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.
17 Poyntz Street
Every picture tells a story, especially a picture of a house.
The house at 17 Poyntz St., between Collier and Dunlop streets, has seen many families come and go, and in the late 1930s Mrs. Josephine Clara Simpson resided there.
Mr. Simpson (Ezra John) never lived there himself. Before he died at 50 years of age, following surgery for stomach cancer, he and Mrs. Simpson had lived on John Street in Orillia, where John, born in Oro Township, had worked as salesman for 30 years.
Following John’s death in 1935, Josephine moved to Barrie. The lot on which her Poyntz Street house was built had once been part of the property owned by Thomas Meldrum, proprietor of the Union Inn.
Josephine Clara Simpson, born in Crown Hill, where her beloved John now rested, was a Drury, daughter of Thomas Drury and Mary Luck.
So how did the Orillia citizen end up in Barrie? Her first cousin, The Honourable E.C. Drury, who was Ontario premier from 1919 to 1923, held the title of the Poyntz Street property at various points, so it was likely a reasonable move to settle his relative there.
Also, Josephine’s sister, Laura, was married to James Shrubsole, who owned Rice’s Cigar Store and Bath Rooms and eventually became Barrie’s fire chief. They lived right around the corner on Collier Street.
It appears the Shrubsoles may have at one time also owned the property at 11 Poyntz St.
Although Josephine was living in Kingston with her daughter when she passed away in 1949, her funeral was held in Barrie at Lloyd and Steckley’s funeral home. She was buried at St. James Cemetery in Crown Hill with her husband and pioneer ancestors.
While Josephine lived on Poyntz Street, her next door neighbour at No. 13, the house on a lot that had also been part of the former Meldrum property, was Miss Emma King.
Emma King was three years old when her parents, Robert and Sarah King, came to Canada from England. The Kings farmed in Oro for two years when they first arrived, before opening a successful bakery on Dunlop Street, close to where the CIBC is today.
When Emma was 17, she was substitute teaching at Victoria School, but was soon appointed to her first position. Emma taught hundreds of students during her 23-year tenure at the Collier Street school before transferring to the West Ward School.
In addition to her love of teaching, Emma was passionate about music and sang in the Collier Street Methodist Church choir.
Emma's brother, Robert Jr., became Barrie's chief of police.
Most notably, Emma King was the first woman to become a member of the Barrie Public Library Board as the town's representative. She was responsible for starting a children's story hour, which was adopted by future librarians in Barrie.
Emma King Elementary School, located on Cundles Road West, was named for her. She was 98 when she died in 1956.
Another family that owned the 17 Poyntz home were the McLeans. The McLean name was associated with other well-known properties in and around Barrie: the historic Lally House on Collier Street, J.R. Cotter’s Rockforest I on Peel Street (now demolished), and Wonder Valley, to name a few.
A more recent occupant of 17 Poyntz, Joanna McEwan, whose paintings and essays are featured in the book, The Churches of Oro-Medonte, described the house in the 1960s as a very elegant home, with a classic centre hall plan and obviously built for someone of means, that was currently divided into two living spaces.
Today, the house at 17 Poyntz St. — minus the original verandah, finials, shutters and decorative trim — still stands ready and able to tell her story.
