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The Bradford Town Hall is located at 61 Holland St. East. It survived the fire of 1871 that destroyed much of Bradford’s downtown. The building was being used as a schoolhouse in 1875 when a severe wind storm blew off the roof and killed a member of the Woods’ family. Reports disagree about the number of school children injured. Bricks were salvaged from damaged sections of the building and reused in the construction of a duplex at 31/33 Bingham Street. The building was a market place for farmers until the mid 1930’s. There was a commons at the rear for pasturing. It later became a playground. There were stalls and display tables for farm animals, chickens etc. Jim Nesbitt was one of the managers. Upstairs was a hall with a raised stage and raised steps at the front. Readings, lectures, visiting theatre groups, dances, minstrel shows and meetings with dignitaries were all held here. Buster Matthews had a casket-manufacturing business in the basement for a while. Charlie Heath held movies here. Later there was a badminton court.
The structure was overhauled after WWII. The ceiling was lowered, beautiful light fixtures were converted to hydro and refurbished, and the stage was removed. All records and centennial books were destroyed and it was turned into a court house. The west stairs were closed off and the raised steps removed. The building was originally heated by a large wood-burning furnace in the basement before it was converted to oil. It was originally lighted with manufactured gas (?) and then hydro after 1916. The old chandeliers still remain. Bradford’s first police force was located in this building for several years. The town’s administrative business was also conducted from here. On the west side of the Town Hall there once was a three-bay fire hall. At the back there was a Recreation Hall with a kitchen and toilets for the volunteer firemen to use. It was rented by the Lions Club (who met here for a number of years). The firemen provided draws and suppers to raise money for new equipment (a lot of which they manufactured themselves). It was heated by natural gas and built by Irma (?) and the walls were thick enough for a second storey. There is a stone cairn with a plaque in memory of Professor W.H. Day on the east side of the sidewalk. The WWI veterans built a cairn where the fire hall was. A cannon and a plaque with the names of those who perished in Europe were also there.
The current, two-storey Town Hall was built in the 1830-1860’s in the Classic Revival style. It has a symmetrical façade with a simplified, temple form and a medium-pitched, ‘pediment’ gable roof with plain cornice and frieze supported on brackets. There is an enclosed, raised porch with a steeply-pitched, centre gable (reminiscent of Gothic Revival). It is set into a shed roof flanked by corbelled parapets at each side and a plain cornice and frieze supported on brackets. The entrance door, stairs, and railing are not original. The entrance opening had been modified, but the original dichromatic brick that highlighted the top of the original entrance opening is still visible on either side of the new opening. There are tall window openings with high floor to ceiling heights. The windows are set into segmented, arch openings ornamented with alternating voussoirs and ‘ears’ of dichromatic brick and stone (or concrete) lug sills. The centre window above the entrance is raised above the entrance gable and ties together the entrance projection and façade composition behind. Original windows were probably double-hung and multi-paned. The ground-floor windows have been blocked in, but their outline is still visible on the front façade. There is a horizontal, dichromatic brick string coursing. The structure has masonry construction with brick cladding (sandblasted) and a random, rubble-stone foundation. An original, open-frame cupola/bell tower with a steeply-pitched, bell-cast roof and chimneys were missing when the building was inventoried in 2000. At that time the building was considered to be in good condition. (1, 2, 3, 4)

The mid-block structure located at 83 Holland St. East was built in the Ontario Vernacular Cottage style. It was constructed pre-1900 on what was once the site of a pop manufacturing plant. According to local history, bottles were still being unearthed many years later. After the plant closed, the property became the site of a blacksmith shop run by Bill Cukens. The house seen in this photo originally had a back kitchen and wood shed at the rear, as well as a large, two-storey barn with loft above (for horse feed). It was the home of Bob McKinstry, his wife and children Michael (Mike), Maisil, and Dorothy. Bob was a huge man and a blacksmith for several lumber companies after the local mills folded. He was also a noted field lacrosse player on the team that won the championship in 1905 (1907?). Bob and his son both played lacrosse until their worn-out legs forced them to quit. In those days, lacrosse players worked ten-hour days at hard physical labour, played lacrosse for a couple of hours, and then ran the six miles to Bond Head to cool off. Mike was a bookkeeper who also worked for his father in the garage and blacksmith shop. Maisil became a nurse and Dorothy worked in a restaurant and stayed at home to look after her family.

The one-storey, three-bay ‘cottage’ has a rectangular plan with a centre hall, a symmetrical façade, and a shallow-pitched, gable roof. The enclosed porch has a hip roof and the entrance is raised above grade level. There is a simple entrance with a single door with windows on each side. The porch stairs are not original and the entire porch may be a later addition. There are double-hung windows at the ground floor. The 2/2 widows appear to be original and are set into simple, rectangular openings with plain, wood surrounds and sills. Exterior aluminum storm windows are a later addition. The building has wood frame construction with vinyl siding and a stone-rubble foundation. It had wood cove siding originally. According to the 2000 inventory, the building’s form is one of the few existing original building elements. It also notes that the modest cottage probably had few decorative details originally. (1, 2, 3)

The building seen in this photo from 1995 was once located at 60 Holland St. East. It was rented to several people over the years, including a relative of Bob McKinstry. Years later, Alec Dutcher moved here from the Clubine farm at the back of town. He had a garden and lawn on the west side of the house. There was a large barn at the back. Alec worked for Bill Sutton (painting and paper hanging). Lou Wyman and his family and mother-in-law later bought the house and it was eventually used as a real estate office before being demolished in the 1990’s. (1, 2)

"Fire leveled five stores, and the dwellings above them last Wednesday afternoon. The alarm sounded at 1:10 o'clock and destroyed were Harry's Meat Market, the Model Bakery, Evan's Men's and Boy's Wear, Breen's Refrigeration Service and the Bradford 5?? to $1.00 Store. Mrs. Bannerman, owner of the latter store, who had her apartment over the store also lost her home, as did those residing in the rooms upstairs over the bakery and the men's and boy's wear store. The tenants upstairs in this building were Mr. and Mrs. Ward and their children, 4-year-old son Graham, and 3-month-old twins; Mr. and Mrs. Van Der Donke, and Mrs. Olive Evans the mother of D. Arthur Evans, owner of the building in which their quarters were located. They lost everything. Mrs. Evans, who was in the restaurant, got her purse but that was all.

Wednesday being a holiday in Bradford, it would appear that the fire gained considerable headway before being discovered, because almost immediately after the alarm billowing clouds of smoke marked the scene and this smoke spread very rapidly through the buildings. So quickly did this smoke spread that re-entry to the buildings was almost impossible, and practically nothing was saved by the occupants of the buildings. They were fortunate that the fire occurred at an hour when they were awake and thus alert to make good their escape.

The fire was noted by a waitress in the Model Bakery restaurant, when smoke became very noticeable. Finding the phone out of order, Mrs. Floyd McDonnell rushed to the street to give the alarm. She called to a man, who ran to the Queen's Hotel from where Russ. Tupling, who was talking to Eddie McEvoy, turned in the alarm. The impression seems to be that the fire started in the meat shop, but smoke poured so quickly from all three buildings - the meat shop, the bakery and the mens wear - and excitement was so great, everyone seems to be confused.

Bradford firemen were on the scene within a couple of minutes of the sounding of the alarm and made a terrific fight to check the fire, but the meat market, the bakery and the mens wear stores were so quickly engulfed in flames that very early in the fire the fire-fighters knew that the entire section was doomed and that the best they could hope to do was to stop the fire's progress at the brick walls at the west and east ends of the fire - Evans & Evans law office building and the Bank of Commerce. Holland street, in that section, was darkened by the think smoke and, but for the fact that roofs were snow covered, the danger to buildings on the south side of Holland street was great. A window in Bradford Bargain House broke as a result of the heat. Then the wind veered, carrying the danger away from Evans & Evans law offices, but making the fight to save the Bank of Commerce more desperate. Until the Bradford 5?? to $1 building toppled many thought the bank was doomed, and had it gone there is no guessing where the fire would have ended. Smoke by that time was dense along Barrie street and burning materials were falling on the roofs on the east side of that street.

Calls for assistance were sent to neighbouring firemen and their response was prompt.

To name those who stood by, lending assistance in their own way, through the long hours of the afternoon, the evening and the night, would be risky, in that someone would be overlooked,but the locals who provided a continuous service of hot coffee and sandwiches, as did the Salvation Army, gave a tremendous service, making it possible for the firemen to stay on their job throughout the long hours of cold.

Very early in the fire, the explosions of ammunition in Evan's Men's and Boy's Wear stores, added to the excitement.

The only standing object, in that entire section of the Holland street north block between Evans & Evans law office building and the Bank of Commerce, today is the oven which was at the rear of the bakery. It alone "marks the spot". All else is a blackened mess, in a dark hole, beside the street. The loss is complete."

The Breen Refrigeration Service store prior to the 1959 fire on Holland Street W. which damaged the building.

The article accompanying this photograph gives a quick history of B.B. "Ben" Collings' life and business. By this point, his furniture and undertaking business was only four years old (starting in 1902) and the storefront is shown in the photograph, located on the south-west corner of Holland and Drury Streets. The post office is opposite. It was said in the showroom, there would "be found some of the nicest furniture one could wish to place in his home."
Starting in 1897, Ben spent four years studying the mattress making trade in Toronto.

"While not disparaging the splendid service and fine co-operation of the firemen from neighbouring municipalities, in the battle to save Bradford from more extensive damage from fire last Wednesday, the brunt of the long hours of the fight, and the strain of responsibility, fell upon the home brigade, and their magnificent effort and success merits the gratitude of every Bradford property owner." ...

"The Witness surely expresses the feelings of all residents of the district in extending sympathy to those who stood helpless last Wednesday afternoon and watched their flourishing businesses destroyed by fire." ...

"Clerk Forced at Gun-Point to Open Cash Register -- Street Row Distracts Attention of Passerby."

Article describing a robbery at the Model Bakery on Holland Street.

The building located at 1 Holland St. West was originally built as a hotel (Central Hotel, Uneeda Hotel, H. Hulse Hotel). Tom and Len Saint worked on the construction of the building. George Webb ran the hotel for a while before he moved to Saskatchewan. Tom Bell was the manager for many years until he retired and moved to the east side of Simcoe Street. Around 1917 it became the Imperial Bank of Commerce. A large safe and living quarters for the bank staff were located upstairs. The entrance to the apartment was on the west side of the building. John McDowell and his family lived here in the 1930’s. The bank was robbed by the notorious “Boyd Gang” in the 1940’s. At one time the front offices were used by the police, and the back offices were used by Mr. Scanlon (a lawyer). The bank closed in 1972 and was moved further west on Holland Street. This building then became a real estate office, a convenience store, and as of 2014, the Coffee Culture Café. (1, 2)