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The Orillia Asylum was a landmark on Lake Simcoe's shore

Building, elaborately designed with 14-foot spire and turret-like pinnacles, was stripped of many of its architectural features in the 1960s
96 Asylum Orillia - Copy - Edited
The Orillia Asylum opened in 1897 on the shore of Lake Simcoe. This postcard is from 1926.

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.

The Orillia Asylum opened in 1887 on a 156-acre site, purchased in 1885, on LakeSimcoe. 

By 1891, the large red-brick main building was completed. It was elaborately designed with a 14-foot spire, turret-like pinnacles, and an attractive roof-line consisting of a bell-top cupola, dormers, finials and large Victorian chimney stacks.

For many years, this building served as the core of the expanding Asylum.

By the 1960s extensive renovations saw the removal of many of these ornamental architectural features.

The property became home to the Ontario Hospital, which was later named the Huronia Regional Centre.


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