This week, an 1875 pencil sketch of a young Huntsville by George Harlow White depicts a much different place than we know today. Oh, Huntsville, how you’ve grown! (Image courtesy of Toronto Public Library)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wayback Wednesday is sponsored by Cavalcade Color Lab<\/strong><\/p>\n Via Facebook, Steve J Appleyard suggested the library’s location was on Main Street East<\/p>\n Bill Wright provided a bit more information: Main E at King St…currently home of the ‘Green’ bank<\/p>\n And Susan Conrou wondered: was the library above where Pizza Pizza is now?<\/p>\n It was, in fact, at Main and King. Here’s what we know about the photo:<\/p>\n This is the first confirmed site of the Huntsville Public Library above White’s Hardware Store, 38 Main Street East, Huntsville, Ontario. The photo is from between 1907-1920.<\/p>\n (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 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week, an 1875 pencil sketch of a young Huntsville by George Harlow White depicts a much different place than we know today. Oh, Huntsville, how you’ve grown! (Image courtesy of Toronto Public Library)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1903,"featured_media":17749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,865],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-17735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photos","category-wayback-wednesday","tag-breaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Wayback](\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2016\/07\/Wayback-Wednesday-27-Huntsville-Public-Library-header.jpg\")
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