HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1999-12-29, Page 3THE CITIZEN MILLENNIUM ISSUE, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1999. PAGE 3.
Village of Bly th
£ooking to the future with agriculture, retail, theatre
Continued from pg. 2
A new school was needed by the
late 1890s and a white brick building
was constructed at the fairgrounds
on the Morris Twp. side. The old
school was eventually converted to
an apartment building. Continuation
classes were included by 1910 and a
two-storey addition was built in
1923. Continuation classes ended in
1946 and kindergarten added in
1958.
The old building was condemned
in 1965 and the new one-storey facil
ity opened that fall just north of the
old site at the comer of King and
Mill Streets.
The Canada Presbyterian Church
and Methodist Church served the
community until the 1925 union.
The present United Church building
was constructed on the same sitd in
1962.
The Continuing Presbyterian
Church offered services from 1925
to 1969. It was renamed St.
Andrew’s Presbyterian. The congre
gation moved to Belgrave in 1970.
The Christian Reformed Church
congregation formed in 1962 and
used Memorial Hall for their servic
es until they rented and eventually
bought the continuing Presbyterian
Church on Queen Street.
The Anglican Church was built on
Wilson Street (Gypsy Lane) in 1878
though the congregation had been
holding services since 1860.
St. Michael’s Catholic Church was
built in 1876.
The Church of God formed in
1951 with meetings in Memorial
Hall. The home of Edith Ball on
McConnell Street was purchased"
that year and converted into the
church.
The official opening of Memorial
Hall, built to honour war veterans,
took place June 5, 1921.
By the early 1970s, the building
needed extensive repairs and
upgrades. Blyth Festival Centre for
the Arts formed and the concept of
live theatre in Blyth was born.
Though the main hall was not fit for
use, the first theatre presentation
took place in the basement in 1973.
With repairs completed in 1975,
the inaugural season of what would
become Blyth Festival Theatre was
held. The festival celebrated its 25th
anniversary in 1999 and Memorial
Hall is now the centre of many com
munity activities.
An art gallery was built in the
1980s to join Memorial Hall to a
neighbouring former bank building
which would be used as the festival’s
administration office.
Adding to Blyth’s recreational
facilities was the construction of the
first community centre/arena in
1950. The current building was put
up in 1977.
After the demise of several publi
cations before the turn of the centu
ry, The Blyth Standard was bom.
Around 1894, the office was located
on the west side of Queen Street
between Dinsley and Drummond.
The paper was sold and moved
numerous times before it ended its
run in 1982.
The North Huron Citizen, a. com
munity-owned paper started in 1985,
is situated on Queen Street between
Dinsley and King.
Blyth had an abundance of facto-
ries, mills and retail outlets over the
years. Just a few included the cheese
factory, sawmills and wood indus
tries. tlour and grist mills, salt block
production, flax mills, brick and tile
yards, wool and leather industries,
bakers, bankers implement dealers
and foundries, barbers, butchers,
coopers, smiths of all types,
garages, harness makers and liveries.
Blyth CP station
Blyth General Store:
127 years of
fascinating variety
The building now known as Blyth General
Store has a long history dating back to 1872. It
has been used as everything from a harness
shop to a grocery and feed store to an egg
grading station to today’s uses as a variety and
gift store.
Between 1872 and 1876 Robert W. Mitchell,
with his wife Eliza, operated a saddle and
harness shop in the building in partnership
with John Anderson. In 1876 Mitchell changed
the store into a grocery store and groceries
have been part of its use most of the time
since. Owners have included:
W.E. Campbell, 1897-1898
W. L. Dempsey, 1898-March 1910
W. J. Andrews, 1910-1918
Cowan, 1918-?
Archie Radford, ?-1934
A. L. Kernick, 1934-1948
Moody Holland, 1948-1959
Alvin Snell, 1959-1968
Harvey Snell, 1968-1988
A. L. Willie, 1988-1989 (?)
Store vacant 1989 (?)-1990
John Bell, 1990-1996
Bruce & Gwen Papple, 1996-Present
•The building has seen some interesting
happenings during its history. During the lime
W. J. Andrew was running his business, there
was a fire.
•Armand Kernick installed a cold storage
locker system and it operated until Harvey
Snell closed it in the early 1970s. In the days
before people had their own home freezers,
people rented lockers to safely store their
meal. Each locker had its own key which was
kepi either in the store or lhe renter’s home.
The refrigeration unit was in lhe basement of
the building where five or six motors were
kept going to keep the lockers cold. The
motors generated so much heal Maiy Holland
sometimes used to hang her laundry
downstairs near the motors to diy.
• Borden Cook rented the small cement
block addition on the south of the building
and ran an egg grading station. This part of
the building was later taken over by Bill Knox.
In those days when most farms had small
flocks of hens, farmers would bring their eggs
in to be graded or Lloyd Walsh would go to
the farm to pick them up. While they were
visiting farms to pick up eggs, Cook and Knox
would also deliver groceries from the grocery
store part of the building.
• Livestock feed sales were pan of the
business when Moody and Mary Holland and
their daughters Barbara and Valerie operated
the store from 1948-1959 as Holland’s Grocery
and Locker Service. Farmers would pick up
100-pound bags of feed for their animals. Also
employed at the store were Mary McGaughey
(Hamm) and Marg Caldwell. Wayne Jackson
was the delivery boy who delivered groceries
all over town. They also did cutting and
wrapping of sides of beef.
Harvey Snell discontinued the feed store end
of the business.
• Many of the business owners have lived
above the store. When the Hollands bought
lhe business in 1948 there was still no indoor
bathroom. They continued to use an outhouse
for two years until Moody finally gave in to
Maiy’s pleadings and installed a bathroom.
There was no refrigerator in the apartment
and lhe Hollands used the cold storage
downstairs in lhe store. They had to go up
and down the stairs to get food for lhe
kitchen.
• The building sat vacant for a short time
after Al Willie closed the store he had taken
over from Harvey Snell in 1988. John Bell
reopened it as a variety store in 1990 and
operated it until 1996 when he sold it to Bruce
Papple.
hardware stores, jewelers, restau
rants, laundries, milliners, liquors
stores, photographers and shoemak
ers.
Though professionals are hard to
come by today, Blyth had its share of
doctors, dentists and optometrists as
well.
Through the decades, many of
these commercial ventures have con
tinued while new endeavors such as
a turnip waxing plant, turkey plant,
construction business, truck trans
portation and fuel supply, have
developed.
There are also many social clubs in
which to become involved.
The Blyth volunteer fire depart
ment is as valuable today as in its
early days of 1888.
Queen Street North
Blyth Public and Continuation School