Fixing a Merritton intersection
Our old photo this week (date unknown, but perhaps from the 1950s) shows a complicated intersection in Merritton as it existed for a long time before finally being “fixed” in the past decade.
We’re looking at the place where eastbound traffic on Glendale Avenue, an important thoroughfare across the south side of St. Catharines, used to have to maneuver through a cluster of industrial and public buildings in Merritton in order to continue on to the Canal and the QEW beyond.
That’s Glendale Avenue that we see at the left edge of the old photo. As soon as eastbound drivers on Glendale reached Merritt Street they found themselves confronted with the former Glen Merritt School, made up of the original 1919-1920 “Kindergarten School,” on the left, and a more modern addition to its right, added to the site several decades later.
To proceed further east the driver would have to turn sharply left onto Merritt Street, drive a short distance north and then turn right onto the continuation of Glendale Avenue, after which he or she would have clear sailing until reaching the QEW (unless, of course, the lift bridge at the canal was raised to allow a ship to pass!).
Let’s take a look at the rest of the old photo. Visible behind the Kindergarten School is the Merritton Central School, opened in 1893, demolished in 1979.
Behind it can be seen the spire of St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, located in the distance on Chestnut Street East.
The two buildings on the near side of Merritt Street, south of Glendale, were, on the left, Baikie’s Garage, and to the right, Richardson’s Bakery, just two elements in a series of factories and other businesses that extended from the Domtar paper plant (just outside the left edge of this photo) up to Thorold.
The railway lines near the bottom edge of the photo were the “High Line” of the NS&T (Niagara, St. Catharines and Toronto) street railway, running between downtown St. Catharines and Thorold, with connections on to Niagara Falls.
Our “today” photo gives a broader view of that intersection today.
Two buildings with prominent places in the old photo which have survived until today are, first, the auto repair building, still operating as such today, and, across Merritt Street, the modern addition to the Glen Merritt School, converted into a small strip mall.
But much has changed also. The bakery that was once next door to the auto repair shop has vanished. Most importantly, traffic on Glendale now flows smoothly across Merritt Street following the removal of a former wing of the Domtar paper plant, passing through the site of the original Kindergarten School, removed in 1981-82.