December 2024
When travelling across the rural roads of Ontario, former thriving villages like Craighurst can be found at both busy and desolated crossroads. Situated at the corner of Simcoe County Road 93, also known as Penetanguishene Road, and Horseshoe Valley Road, Craighurst was one of these small villages, many of which grew up along rivers, railways and stagecoach lines.
Originally known as Morrison’s Corners, named for innkeeper James Morrison, owner of the Ordinance Arms, what is now known as Craighurst was originally settled around 1819. Situated along the historic Penetanguishene Road, an early colonization road and military supply route from Kempenfelt Bay to the former Royal Navy Penetanguishene Naval Yard on Georgian Bay, Craighurst has always been a busy spot.
Just to the east of Simcoe County Road 93, on Horseshoe Valley Road, sits a one-story, stucco-clad building. Built in 1886, this building was used as the local school, S.S. No. 4, until 1963, when the school closed. This was the third school house providing education to school-age children in School Section #4.
In an era when a horse and buggy was the primary mode of daily transportation for the majority of residents, travelling even relatively short distances took hours. Travelling long distances to school was certainly out of the question for most children living in these villages and the surrounding rural areas. For that reason, one and two-room schoolhouses were commonplace, providing instruction to children of all ages and grades.
After S.S. No. 4 closed, the former school house was sold off and eventually became an artist’s studio and gallery, owned by several different artists over the decades until 2018. The former school house has been vacant ever since, with the property designated to become a part of a commercial sector to be developed on that corner in Craighurst.
It’s unknown if the aging and deteriorating former school will be a part of the redevelopment plans.
Sources: THEN AND NOW: Abandoned Craighurst school was once bustling – Barrie News, LETTER: Former schoolhouse owner says it had ‘good bones’ – Barrie News.
