Grit and great architecture in Brantford

[flar]

This week I present Brantford. I find Brantford to be a fascinating city. It's old, much of its growth occurred early last century when it served as a rail hub. The downtown area is quite large but severely depressed. In these photos I focus on downtown, through there is actually more to Brantford: Lots of old industrial stuff and several old commercial streets throughout the city, almost like you'd find in a larger city.

These photos were taken in January.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

another great tour!

 

[JasonParis]

Quite sad in general, but wow a tonne of potential if they ever get their "revolution."

 

[Observer Walt]

Agreed, there is lots of potential in Brantford. The city was prosperous for decades until they lost a couple of large manufacturing plants and started going downhill. The downtown area is the most depressed I have seen in southern Ontario.

The good news is that there are some signs of revival. The Wilfrid Laurier University satellite campus is starting a bit of a revival in the downtown area. Several new industrial or distribution facilities have arrived in the last few years, creating employment, and some more are coming. Industrial land here costs a fraction of rates in the GTA.

 

[rdaner]

Articles on the effect of new university campuses on Ontario towns are posted here: http://www.urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?t=4679

 

[flar]

Thanks for the article rdaner. Hopefully there will be continued improvement in downtown Brantford with Laurier, Nipissing, and Mohawk College bringing so many students to the area. Great potential for sure. Maybe someday Brantford residents will return downtown, but that'll be tough because there is a literal big box explosion on the northern fringes of the city.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Love those glazed terra cotta caryatids.

 

[flar]

Love those glazed terra cotta caryatids.

While I was photographing that building, a guy stopped beside me and did a double take. He had never noticed the "topless" women before--I asked him how long he'd lived in Brantford: All his life!

 

[Long Island Mike]

Brantford,Ontario-another interesting ONT city!

Flar: Good pix of Brantford! I remember going there myself in September 1985-is there any referral to BFD's most famous citizen-the Great One himself - Wayne Gretzky? I would like to know about his boyhood house and other places that factored in his life in BFD growing up. Yes-it looked a bit rough around the edges but not in a run-down way.
LI MIKE

 

[flar]

Oh Brantford is proud of Gretzky, there's a Wayne Gretzky Parkway, Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre, and I think there's a monument as well. I believe his family still lives in Brantford. Of course it says Home of Wayne Gretzky on the signs when you enter Brantford. They're also proud of Alexander Graham Bell in "The Telephone City".

 

[Observer Walt]

And Wayne Gretzky Parkway is one of the major streets, not just a token name sign posted on a street which has a "real" other name.

I believe the "boyhood home" is still being lived in by Wayne's father Walter Gretzky, a very admirable man who spends a lot of his time on charity work. He is regularly seen visiting the Hospital for Sick Children.

 

[ShonTron]

Gretzky Parkway was renamed from Park Street.

Parry Sound really promotes itself as the home of #4 Bobby Orr - on the signs and such. There's even the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame, which I guess has and will only have one inductee.

 

[sabbatical!]

This group of buildings is part of the longest continuous stretch of pre-confederate buildings in Ontario, and likely will be torn down in the next year or so (at least if a certain local politician gets his way.) A real shame, they're still the most characteristic buildings on the new public square, and the backside of them is quite interesting too (some of the other pictures here of terraced buildings were of the back, which once sat on the edge of a very large canal, hence the names "Water St." and "Wharfe St."