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This local streetscape looked a lot different in 1920s

Take a trip down Memory Lane to West Street, circa 1920
2018-10-13 36 Seperate School.jpg
This photo shows the Guardian Angels Catholic School and the Armoury, circa 1920.

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 is a winter view of the Guardian Angels School and the Armoury sometime in the early 1920s.   

The separate school was built on West Street in 1879 beside the new Catholic church. (This church, which was brick, was replaced by the present limestone building in 1911.)

The school was enlarged in 1957 and was later replaced in the fall of 1969 with a new school.  

The Armoury was constructed during the First World War. In 1915, it was used as a barracks for 200 men, when Col. Sam Sharp, MP for the County of Ontario, and commandant of the Ontario Militia regiment, led the recruitment of the 157th Battalion of 1,100 men.  

The companies got their preliminary training in their respective towns.  

The Orillia recruits received their training at the Armoury under the command of Leslie Frost, during the winter of 1915-16. They were then moved to Camp Borden for battalion training before going overseas to England in late 1916.   

Today, the Armoury is home to apartments and the former Guardian Angels School has been demolished.


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