It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
The first confirmed location of the Huntsville Public Library was above White’s Hardware Store at 38 Main Street East. Photo from sometime between 1907-1920.
From Huntsville With Spirit and Resolve, by Susan Pryke, c2000.
Supporters of the literary arts approached council in May 1891 asking for financial assistance for the Mechanics Institute, a forerunner of the public library. Council agreed to a $25 grant and continued that commitment, increasing the donation to $100 each year. The Mechanics Institute had been established in about 1885. By 1888-89 it was located above the White Bros. Hardware Store, on the northwest corner of Main and King streets, operated at the outset by William Randleson, who continued as the secretary-treasurer of the library until his death in 1918. It offered subscribers a “comfortable reading room, a library of over 400 volumes, and the leading periodicals of the day.” James Bettes, the sheriff of Muskoka, owned the building, which at that time also housed the Forester printing office. By 1898 Miss McGladdery was the librarian. She presided over a reading room with 1,500 volumes, which could be accessed for a yearly subscription of $1.
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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Dear Mr. Earl; Thank you so much for your memories of our Hern family business! Harry was my great uncle and he seemed irascible but he was actually very kind to my brother and I. It’s nice to hear that his kindness went further into the community. If you remember, Harry took over for my Uncle Russell who was struggling with the business as he had lost his first wife to the Spanish flu. He was left with a very young daughter to raise. Harry moved from Oshawa, and a good job at GM, to help Russell. Of course, Frank and my Dad Jack were also at the store. It was a real family business. Thank you again for your memory of it!
Thank You Jamie for bring forth the past. The Library in question is a little before my time, my first visit to the library is when it was located above J R Boyd & Son grocery store, where on main st Pizza Pizza is located. Next it was I believe in a room inside the Town Hall, then moving over to Minerva St. where the liquor store used to be.
In the article it mentions White Bros. hardware store, which later became Hern Hardware owned and operated by Harry & Frank Hern, and later passed on to Frank’s son Jack. When I was a youngster my sister and I would accompany our Father to town on Friday nights as all the stores on main st were open until 9 pm. Among other stops we seem to end up always at Hern Hardware where my father did a substantial amount of business. I got to become fairly good friends with the then elderly Harry. He lived in a bachelor apartment in the store, but would be quite often out on the sales floor. Later when I visited the store to do purchases and Harry was present we would always have a little chit-chat, then I would proceed to engage with then one of the young clerks of Ted Biondi or Alfred Montpetit. When I was ready to pay Harry would come over to us and quietly say ” for Johnny take 10% off ” Lol .Those were the good ole days.
In the picture you see part of the Dominion Bank sign. Some 70 yrs ago when myself and my 3 siblings were born my dear Grandmother opened up bank accounts there just as soon after we were born. Myself being the youngest had $ 5.00 to start the account, as a keepsake I still have that same bank book today.
How the time passes on quickly, it used to be my generation could look for older local folks to get information about our history, heritage and culture. Now there are few still living to pass on the past. I guess its up to my generation to carry on.
Keep up the good work Jamie, its nice to see some of the younger generation interested in our past.