It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
We never get tired of staring at this postcard. Huntsville’s downtown was a bustling place in the early 1940s. Can you imagine what it must’ve been like standing on that second-floor balcony looking out on the main street?
Above – Postcard view of Hwy 11 in Downtown Huntsville (ca. 1940). See an enlarged photo here.
(Photo courtesy of Annabelle Studio)
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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It looks pretty calm in the photo, but as Dave Johns notes, that strip of Main Street was Hwy 11. The traffic was nowhere near back then what it is now, but every bit of it went through downtown.
I can remember my Dad and some cottagers telling of times when the swing bridge, swung, and then wouldn’t swing back. The gear would jam or the whole thing would swing past the stop, the teeth no longer engaging. Everything came to a stop, sometimes for miles in each direction. Eventually they would get a tow truck cable across the river and pull the bridge back until the teeth re- engaged.
In the meantime, cars idled and diesels fumed, all in the confines of down-town.
On the dining room wall of Doctor Caven’s cottage was a map of this area. Huntsville was overwritten with the word HELL.
He told me, that when the bridge jammed, it was just like hell, in, or trying to get through, Huntsville.
Indeed a wonderful postcard Picture, Its wonderful that David spotted and named the semi at the West st. intersection. Also a little history of Hutchins Transport, I hadn’t realized Hutchins Transport had so many vehicles and so many depots. William Hutchins had a nickname back in the day of ” Water Dog Bill “. He apparently had an ingenious way of hooking a chain around a log that was partially submerged in water in order to raise the log up for loading .
Jim Gooley as mention bought the business and he later sold to The Hoar Transport Co.
Brothers Norm and Eldon Hutchins were the son’s of William Hutchins , they formed Hutchins Brothers Transport. They primarily hauled lumber and flooring from Weldwood of Canada from Huntsville to southern Ontario. They also had a fleet of log trucks that hauled logs from mostly Algonquin, Old Muskoka Wood properties and other crown land. Ron Fletcher and John McIntyre and Bill Hutchins Jr. are some drivers that come mind. In the end it was just mainly lumber and I believe plastic pipe from Wiik & Hoeglund hauling south, Norm Hutchins son’s Bill and Barry among others were drivers to the end. On some of the back home trips they would bring steel supplies from Toronto area warehouses to our welding shop on Earls Road.
In the picture on the south side (right) You can see Bert Schuch’s lawyers office and almost next door is Currie Hough Chiropractors office.
On the other side of the street with the large sign of Huntsville Trading Co, in my day became Loblaws grocery, this was my Mothers favorite grocery where as my Grandmothers was the A& P down the street partially where the Nutty Chocolateer is located.
Down past Huntsville Trading is where Braund’s drug store used to be. Campbells Drug Store was same side of the street just further down.
Moving up the street you see Eccolstone’s Hardware, then the alleyway , then to Ware Brother’s Grocery. My family in the 1940’s had a running account at Ware’s. this being before Loblaws or A&P arrived in town.
Part of Ware’s store was later the home of a small jam packed Stedman’s 5 cents to $ 1 Store. Later of course being located down where the A& P used to be. Some of us will remember the live pets offered for sale there, including a talking parrott and I think Chester the crow. How nice it is to remember ” Way Back”.
Wonderful post card of Main Street and in those older day, #11 Highway. My favorite vehicle in this beauty is the Hutchins Transport tractor trailer at the West Street intersection. The company was started by William Hutchins and later was sold to Jim Gooley in 1935. He had depots in Huntsville, Bracebridge, Edgar, North Bay, Orillia, Barrie, Parry Sound and Toronto with one hundred and twenty vehicles in use.
Barely a tree in sight, and narrow sidewalks but arguably more small businesses and more “practical” businesses than today in some ways.
I find I hardly ever go to the main street anymore for business needs. Most can be found out near the edges of town or accessed on line nowadays. Only tourists with little to do seem interested in fudge and ice cream.
Don’t get me wrong, I like ice cream but sadly, most of the time for business I am more interested in easy parking, quick in and out to get the products I need at the most reasonable price and for that most business is already on the periphery of the downtown part of town.
Thus, for me the actual downtown core is sort of irrelevant to a lot of my needs.
Still, when and if all those trees planted small last year actually grow the downtown main street area will be much nicer to walk and browse on and for this the tourists will be happy and I guess that is the main goal.
For those who lament that the trees planted are “small”. I have found that planting a small tree and looking after it well, will usually result in a better long term tree than trying to plant a large tree to start with. Not only are large trees very expensive and difficult to move but they tend to have a dislike of being moved and the mortality rate is higher than for small trees. One does need to wait 20 years however for things to grow.