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BARNES BLOCK
3-7
Queen Street East, Sault Ste. Marie
The Barnes Block, located on the southeast corner
of Queen and Gore, has been around longer than
Sault Ste. Marie has been a city.
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It was
built at the turn of the century and was
acquired by Theron T. Barnes in June of
1902. Originally, the building housed two
business establishments on the first floor
along with private practises on the upper
two floors. The two larger businesses were
the Star Clothing House and the Barnes
Drug Company. By 1913, T. T. Barnes was
doing well enough to build another office
block just east of the Fawcett
block.
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Here he opened
a second drug store in 1915. Unfortunately the fire
of 1914 was severe enough to cause the Star
Clothing House to move out. This left one half of
the lower floor vacant for a couple of years until
T. T. Barnes expanded and took over the space. It
seems that when Mr. T. T. Barnes sold his drug
store business in 1919 he opened up an office as an
optician and carried this business on till his
death in 1937.
As was mentioned,
along with the two major business establishments
were found a number of offices overhead. Clinton A.
Kerr, a dentist, resided there from 1910 to 1915
along with McFadden & McMillan, Barristers, who
were located there from 1912 to 1918. Where upon,
James D. Becking, Barrister, entered the scene and
stayed from 1919 to 1931 with his own practise. As
well throughout this whole time period, starting
from the original opening was the Barnes Hall. This
hall was the scene of many a social gathering over
the years. There were even boxing matches held in
here. It is said that the local legend, Billy
Hughes, fought many a round against Canadians and
American alike.
In 1919, Mr. T. T.
Barnes got out of the drug store business and sold
his two stores to Mr. Fredrick S. Dent and Mr.
Henry E. Allcock, the two of which had formed a
partnership. Both Mr. Dent and Mr. Allock were
graduates of the Ontario College of Pharmacy. Mr.
Allcock was from the Sault while Mr. Dent was from
Woodstock, Ontario and had served his
apprenticeship with the C. T. Adams Drug Store. The
two partners decided to keep the business under the
original name of Barnes. Together they provided an
outstanding service to their customers with Mr.
Dent minding the Central Store and Mr. Allcock
minding the Queen and Gore Store. In 1947, Barnes
Drug Company became an I.D.A. member and was able
to better serve their customers.
The outstanding
service was not limited to their customers, but
rather expanded into the community around them.
Both Mr. Allcock and Mr. Dent during their years
made outstanding contributions as citizens of Sault
Ste. Marie. Both served on the Sault Chamber of
Commerce for years. Mr. Dent was quite influential
in the local Kiwanis Club while Mr. Allcock was an
active Rotarian. Mr. Dent was also an avid promoter
of juvenile sport in Sault Ste. Marie. This, of
course, was due to his own athletic interests and
abilities. Fred Dent made the headlines in 1910,
while attending Woodstock College and Varsity, when
he ran the 100 yard dash in ten seconds flat. This
was a feat to be rarely equalled. He also won many
intercollegiate and interscholastic meets.
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In 1969 the Barnes
Drug Company last closed its doors. With it went
the end of an era which for over half a century the
city of Sault Ste. Marie was served honestly. One
other interesting fact about the history of the
Barnes Block is that Sir William Hearst, who was
the Premier of Ontario from October 1914 to
November 1919, owned a portion of the land which
could have included part of the smaller building to
the east of the Barnes Block. Sir William and Lady
Isabel acquired it in January 1932.
The building itself
can be somewhat attributed to two architectural
styles. The turret is of Gothic origin while the
north facade seems to lend itself towards a
Victorian Romanesque origin. Although this facade
is not polychromatic at its fullest, the colour
variation of the window arches, trim and sills with
the brick face is compatible with this style as are
the arched windows. The windows do vary in size and
shape. The top floor has windows with full,
semi-circular arches on top while the middle floor
has windows with a slight curve at the top of them.
They vary in number as well. The first bay has two,
the second has three and the third has two. Each of
the bays is bordered by pilasters which are capped
with a capital-like stone. The arches over each
window are accentuated through the use of a large
keystone. The cornice on the building is consistent
with the simpleness of the rest of the facade. It
consists of evenly spaced scroll-like modillions
with horizontal mouldings below. The cornice
continues right across the small building attached
to the Barnes Block.
This smaller
building was built in the likeness of the larger
block. It was built a year or two after the Barnes
Block. One observation which substantiates this is
that the stone work over the windows is of a
different kind of stone than is found on this
building beside it. At present there is no upper
cornice, but earlier pictures reveal that there was
one at one time. The lower cornice is still there
today only it has been covered over with
plywood.
The west side of
the Barnes Block is quite different than the front.
It seems somewhat like an anti-climax after looking
at the front. This side is plain and free from
decoration except for the row of dentils across the
top. This seems to be the side that no one was to
see yet it is found on a street. There is one
interesting feature found on this side which is the
briel or the protruding bay window on the second
floor.
The turret on the
corner which joins the west side to the front
facade is the most significant feature of this
building. Turrets can be found around Sault Ste.
Marie, but usually on residential buildings as
opposed to commercial. Aside from a couple of old
hotels, the Barnes Block is the only business
establishment which has a turret. The mortar and
pestle which rise from the truncated turret roof is
an age old symbol of druggists. This is quite
appropriate since the building was built originally
as a drug store and lasted nearly seventy years as
such.
The mortar and
pestle look as though they may have been originally
constructed out of copper. The roof of the turret
is of a copper colour, but was not likely made of
copper since it would have turned green due to
weathering over the years. Also the spots where the
copper colour has come away seem to be rusted
indicating that the material must be some sort of
sheet metal. At one time there was ironwork which
extended from the turret roof up to the mortar and
pestle. On the vertical face of the turret is found
overlapping wooden shingles forming a weathertight
imbrication. At the bottom of the turret is found a
black, reflective material which most likely is
vitrolite, a form of early plastic. This vitrolite
extends across the top of the store front visually
tying in the turret with the store front.
Over the years, the
Barnes Block became somewhat, of a landmark in the
west end of the downtown. Not only a physical
landmark, but a social landmark as well. It was a
gathering place for the citizens of the area. The
building itself is quite sound. The architectural
features of this building along Queen Street make
it an outstanding building. It is both because of
the building's contribution to the city and its
architectural features that make this building
worthy of preserving in our community. Like so many
buildings in the core of our city, the Barnes Block
was built on the premise that industrial
development had established an enduring foundation
for continuing prosperity, and that individual
investors would experience a good return on their
capital. Probably the druggist, Theron T. Barnes,
who acquired the building in June of 1902,
recognized the force of the real estate agent's
mantra that shrewd selection of property is based
on three principles: location, location and
location. Contemporaries knew that, whatever might
happen further east along Queen Street, the most
exciting and potentially lucrative developments
were taking place to the west. So druggist Barnes
planted himself right in the middle, prepared to
attract customers from both ends. And so he and his
successors did, for amongst other enterprises, the
block housed a drug store from 1902 to 1969.
Everyone recognizes
the Barnes Block, at the corner of Queen and Gore,
by its turret topped by a chemist's mortar and
pestle. Not only does this fine old building anchor
the western extremity of the Queen Street
commercial district, it also functioned for many
years as a meeting place for those living around
Gore Street, a thoroughfare which has for a century
or more divided the west from the east end of Sault
Ste. Marie.
Conclusion
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