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.
228 Dunlop St. E.
From 1876 until 1957, this striking Victorian house belonged to the Brown family.
John J. (J.J.) Brown was born at Biggar, Scotland in 1841. The Browns came to Canada in 1853, settling first in Scarborough, then later relocating to Oro. John, the eldest of the Brown children, returned to Toronto, taking a position with George Leslie’s nursery. Leslie, a fellow Scot and gardener, was one of the founders of the Toronto Horticultural Society. It was during his tenure at Leslie’s that Brown would acquire his knowledge of the seed business, which would secure his future.
In 1870, John married Jane Elizabeth Campbell of Oro. That same year, J.J. opened a general store … with a little wholesale and retail seed and grain business on the side.
The green grocer’s ‘side-hustle’ seed business quickly grew, becoming widely known throughout the county. Brown and Company, by 1875 was operating in the building which is 119 Dunlop St. E. today, a pleasant walk from the family home on Louisa Street (now part of Dunlop Street East). Brown’s seed stores were said to be “some of the most attractive of their kind in the northern portion of the province.”
The stores were described as large, bright, clean and equipped with every convenience to both preserve the wide selection of stock and show it off. The general store itself offered a wide range of quality domestic and imported products, including conducting a decent amount of trade in flour and feed, but it was the grain seed business that generated the biggest volume of Brown’s sales.
At the rear of the store were the warehouses: grains bought on the market were stored, cleaned and shipped as orders were received.
An impressive gas-engine mill had been installed in a special building about 1905 for the purpose handling the storage and processing of the enormous amounts of grains required as the business expanded. It was not unusual for hundreds, even thousands of bushels of different grains to flow through Brown’s on any given day, with orders for carloads of grains to be shipped across the province.
Such was the demand for Brown’s seeds, that a switch at the rear of the building would connect directly to the railway tracks along the waterfront. Two of John and Jane’s sons, Alex and George, worked in the family business, eventually running the company.
At the time when J.J. passed, he was Barrie’s oldest merchant.
Besides building a successful company, J.J. found time over the years to serve as reeve, public school board trustee, a director of the Barrie Fair and Agricultural Joint Stock Co., chairman of the Water and Light Commission, superintendent of St. Andrew’s Church Sunday School, and, not surprising given his background, a director of the Horticultural Society.
The Brown home was notable for its extravagantly detailed ornamental woodwork, lavishly used in the gables, second-floor balcony, intricate eaves, attic vents and sweeping porch, along with beautiful contrasting buff brickwork. Almost all of these magnificent features can still be admired today.
