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Editor's note: To mark the 100th instalment of Deb Exel's popular Then and Now column, this week we are serving up something a little different: 100 places you’ll never see in the Sunday feature. This is the first of a two-part series. A few of these buildings have been mentioned here in the past, but we'd used only images of buildings that still exist for a true then-and-now comparison. How interesting is a vacant lot? For this twist on things, let's just say the words 'fire' and 'demolished' appear frequently.
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The following is a whirlwind tour of 50 places that used to be.
1. The Market Building was a spectacular construct before it’s spirit-crushing 1940s makeover. It was demolished in 1985.
2. The Post Office. Not the first post office in town, but certainly the most impressive. This federal building was demolished in 1958.
3. The old fire hall on Collier Street was built in 1873. The petition and pleas couldn’t save it and it was demolished in 1978.
4. The Barrie Railway Station was built about 1865 when the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway extended their line from Allandale into Barrie. The building stood almost 100 years, but was demolished in 1963.
5. The Registry Office was erected in 1875 to replace the 1846 original just to the west of it. It was built to be fireproof and featured a stone foundation and floors, slate roof, walls of arcaded white brick with 19-foot foot ceilings and iron shutters. It was also home at one point to the Simcoe County Women’s Institute museum.
6. The Simcoe County Court House was enlarged in 1877, the original building carefully integrated into the back of new part of the structure. It was demolished 100 years later in 1977.
7. The railway roundhouse was built in 1903 and demolished in 1964. The turntable and foundation remained for a period of time, but were later removed.
8. The Barrie Arena was home to sports and other events for many years until it was demolished in 2008.
9. The Barrie Gas Company began operation in 1878 and was located on Kempenfelt Drive.
10. The Queen’s Park’s pavilion and bandstand.
11. S.S. No. 13, the Painswick schoolhouse opened in 1843, but was demolished in 1981 to make room for the Warnica Public School annex.
12. The Barrie Water & Light Company Power House was located on Bayfield Street, just north of Simcoe Street.
13. The Gowans bought most of the new park lots between Blake Street and the bay to build their landmark Barrie homes, the first one Ardraven in 1845, home of Senator Gowan, and the second one Ardraven II, in 1885, later home to the Strathys and largely known as Ovenden. Both of these homes and stables were later used for Ovenden College.
14. Ovenden College opened in 1915, first with day students, including boys, before evolving to a boarding school for girls. Ovenden continued to operate as a school until 1950 and was demolished in 1968. All that remains is the coachman’s house.
15. County Attorney James Cotter’s Rockforest, at 54 Peel St., was demolished in the 1980s. Cotter later built Rockforest II, which is still standing.
16. Kembla Grange on High Street, the residence of Deputy Reeve Fletcher, was also the second location of the Barrie General Hospital.
17. Rowanhurst, home of lumber family the Dyments, was located at the corner of High Street and Dunlop West. It was demolished to make room for the new Canadian Tire store.
18. The McArthy’s Roxborough on Collier Street… read all about it!
19. Graygables, at 68 Mary St.,, was the residence of Mr. Morseley, editor of Examiner. It was also later the Bosco Home for Boys.
20. Blyth Cottage, the home of Judge Ardagh, was located on the north side of Dunlop Street, east of Mulcaster Street.
21. Better known as the Henry Harper residence, this home on the northeast corner of Dunlop at Poyntz and Sampson streets, was built in 1842 by Thomas Smith and was later the home of lumberman, A.C. Thompson.
22. The Lower House, located at the northwest corner of Clapperton and Collier streets, was built by Christopher Harrison. It was the childhood home of historian Dr. A.R. M. Lower.
23. Cundles was a tiny community on a dirt road leading out of Barrie. Thomas Cundle built his house in 1868. His farm, also known as the Brown family’s farm, is now the site of the Kozlov Centre.
24. S.S. No. 1 Vespra, the old Cundles School, where CIBC is now located on Bayfield Street, was built on land donated by Thomas Cundle.
25. The Anderton home at Victoria and Ellen streets was handy to the brothers’ brewery by the bay.
26. Fair View Brewery, established by the Anderton family, was lost in a fire.
27. The Gables was 40 acres on the south shore which included a splendid house, farm, pastures, woods, private beach and boathouse. The property was donated to Royal Victoria Hospital in 1962 and the green-gabled home built in 1860, was demolished in the 1970s. The Gables is now city parkland.
28. The Barr & Henry Carriage Works, located at 2 Collier St., later became G.G. Smith Furniture and Undertaking. Most people will remember this building as Steele’s China. It was demolished in 2009.
29. The Wellington Hotel – this longtime watering hole was victim, again, and fatally, to fire in 2007.
30. The Mansion House or American Hotel, was built in 1874. The “Yank” was demolished in 1983. ‘Nuff said.
31. The first Queen’s Hotel was lost to a devastating fire in the early 1900s.
32. Bothwell Corners stood at the boundary of Barrie and downtown Allandale. It was demolished about 1975.
33. Carley’s Boats, a fixture on the bay for generations, was demolished about 1972.
34. The first Barrie tannery, Lake Simcoe Tannery, located on Dunlop Street East, was destroyed in a fire about 1900. The home of Barrie’s first tanner, Andrew Graham, still stands.
35. After the tannery fire, the Underhill shoe factory was built on the property where Graham’s tannery had stood.
36. The new (and final) Barrie Tanning Company, built about 1900, was demolished in 1982.
37. Ball Planing Mill was located where the new Woolworth’s was built.
38. The Clifton Hotel was built in 1853. It rocked... until it didn’t. Demolished about 1992.
39. The home located at 185 Dunlop St. E. was known as the Creamery. Future Lakeview Dairy location.
40. Lakeview Dairy & Milk Bar was a storefront added to the home referred to as the creamery. The home would later be demolished to add new Lakeview Dairy facilities.
41. Minet’s Point Dance Pavilion, destroyed in a fire in 1958.
42. A victim of the 1985 tornado, the Barrie Raceway was later demolished.
43. The Peninsular Park Hotel in the Big Bay Point area, was built 1887. Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier (1896-1910) put it on the map when he made it one of his favourite summer destinations. Travellers reached it by train from Toronto to the Allandale Station, then by carriage to the Barrie docks where they would catch a boat to the hotel. It burned in 1955. Local historian Bill Warnica recalls surveying the ruins the day after the fire.
44. The Barrie Carriage Works at Ellen and John streets, went on to become Robson Lang Leathers before the building was demolished.
45. Depending on your age, you may have referred to this building as Tamblyn’s or Sam the Record Man, but it was also Otton’s Hardware before that. Whatever your memory, the building was demolished after a fire in 1994.
46. The Sunbeam (Weston) Bread Company or Brookdale Park Inn (and zoo) was once located at the corner of Parkside Drive and Dunlop Street West.
47. One of the locations of Elizabeth Street Methodist Church congregation was at the corner of Elizabeth (now Dunlop Street West) and Toronto streets. Read about their journey here.
48. The Ardagh Memorial Home was built in 1873 by the six children of Rev. Samuel Ardagh, as a safe haven for aged or indigent women (directories listed it as the Memorial Home for Old Ladies). After the house was demolished in the 1960s the memorial tablet was relocated to Trinity Anglican Church.
49. The Orange Hall on Clapperton Street between Collier and Worsley streets opened in 1876. The Salvation Army barracks were on the main floor and the Orange Hall was upstairs.
50. The Exchange Block later became the Barrie Brewing Company and finally apartments before it was demolished for the construction of condos.
Next week, we will remember another 50 sites.
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.
