BarrieVotes.ca 2026 municipal election · civic data and charts

Barrie's past, column by column

Since 2016 the Barrie Historical Archive has given BarrieToday a weekly history column: Mary Harris's Remember This? and the archive curator Debra (Deb) Exel's Then and Now, which pairs an old photograph from the archive with one taken today. This page gathers 663 of them by what they are about: the houses and the families in them, the shops and hotels, the churches and schools, the villages around Barrie and the crimes that made the papers.

Source: BarrieToday, the columns as published, each linked to the original; gathered from Google News, the Internet Archive's copies and, for 22 that no archive had kept, BarrieToday itself. Debra Exel writes 320 of them and Mary Harris 292; the rest of the early Then and Now columns are printed under "BarrieToday Staff" though the page credits Deb Exel or the archive.
What each column is about, its street and its settlement were read from its headline and its own first lines and filed by hand by this site; a column about a house on a street is filed under the street as the column names it. The archive's own pages are at Institutions.

The columns by year

Count the columns by

Barrie Historical Archive columns in BarrieToday per year, by subject

Houses and the families in them Shops, hotels and industry Public places and the railway Churches Schools Villages and hamlets Crime, courts and the jail Life in Barrie

0 30 60 90 120 4 2016 17 38 2017 12 19 39 2018 20 19 51 2019 24 15 66 2020 32 21 28 95 2021 30 25 31 94 2022 27 15 11 42 105 2023 32 13 16 79 2024 19 11 50 2025 22 14 42 2026
2016 3 4 2017 3 9 5 4 17 38 2018 6 12 19 39 2019 4 20 19 51 2020 7 24 10 5 3 15 66 2021 32 21 3 6 28 95 2022 30 25 3 3 31 94 2023 27 15 5 5 11 42 105 2024 32 13 6 4 7 16 79 2025 19 11 4 7 3 4 50 2026 22 14 3 42
Each column counted once, under the one subject this site filed it by, in the year BarrieToday published it; the subjects are this site's reading of each column, not the archive's.
Derived from this site's media index.

Barrie Historical Archive columns in BarrieToday per year, by series

Then and Now Remember This? Other history features

0 30 60 90 120 4 2016 38 38 2017 38 39 2018 21 25 51 2019 47 15 66 2020 53 42 95 2021 52 42 94 2022 53 52 105 2023 52 27 79 2024 50 50 2025 42 42 2026
2016 4 4 2017 38 38 2018 38 39 2019 21 25 5 51 2020 47 15 4 66 2021 53 42 95 2022 52 42 94 2023 53 52 105 2024 52 27 79 2025 50 50 2026 42 42
Each column counted once, in the year BarrieToday published it.
The Remember This? columns found run from late 2016 to 2024 and the Then and Now columns from 2019. These are the columns this site has gathered, not a certified count: a column neither Google News nor the Internet Archive kept is missing. Derived from this site's media index.

By subject

Houses and the families in them (177)

Homes and estates, who built them and who lived in them. Newest first.

169 more stories

Shops, hotels and industry (158)

Stores, hotels, banks, mills, garages and the downtown blocks that held them. Newest first.

150 more stories

Public places and the railway (36)

The jail, the square, the parks, the stations, the hospital and the armoury. Newest first.

28 more stories

Churches (29)

Congregations in town and in the villages around it. Newest first.

21 more stories

Schools (12)

Ward schools, the collegiate and the one-room schools of the townships. Newest first.

4 more stories

Villages and hamlets (7)

Settlements outside the old town, from Craighurst to Sandy Hollow. Newest first.

Crime, courts and the jail (49)

Murders, jail breaks, counterfeiters and the law that chased them. Newest first.

41 more stories

Life in Barrie (195)

Storms, parades, wars, customs, trades and the people who made a name. Newest first.

187 more stories

By street

Every column about a building or a stretch of a street, under the street the column names, most columns first. Dunlop Street is filed East and West where the column says which; a few older names (Elizabeth Street, today's Dunlop Street West) are kept as printed.

Dunlop St. E. (39 columns)
Collier St. (24 columns)
Bayfield St. (22 columns)
Bradford St. (18 columns)
Dunlop St. W. (15 columns)
Blake St. (11 columns)
Owen St. (11 columns)
High St. (9 columns)
Mary St. (9 columns)
Essa Rd. (8 columns)
Mulcaster St. (8 columns)
Peel St. (7 columns)
Sunnidale Rd. (7 columns)
Clapperton St. (5 columns)
Toronto St. (5 columns)
Berczy St. (4 columns)
Wellington St. W. (4 columns)
Burton Ave. (3 columns)
Codrington St. (3 columns)
Innisfil St. (3 columns)
Maple Ave. (3 columns)
Parkside Dr. (3 columns)
Penetang St. (3 columns)
Doran Rd. (2 columns)
Dunlop St. (2 columns)
Kempenfelt Dr. (2 columns)
Letitia St. (2 columns)
Shanty Bay Rd. (2 columns)
St. Vincent St. (2 columns)
Theresa St. (2 columns)
Thomson St. (2 columns)
Tiffin St. (2 columns)
Valley Dr. (2 columns)
Worsley St. (2 columns)
Anne St. N. (1 column)
Beacon Rd. (1 column)
Collingwood St. (1 column)
Cook St. (1 column)
Cumberland St. (1 column)
Davidson St. (1 column)
Dundonald St. (1 column)
Elizabeth St. (1 column)
Ferndale Dr. (1 column)
Ferndale Dr. N. (1 column)
Finlay Mill Rd. (1 column)
Gowan St. (1 column)
Granville St. (1 column)
Grove St. E. (1 column)
John St. (1 column)
Little Ave. (1 column)
McDonald St. (1 column)
Miller Dr. (1 column)
Nelson Sq. (1 column)
North St. (1 column)
Park St. (1 column)
Penetanguishene Rd. (1 column)
Poyntz St. (1 column)
Rodney St. (1 column)
Rose St. (1 column)
Ross St. (1 column)
Simcoe St. (1 column)
Sophia St. E. (1 column)
Sophia St. W. (1 column)
Wellington St. (1 column)
Wellington St. E. (1 column)
Wilson Dr. (1 column)
Yonge St. (1 column)

Villages and the townships around Barrie

Columns about a settlement outside the old town. Allandale, a mile south, was its own village until Barrie annexed it in 1896; see Early Barrie.

Allandale (20 columns)
Craighurst (4 columns)
Midhurst (4 columns)
Crown Hill (3 columns)
Minesing (3 columns)
Oro (3 columns)
Cookstown (2 columns)
Dalston (2 columns)
Shanty Bay (2 columns)
Grenfel (1 column)
Hawkestone (1 column)
Holly (1 column)
Innisfil (1 column)
Ivy (1 column)
Oro-Medonte (1 column)
Sandy Hollow (1 column)
Thornton (1 column)

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