DBS Heritage Consulting & Communications

"Your History is our Business"

"This work is probably the most complete study of a Canadian city's street names ever compiled. Truly a labour of love..."

Chris and Pat Raible, "From the Bookshelf," OHS Bulletin (July 2002), p. 7. 

Nominated for the Ontario Historical Society's Fred Landon Award.

New Price $29.99 (regularly $45.00) plus s&h 

Streetwise in Barrie: An Historical Guide to Barrie Streetnames

Details the history and geography of Barrie streetnames from the Ontario community's first survey in 1833 to June 1999. Arranged alphabetically, Streetwise in Barrie is extensively cross-referenced and features thorough bibliographic references.

Published by DBS Heritage Consulting & Communications, 2001 

ISBN 0-9683733-1-3 Paper, perfect bound, 333 pp., 30+ b/w photos, 2 maps 

"Introduction" to Streetwise in Barrie

Acknowledgements  Top

I would like to thank all those who helped to make this book possible. I would especially like to note the patient assistance of Janice Laking, Ken Peck, O.J. Rowe, and John Struik. I would also like to thank all those contributors who so generously and graciously offered information. Finally, I would like to thank the staff at The City of Barrie, Barrie Public Library, and Simcoe County Archives for their kind and professional assistance. A book of this nature will not be without errors and omissions. Any brought to the author's attention will be greatly appreciated. 

Streetwise in Barrie: An Historical Guide to Barrie Streetnames was endorsed as an official City of Barrie Millennium Project, pursuant to Resolution 99-G-87. The postcards reproduced in this book are part of the fine collection of the late Mrs. D. Lemmon of Barrie. They appear courtesy of, and with the permission of, the estate. Contemporary photos are courtesy of Kurt Harding Schick, the author and Jan Morley.

Introduction Top

It has often been truly said that the history of a city can be read in the names of its streets. They are monuments that often tell more and speak more eloquently than statues of marble or of bronze. 

T.A. Reed, "The Historic Value of Street Names," Papers and Records, Ontario Historical Society, Vol. XXV (Toronto: The Society, 1929), p. 385.

This book is a nearly perfect example of the wisdom found in the old saying, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." 

When I first began to wonder about the locations of Barrie streetnames like Cotter, Ann Eliza, Small, Thompson, Harriet and Melinda, and Pellew -- and the people behind them -- little did I know that I was embarking on a three-year adventure. 

Streetwise in Barrie was to be a "nice little" City of Barrie Millennium project. What could be simpler than deconstructing a few judiciously selected maps, putting their streetnames in alphabetical order, tracing their spatial evolution over time by translating those maps into words, and saying something about for whom or what the streets were named? 

My overly optimistic, if not downright naive, goal was to capture every Barrie streetname from the early 1800s to mid-1999 -- the debated eve of the new millennium. Streetwise in Barrie was to provide a snapshot of the community at the end of the 20th century.

Top

The first person to examine the origins of Barrie streetnames in anything longer than a newspaper filler was D.H. MacLaren. He first read his "British Naval Officers of a Century Ago. Barrie and Its Streets -- A History of Their Names," before the Simcoe County Pioneer and Historical Society on 28 April 1908. His essay was subsequently published in 1919 in Volume 17 of the Ontario Historical Society, Papers and Records. 

MacLaren's seven-page paper, although amended in some particulars by W. Allen Fisher in his The Genesis of Barrie, 1783-1858 (1987), has remained Barrie's standard streetname reference down to today. Over the years, it has continued to find favour with local newspaper editors. It has been reprinted, in whole or in part, to mark Barrie's centennial year in 1953 and the Barrie Examiner's centennial year in 1964. 

Time has well and truly burst the bounds of MacLaren's worthy effort. In 1907, just over 6,000 people lived on Barrie's fewer than 100 streets. By 1946, there were 127 streets in the town whose population hovered around 10,000. By 1967, the number of Barrie streets had almost doubled to 245 while the population more than doubled to almost 25,000. Ten years later, approximately 35,000 Barrieites lived on 317 streets. By June 1999, there were more than 700 streetnames current in the City of Barrie whose population had shot up to almost 100,000. It will come as no surprise that there is a direct relationship between streetbuilding and local economic development. 

In embarking upon my research, I quickly ran up against the aching reality of writing local history. Streetwise in Barrie was a book long overdue, but painfully premature. Premature in that much of published secondary research required to make a success of a project like this has yet to be written. Long overdue in that without such an effort, the gaps in the history of Barrie cannot be made readily apparent. 

Of late, there has been plenty of debate on the necessity, or lack of it, of "national history." As a passionate believer in the importance of local history, I maintain that history, like charity, begins at home. Indeed, there can be no "national history" or "international history" without "local history." Like it or not, all history is local -- some histories are just a little more local than others.

Each of us cares most about those things closest to us. Why should anyone -- let along a young elementary or secondary school student -- care about a Wellington, a Bayfield, a Dunlop, a Cook, or a Vancouver? Without a hook and a context, they are meaningless words on a page. However, when it is pointed out that these are names of streets in my community, they can become portals --  dare I say avenues -- to a wider historical understanding. Who are these people? Why were they so honoured? What was important, special, or unique about them, their place in time, and their accomplishments? 

Streetwise in Barrie looks towards encouraging the love and study of history -- locally, one street at a time. But why streets? The easiest answer is that almost everyone lives on a street, a road, or a concession. One of the first things each of us learns as a child is the name of the street upon which we live. Accordingly, each of us has an inherent connection and interest in at least one streetname -- our own. There are few of us that have not wondered about how such and such street came to be named. 

On another level, streets are interesting because they are among the most enduring of built urban structures. Anyone who has tried to change a streetname once on the books or on a map can attest to this. Moreover, streets are the very circulatory system of the urban body. We can do little outside of our homes, schools, and places of business that does not involve some interaction with a street. 

This leads to probably the most important function of streets in an urban setting -- the organizing power of their mental geography. Real estate agents tell us that their business is about three things: "location, location, location." Streets are about how we mentally construct and reconstruct our communities. Streetnames have the power to evoke strong and enduring mental images. Names such as Tollendal, Letitia, Dunlop, Bayfield, Molson Park and Hurst, are probably meaningless to most outside of Barrie. However, they quickly conjure shared images and set the tone of conversation for any Barrieite. 

Streets and streetnames can become ciphers for a sense of neighbourhood, community, and status or the lack thereof. Streetnames can be about turf. They can also be about borders, frontiers, and division. It is precisely because streetnames function on so many levels, that they can be effectively used to promote not only an interest in history but also to develop a sense of historical understanding. 

Moreover, what a community chooses to call its streets and how it goes about streetnaming can be very revealing about the nature and values of that community. As MacLaren showed in 1908, many of Barrie's earliest streets came from a military background, like Bayfield, Clapperton, Collier, Mulcaster, Owen, and Worsley. This theme has continued down to the present day with the practice of naming streets after the community's war dead. In 1999, almost one in six Barrie streetnames (114) is named in honour of those who died in World War One (75 streets), World War Two (38 streets) and the Korean War (1 street).

Top

The following table is a sweeping breakdown of the origins of Barrie's streetnames:

* (owing to rounding)

Biography, Including First Names: 506 or 66.6%

Top

It is interesting to note that two-thirds of all Barrie streetnames are biographically derived, as either first or surnames (506). As discussed above, many of these are named for the community' s war dead. Also well represented are local councillors and aldermen (53), mayors (18), authors (43), historical personages (83), and -- of course -- landowners and developers and their family members. 

The next largest group is that termed "descriptive" (94 streets). This is a catchall grouping for those derived or contrived streetnames like: Barrie View, Bayview, Broadmoor, Cedar Creek, Country Club, Crimson Ridge, Forest Dale, Forestview, Forestwood, and Grand Forest. 

Plants (48) -- especially trees, and animals (25) -- especially birds, also figure prominently in the Barrie streetscape, as do geographical names (59). A more detailed examination of streetname categories and what they might mean is beyond the scope of this introduction. 

At first glance, this book might appear to be both comprehensive and definitive. It is neither. While every effort has been made to get the story and get it straight, gaps and errors of fact, categorization, and interpretation must necessarily occur. What began as a simple streetguide has evolved into something akin to a mini-encyclopedia of Barrie. Nonetheless, this book is not the last word on the history of Barrie streetnames, but rather only a first attempt. 

In closing, streets are among the most enduring features of our towns and cities. People and buildings come and go -- streets live on, more or less, forever. As we come to know our streets -- we come to know ourselves. Our streets connect us; our streets can divide us; but for each of us they are our mirrors. Their names celebrate and commemorate our shared urban experience -- the ideals, people, places, and things we cherish and value. As we name our streets -- so we are.

How This Book is Organized  Top

This book is organized in alphabetical order by streetname. Each entry contains the current streetname, along with any earlier streetnames, and a map grid keyed to the City of Barrie map, dated 18 June 1999, located at the back of the book. Former streetnames are also included alphabetically with reference instructions. The term "deleted" is used for former streets that are no more. This word was chosen over the proper legalistic phrase, "stopped up and closed." 

Each streetname entry has three main parts: geography, history, and sources. Following the streetname, the 1999 map grid reference, and any former streetnames, each streetname entry begins with a general description of the street as it appears in the 1999 City of Barrie map. Immediately following this description is the first reference discovered for that street, whether a map or a registered plan. For more details on the maps and plans, see the Map Bibliography at the end of the book. Descriptions then follow in chronological order down to that description which is the same as that in 1999. Former or correct streetnames are shown within parentheses -- [ ]. Maps and registered plans are named, dated, and numbered. Please note, only those maps and plans which describe a significant change in the spatial evolution of the street are included in the text. Not all registered plans pertaining to each street are included in the text. 

The geography section is followed by the history section. Where the origin of the streetname has yet to be determined, it is so indicated. Every effort has been made to include some pertinent information about the streetname in the history section. Many streetname histories have been provided through interviews and conversations with local contributors. Not all such streetname histories have been independently verified. All sources for the history section are noted in the sources section. As well, a bibliography has been included at the back of the book.

Notes to Educators  Top

Educators will find that Streetwise in Barrie readily lends itself for use in the classroom. Any number of modules can be built around its geographical and historical components. Each of the general streetname categories, can be used to promote interest in local, national, and international history. Themes can also be developed, for example, around the war dead, early settlers, local politicians, authors, plants, and animals. 

As well, for those educators in Barrie, students can be invited to seek out the origins of the streets in their neighbourhood and around their school. Map-reading skills can be developed and enhanced by assigning projects and/or reports on streets picked out at random. For example, students could be asked to name and write a brief report on all the streets located at grid reference, say "D-4". When were the streets laid out? Is this an old or new part of Barrie? For whom are the streets named? Why might those names have been chosen at that time? When did these streets begin to look like they do in 1999? A field trip, focusing on current use and architecture, could further enhance the learning experience -- as students relate map references to street locations. More senior projects could include studies on local government, the spatial evolution of Barrie, the impact of war on the community, and Canadian, English and American literature. 

For educators beyond Barrie, the community's palette of streetnames reflects a larger framework. Many streets in Barrie are named for individuals of county, regional, provincial, national, and international significance. Barrie did not name its streets in isolation. Like countless other Ontario and Canadian communities, Barrie inherited its full share of a broadly British imperial historical culture. It is very much a part of what historian Ian McKay has called "a transatlantic liberal universe." Accordingly, a good many Barrie streetnames are also found in communities throughout Canada and, indeed, the English-speaking world. One can only wonder how many "Victoria" or "Queen" streets there are in Ontario alone. 

Streetwise in Barrie is a reference of first resort. It is designed to provide a "jump start" for inquisitive minds. Further study and research materials can be accessed through the sources listed at the end of each streetname entry and in the bibliography.

Send mail with questions or comments about this web site:
Copyright © 2002 DBS Heritage Consulting & Communications
Last modified: Jul 29, 2007