It’s Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
This is Huntsville’s Main Street in 1944.
Some things to note in this photo: the Union Jack flying on Town Hall; the building immediately adjacent to Town Hall which at one time was Strano’s Macaroni Factory and Bakery and today is the location of Civic Square and the Algonquin Theatre; the original location of the Capitol Theatre on the right (south) side of the street (this was formerly the King George Theatre; the name changed in 1941 and the theatre moved to Main St West in 1945); J.R. Boyd’s grocery store in the left foreground (now Main St Local Kitchen); Hern’s Hardware on the left (north) side of the street, which later became the TD Bank and today is Wolfe Co. Apparel & Goods; and the minimal development on the east side of the swing bridge.
What else do you notice?
Photo: CN Images of Canada Collection
See more Wayback Wednesday photos here.
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This 1944 picture sure makes the downtown look wide open.
I’m a bit worried by the reduced parking on main street that seems to be the result of the rebuilding.
We never had enough parking before, now there is less. There seems to be no plan for significant parking lots or off street spaces either.
Gas or electric, customers will arrive to shop by car for the foreseeable future as public transit is a bit of a sad joke from a practicality viewpoint. If they can’t park they will not visit the businesses and that is all there is to it.
I do like the wide sidewalks from a walking point of view and I’m sure this space can be used for a multitude of events and this is all great, especially when there are a few trees but I still wonder how to add parking. It would be more efficient for snow removal if items could be lined up a little better so that, for example, a grader could just sweep off the snowbank and the first few feet of this sidewalk in one pass when it came time to clean up the snow. The way it is now is going to be more labor intensive.
On a different point, why, when for 50 years there has been a sort of unofficial crosswalk on the uphill side of the intersection near the Royal Bank, die they decide to put the nice new and official crosswalk on the downhill side? If one followed what the people actually do, it would be on the opposite side. Maybe it might have been better to just have another stop light? Make the turns easier, and give crosswalks and proper right of ways on all sides. Traffic is already slow on this main street, another light, if coordinated with the others already in place might make little difference to the flow but sure would be nice at times.
During the 40s, at least, the store in the foreground, left, was Stephenson’s Grocery. It was owned and run by at least 2 generations of Stephensons that I know of.
Boyd’s was at the far east end of the block near the bridge.