Back Stage Pass a Blast from the Past
A recent site visit provides glimpses into theatre's many glory days. Test, test and test again is how you de-risk an event so everything will run smoothly ... and that's just what we were doing in preparation for our Barrie on the Big Screen night when we were treated to some nostalgic moments at the Uptown Theatre. Since the doors first opened in 1937, this now trendy indie theatre has had a long history and is best remembered as the [...]
Saying Goodbye to Anna: The East End Variety & Snack Bar Fades Away
“Hey Lang, you should go out of business more often!” shouted one jokester, but I doubt that that Lang even heard him over the drone of the kitchen exhaust fan, that was running full tilt, [...]
Snow in April! Try 1975!
And then I remembered these very days, only they occurred over a weekend in 1975. Barrie's population was 31,399. Eastview Arena was a new building on Grove St, surrounded by farmland. The south end ended [...]
Notable Women of Barrie
The ladies of early Barrie, along with all of their Canadian sisters, laboured under the most extreme circumstances each and every day. Corseted and coiffed in the restrictive fashions of the day, their clothing was [...]
The Crock & Block Says “Goodnight”
I wrote this review just a few months ago, as a salute to one of the time-tested eateries of Barrie that were still soldiering on. Sadly, for fans of the Crock & Block, this piece [...]
A Stroll Through Barrie Courtesy of Rayner McCullough
Steadily, Rayner McCullough walks me along Elizabeth Street. Hines grocery, then next to the that, a meat market. Next, an empty lot next to Central United Church on the east side of Toronto Street, where [...]
Baker’s Buried Treasures
Prior to his passing in April 2016, Brian Baker was a well-known personality within the historical community of Barrie. With multiple cameras around his neck at any given moment, he was Simcoe County’s unofficial [...]
Local Artist Highlights Historic Barrie
Local graphic artist and entrepreneur, Tyler Gooding is making history – quite literally – with typographic Barrie-centric art. Having long appreciated the graphic art depicting the names of streets and locations in other famous towns, Gooding [...]
Skates, Parades and Carnival Queens: Celebrating Winter Barrie Style
When Mother Nature builds you your very own arena, complete with ice, lots of good lighting, enough space for a limitless audience and a surface twenty-six hockey rinks long, you make the best use [...]
The fall of ’63
"If you are yearning for the good old days, just turn off the air conditioning." - Griff Niblack Janet and I arrived in Barrie on Sunday, September 1, 1963. We had been married the day [...]
Looking back – Moving forward
Happy new year! 2016 was an incredible year for the City of Barrie. Never before has Barrie been able to boast of a state of the art digital, free online museum until now. The Barrie Historical [...]