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The building located on the north side at 61 Holland St. West was built in the Romanesque Revival style around the 1880’s. The Scanlon Law Offices building was originally constructed to house the law practice of the two Scanlon brothers. Albert "Ab" Scanlon, a lawyer, and Mrs. Frank (Ethel) Woods, a widow and retired farmer (from the 8th Line) both resided here at one time.
The one-storey building has a rectangular plan, small window openings with high floor to ceiling heights, and a flat roof. The symmetrical façade has a simple, solid form. Round arches are reminiscent of the Roman Empire and rich, decorative details. Originally, there were two entrances contained unobtrusively in simple, rectangular openings on either side of the centre window. This is atypical of the Romanesque Revival style, where the entrance door was more frequently the most prominent element of the façade. The second entrance door to the west of the centre window has been “bricked in”, but its flat, arch opening is still visible by the line of the brick voussoirs. There is a wood-panelled door with an upper, glass light and also a rear entrance. The centre, ground-floor window is a prominent feature. It is exaggerated by the arch form set into the parapet above and subdivided vertically into three parts. Smaller windows to each side are set into segmented, arch openings with brick voussoirs. The windows are double-hung with stone (or concrete) lug sills. A major feature is the heavy parapet with an insert panel decorated richly with brick set in a basket weave pattern. The segmented arch extends the window form into the parapet panel. A cornice line along the bottom of the parapet is decorated with a line of brick dentils. The building has masonry construction, brick cladding, and a cut-stone foundation. According to the 2000 inventory, the structure is in good condition with many, original details remaining. (1, 2, 3)

Miss Sinclair’s House is a mid-block building located on the south side at 92 Holland Street West. It was built in the 1890’s in the Italianate style. Miss Bertha Sinclair lived in this house for many years. When she died, her nieces Kay and Isabel (daughters of Robert Spence) moved into the house. They were hairdressers. Isabel later moved and part of the house was rented to George and Ethel Stewart. The building was eventually sold to a real estate agent. The office of Dr. Fitzsimmons was also here at one time. Next to this structure was a vacant lot belonging to the Sinclair family. Many years ago there was a Temperance Hall and a church located there.
The two-storey, rectangular, main building has a single-storey, rear addition, a symmetrical façade, and a moderately-pitched, hip roof with a central chimney. The grand, Italianate scale is reflected in the large window openings, high floor to ceiling heights, and the large, 6/6 sash windows. There are deep, projecting eaves with ornately-decorated, paired cornice brackets and ‘false quoins’ (wood detailing meant to resemble masonry). The window cornices are exaggerated. According to the 2000 inventory, the stone foundation, wood frame construction, horizontal, wood-sided exterior finish (resembling masonry), and painted, exterior, wood trim are maintained well. (1, 2, 3).

The cement brick building (with an arch) that is located at 17 Barrie St. is not the original structure at this site. Originally, there was a large frame building (used to shelter horses, a stage coach, buggies, cutters, etc.) that was part of a livery stable owned by Dave Ogilvie many years ago. It was destroyed by fire shortly after Dave bought it and the building seen in the photo is a smaller replacement. Dave also ran a stage coach line (later a taxi service) to Newmarket to meet the Metropolitan street car. Travelling salesmen would use this stage line to bring their wares and samples to town. They would stay at the Queen’s Hotel, where they would take orders from customers. They then used the stage coach and livery to go to Middletown, Bond Head, Newton Robinson, Beeton, Cookstown, Fennell’s Corner and then back home. Dave also hauled mail from the train station to the local post office, as well as to Bond Head. When automobiles replaced horses, the stables were removed from the building and people rented storage there for their vehicles. In time, Dave added a small office, toilets and gas pumps. After he died, Gordon and Mac ran the business until it was sold to Fred Gregory. Fred ran a car repair shop and employed a mechanic. Fred had a rental apartment built upstairs. It had outside stairs to the laneway. When Fred got sick he rented the building to Ray O’Neil who later bought it. Ray sold the building to the European Bakery in 1994. (1, 2)

The one-storey building with a flat roof located at 21 Barrie St. has been used by many businesses over the years. Tommy Lautonee owned the blacksmith and carriage factory once situated in this structure. George Geddes was the blacksmith there until late in 1937. There was a stable door at the south end of the building and two sets of windows running along the front. There was also a large door going to the rear where there was a stall for shoeing uncooperative horses and a large flat stone circle with a hole in the middle (for pestling steel rims on wheels). In later years, the Bradford Witness (owned by Stewart and Ina McKenzie) moved from Holland St. to this structure. The newspaper also ran a printing shop here. Harvey Marks was a typesetter. Frank Edney and Fallis also helped. After Stewart passed away, Ina ran the business until she retired. (1, 2)

Allan (“Wink”) Crake, a nephew of Dick Crake, owned the one-storey building located at 31 Barrie Street. When Wink retired, Bradford Public Utilities bought the building and opened its offices here. There was a laneway behind Reuben Tindall’s house to the back entrance for the residents of John Street. (1, 2)
This photograph depicts the exterior of the building after a renovation.

There was a vacant lot located at 11 Holland St. East after the big fire of 1871. Dennis Nolan built an addition to his Model T Ford dealership (located at 9 Holland St. E.) on this vacant lot. Len Saint used cement to build the new structure and Art Saint did the carpentry. The cars arrived at the railroad station in boxcars and then were brought to this new building. There was a display room at the front. At the rear was another service department with a door on the west side leading to the laneway at the rear. In time, Jim Armstrong and Fred Gregory opened a garage at this location. Charles Roberts also ran it and had a taxi business. Armstrong sold the building to Patchett, who turned the upstairs into a bowling alley (while also still running a taxi business) with a garage in the back. (1, 2)
There was also a vacant lot located at 13 Holland St. East after the fire of 1871. Russell “Curly” Curtis (from Newmarket) married Aileen Church and they built a butcher shop here after WWII. Years later it became the site of the Simpson order office (which was run by Mrs. Fallis). (1, 2)

The Edmund Garrett House is a two-storey building located at 45 Holland St. East. It was built in the Classic Revival style in the 1880’s (after the fire of 1871 that destroyed much of Bradford’s downtown). The building was converted into two living quarters many years ago and was once the home of the VanZants (on the west side) and the Bennett family (on the east side). George Bennett, a powerful man and labourer, dug (by hand) a large number of the ditches on Dufferin Street. Howard Thornton eventually bought the building and started a crate factory with Bill Fuller in the barns at the rear. He had a crate and lumber yard on Back Street. Howard and his brother also owned Barron’s Hardware store. After Howard died, Mrs. Thornton rented the upstairs apartment and lived downstairs by herself. After her death, the town bought the structure and had it remodeled to accommodate the Bradford Police Station on the ground floor, which it housed from 1980-2008, and the building inspectors’ office on the upper floor.

The building has a modified, rectangular ‘temple’ plan with a projecting frontispiece flanked by two-storey wings on either side. A medium-pitched, gable roof has a plain cornice and frieze supported on small brackets. There is an enclosed, raised porch with a shed roof and a plain cornice and frieze supported on small brackets. The building has tall, narrow window openings with high floor to ceiling heights. Windows are used to highlight the frontispiece with an angular, flat-roofed bay at the ground level and a projecting cornice and eaves on brackets. Double, semi-circular, arched windows at the second floor are highlighted with dichromatic, brick voussoirs. There is a rose window set within the gable into a round opening of cut-stone voussoirs. Other windows are set into rectangular openings with stone (or concrete) lintels and lug sills. The original windows were probably multi-paned and double-hung. Masonry construction has brick cladding and there is a coursed, rubble-stone foundation. The two, two-storey additions have filled in the east corners of the building and the entrance porch has been modified and enclosed. According to the 2000 inventory, the structure is in good condition with some original details remaining. (1, 2, 3)

The original building located at 4 Holland St. West (on the southwest corner of Holland and Simcoe Streets) was built in the 1840’s and was situated on land originally owned by James Drury. He was one of the early immigrants who reached Upper Canada. Drury rented the corner lot to Thomas Driffill (a blacksmith), who opened a hardware store at that location. The lot was later sold to Robert Cooke, who leased the property to Driffill for another 20 years. Thomas Driffill became the village of Bradford’s first reeve when it was incorporated in 1857. The great fire of 1871 destroyed all but the building’s foundation. It was rebuilt incorporating the intact, old vault and locally-made bricks. Thomas Driffill bought the building in 1885, eventually retired, and left the business to his sons, Joseph and James, who eventually sold it to Andrew Thompson, Driffill's partner. It became Thompson's Hardware. A series of different owners and different types of enterprises followed. William Barron bought the building in 1946 and relocated his hardware business to this site. He made several renovations, including adding a new stone façade, new plate glass windows, and an elevator to facilitate deliveries to the tinsmithing shop upstairs. He retired and left the business to his son Norman. The building later became a motorcycle shop, and eventually, for several years, the Winchester Arms Restaurant. (1, 2, 4, “Four Holland Street West: A Short History” by Lorraine Philip - Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library, Local History Collection).

This structure faces Mary Street and is located at the rear of the former Winchester Arms Restaurant (on the southwest corner of Holland and Barrie Streets). Green, board and batten cladding had been added since the photo was taken in 1995 or 1996. (1)

The building located at 30 Simcoe Road was known as the Lathangue & Skwarchuk Funeral Home when this photo was taken in 1995. The Kilkenny family was the first to serve Bradford with a funeral home in 1836. Neil Lathangue owned the business from 1950-1963. Mac Lewis was the owner from 1963-1973. He brought Bill Skwarchuk into the business in 1968. Today (2017), the funeral home is owned by Bill Skwarchuk and his family. (1, Skwarchuk Funeral Home web site)