Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by Marcel Rousseau. Some were previously published by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and in the book Postcard Memories Orillia. You can take a trip down memory lane with us each Saturday morning!
This 1907 postcard, showing the crowded Grand Trunk Railway Station, indicates how important passenger rail service was in Orillia during that period. Because the Grand Trunk handled traffic from the west destined for southern Ontario, the rail line through Orillia was always busy.
The station pictured here was originally the Midland Railway Station that once stood at the foot of Mississaga Street.
A few years after the Midland Railway and the Northern Railway (the first in Orillia) were absorbed by the G.T.R., the G.T.R. decided to move the old Midland station to the new site at “the Junction” at Front and King Streets.
In 1897, the station was moved to this site and modified to meet the requirements of the increased rail traffic.
A fire destroyed this structure in April 1916. Its successor (the present station) was built a little to the west of the old site.
The serious decline in rail transportation, over the years, eventually led to the demise of the station, as such. Today, the train station is used for other purposes.
