889, when he was just 20 years old.

Arthur Wellington Smith, born in Innisfil where his great-grandfather had settled in 1828, moved to Barrie with his family about 1877. After finishing high school, Smith went on to teach at the Cundles School for three years before attending the University of Toronto.

Leaving with an education in history and English, Arthur was hired as principal at a public school in Arthur, Ont., then principal at a school in Sturgeon Falls.

Smith did not remain an educator. He resigned to pursue a career in insurance. Following two years as the auditor of Sturgeon Falls, Arthur Smith was appointed treasurer and clerk. Smith must have found some time to come back to the hometown once in a while as he managed to marry Sarah Edith “Sadie” Nixon, daughter of Robert and Mary Nixon, at their home on Collier Street, in the summer of 1902.

Arthur Smith returned to Barrie for good when he became Barrie town clerk and treasurer in 1915  – a position he held until 1949.

It was toward the end of Smith’s career that one of the most dramatic municipal changes occurred.

In the mid-1940s, many potential scenarios for the market building or town hall were being considered. An offer to sell the building for use as a factory was rejected, as were plans (developed back in 1928), to retrofit the town hall with municipal offices complete with an auditorium to replace the space lost with the opera house, where a fire had destroyed the upper floor in 1926.

For just over two years, from 1945 to 1947, the second floor of the town hall was rented to the Radio Valve Company of Canada, an affiliate of Canadian General Electric, to assemble radio tube parts. Approximately 60 young women were producing around 800 tubes per day at the height of operation, before the business was moved back to Toronto.

During that time, the notion of remodelling the town hall for municipal use surfaced again, and in the summer of 1946, council was moving ahead with a modern renovation of the landmark building.

Before the end of the same year, a new gravel and pitch roof replaced the distinctive existing roof with its ornate dormer windows and intricate iron work. The current market space in the town hall was needed for offices, and in March 1947, the vendors were relocated to the armoury on Mulcaster Street, which had been used as a public works shed previously, and the market was established in its new home.

Meanwhile, the transformation of the iconic market building continued, incorporating requirements such as an elevator and radio tower to accommodate the Hydro Electric Power Commission, who had signed a 10-year lease for space on the second and third floors for their regional offices. Cost of the renovation was growing: exceeding what was available in the budget and reserves, resulting in the need to have taxpayers approve a debenture of $89,000 to cover the $159,000 price tag for the town hall makeover — which had not even figured in council chambers in the design!

A public holiday was declared at noon on Nov. 10, 1948 to mark the opening of the ‘new’ town hall. The 3 p.m. ribbon cutting by Mayor Grant Mayor was followed by plenty of noise: sirens, rockets, fire bells, a seven gun salute and an RCAF flyover. The debenture bylaw passed easily in December even though the town hall overhaul was still not complete, signalling that the people of Barrie accepted the ‘progressive' new look for their municipal building.

And Arthur Wellington Smith? Well he no longer had to climb all those stairs in the final year of his job. Upon his retirement, Smith remarked that there was a possibility of over doing the growth of Barrie: “We shouldn’t try to make a city out of Barrie before its time. We should rather continue to have a good town than a poor city. We should not try to force its natural growth.”

Unfortunately, the popular and well respected town clerk did not enjoy his post-work years long enough to see his town become a city in 1959. He passed away at his lovely Maple Avenue home just two years after he retired .