December 2025
The southern Ontario city of Barrie has grown considerably since it was founded as a village in 1854. As with many older cities, there are many historic homes and buildings near and over the century mark.
One such home is a 19th-century house on Miller Drive in the west end of Barrie, a good example of an Ontario Gothic farmhouse of the 19th century, with its steeply pitched gables, ornamental woodwork trim, buff accents on the red brick and the charming blue embellishments on the lightning rods. Known as the Minnikin farmhouse, this was once the home of Thomas Minnikin, Jr., the son English immigrant Thomas and Elizabeth Minnikin. The Minnikin family immigrated from Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northumberland County, England in 1827, settling first in the America, then Toronto, and finally in Innisfil Township, in 1860.
Thomas Sr. and Elizabeth had 6 children, Margaret (1848), Thomas, Jr. (1850), John (1853), Jane (1852), who died as an infant, William (1855), and Elizabeth, Jr. (1859).
On 8 January 1879, Thomas Jr. married Susanna Gibson of the Village of Holly, now part of the south-west corner of Barrie. Thomas bought a 100 acre farm at Lot 24, Line 8 of Vespra Township, in the Hamlet of Ferndale, on what is now Miller Drive, where they raised their children: William (1880), Osmond (1883), Harvey (1886), Frances (1890), Goldie (1896) and Ida (1898). The school aged Minnikin children attended the Ferndale School, also known as S.S. No. 12, on Line 7. Today, the road is known as Ferndale Road and the old school still stands.
After Thomas Minnikin died in 1920, Susanna sold the farm where she and Thomas had lived for more than 40 years, to Charles Harris.
The house is no longer occupied, but remains cared for and the property maintained
Sources: THEN AND NOW: Minnikin homestead still stands strong – Barrie News, Holly Neighbourhood Guide.
