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.
Penetang Street opened in 1848 and was named for Penetanguishene Road. It was like an early ‘bypass’ to connect to Penetanguishene Road via Napier Street, avoiding the hills near Kempenfeldt Village.
A one-time owner of the first property on the north side of Penetang Street, No. 2, was Gilbert Love. Love had been born in Wallace Township, North Perth in the mid-1860s to his Irish father and Canadian mother. He came to Barrie as a young man and worked at shoemaking briefly before becoming a house painter and decorator, as his occupation was shown in 1891.
That line of work did not agree with Love, for health reasons, so he purchased a livery stable, the previous Crosby stand, on Owen Street across from the Mechanics Institute. He ran his livery business for six years, offering first-class horses and rigs at reasonable rates.
It was in 1897 that one of Love’s horses was involved in an apparent crime. George Crawford, the storekeeper at Oro Station, who had been before the court in the past for beating his wife Mary Ann Perry, got some payback when he answered the door about 1 or 2 a.m. one January morning. Although the men that grabbed Crawford had disguised themselves with blackened faces, Crawford’s son, who had come to his dad’s assistance, thought they could be Mrs. Crawford’s brother George Perry and brother-in-law William Rayner.
Suffice to say, lots of sleuthing occurred, sleigh tracks, shoe (and horseshoe) prints matched and witnesses produced, that led to the arrest of Perry and Rayner. It seems the horse pulling the getaway cutter only had shoes on its front hooves. This matched the description of Gilbert Love’s sorrel that coincidentally had been rented to Rayner and Perry about 10:30 p.m. on the night in question, according to Love’s hostler, W. Hipson.
The horse and cutter were taken up to Collier Street, where Perry and Rayner took the reins and headed east, with clean faces, returning about 3 a.m., with traces of black on Perry’s face.
Love was involved in civic projects. In 1897, in Council Chambers, the general committee agreed to formulate a plan for a lasting memorial to Her Majesty’s Jubilee. To this end, various committees were established and Gilbert Love served on the procession and decorations committee along with G.G. Smith, John Coffey, Maj. Rogers, Eustace Bird, Thomas Sidsworth and others.
The wooden house at 2 Penetang St. looks to have been owned by Gilbert and Eliza (Rogers) Love from 1896 until 1901, when it was sold to Robert Crossland, who owned a printing business. The Loves moved to a farm on the 5th Concession of Oro where they lived for about 19 years before retiring to Shanty Bay.
But it seems Gilbert Love was not quite ready for the slow lane. In 1919, he bought the general store at Mitchell Square, where he remained for the rest of his life.
