It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
Below - Circa 1945 postcard of the Huntsville Welcome Arch on Hwy. 11. Huntsville, like many other towns in northern Ontario, constructed a welcome arch during the 1930s to greet tourists arriving via the highway. For more than 25 years after the arch’s completion in 1932, all Hwy. 11 traffic passed through the archway.
At the time, It was designed based on the dimensions of vehicles commonly used in the early 1930s. However, vehicles continued to get larger over the next two decades and by the 1950s the vertical clearance below the arch became insufficient, particularly for many trucks. About 18 months before the Huntsville bypass was scheduled to be opened to traffic, the inevitable happened: The Huntsville Welcome Arch was destroyed when a transport truck hit the overhead sign in May 1958.
(Photo courtesy of Annabelle Studio)
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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A lot of print has been dedicated to the rise and fall of the welcome arch which stood at Huntsville’s south entrance. It was built in the thirties, the ‘dirty thirties’ as the elders told it. Something the community could get to do, collectively, at a time when there wasn’t much to do.
It was lean time, and the work was welcomed by a good number of local journey men. Concrete men, stone masons, fabricators, painters. The general populace was encouraged to bring building materials; stones.
There was always a bit of contention between Huntsville and Bracebridge; over Huntsville claiming to be the gateway to the Lake of Bays. It was painted right there on the sign. But that friction and competition between the towns was there over most things.
It may have been inevitable that the arch was brought down by progress, namely, a too big truck. The railroad was getting competition from truck/trailer traffic. It was the beginning of the era, ‘If you got it, a truck brought it!’
But ‘The Archway’ was something that had been created by the community, and it became the logo for the Town of Huntsville, a visual memento of out history. Now, even that logo will be brought down. By a designer and council that think ‘Huntsville’ will look better in plaid. Or madras. Or whatever.
“Touch the Past. Embrace the Future.”
Not much past to embrace once this lot has touched it.
My father, Harold Briggs, designed the Archway.
It was a sad day when it was knocked down by a truck that just couldn’t fit through…