If you were to head to 185 Dunlop St E today, you would find yourself standing in front of Lākhouse, a contemporary lakeview condo. But back in the late 1800s, this Barrie address was home to the Lakeview Dairy.
Originally owned by Thomas Brothers, the dairy was used to manufacture butter from 1897 to 1918. It was also home to an ice cream manufacturer who leased out part of the building until the business was later sold to Orillia Creamery Co.
Over the years, Lakeview Dairy was owned by many different families. In 1947, the property was purchased by Willard Kinzie who would later become Barrie's first mayor. Kinzie had previous experience with the dairy business having owned Roselawn Dairy, a smaller facility in Guelph.
At the time, Lakeview had about 800 customers and 15 employees. At that time, the average output was about 1200 quarts daily.
Improvements started immediately
Now at the helm of one of Barrie's biggest dairy manufacturers, Kinzie was ready to make some changes. Having only been with the facility for a couple of months, this included upgrades to the facility, as well as employment policies.
When Kinzie took over ownership, Lakeview's staff were making about $21 a week. Within a couple of months, a commission based system was implemented, increasing production and wages earned. As the company grew, wages increased and benefits, life insurance, health coverage and pension plans were added.
Over the next year he also invested in upgrading the building. The Dairy Bar received a fresh coat of paint, Kinzie added new floors to the upper level, and a stronger support system was installed throughout the facility. While many of these may seem like simple updates today, there were major expenses back in the late 1940s.
Lakeview Dairy began expanding
In 1948, Lakeview purchased Black's Dairy in Thornton and took on the distributorship of Royal Ice Cream, which served a wide portion of the Georgian Bay Region. Later that same year, the Dairy purchased a license, which allowed them to tender for the Camp Borden Milk Contract in Angus.
As the business grew, upgrades continued. In 1951, the last horse and wagon was decommissioned, replaced by a fleet of delivery trucks. Lakeview, along with Barrie's other 4 dairy manufacturers, also adapted a 5 day delivery and work week. When feasible to do so, Kinzie also let employees take off stat holidays. This made Lakeview one of the first dairies in Ontario to implement such forward thinking changes.
Often ahead of their time, additional upgrades included:
- A homogenizer
- A steam generator (to replace the dirty coal generator)
- Profit sharing plans for workers
- Iced milk delivery
- Refrigerated trucks for out of city deliveries
- Bulk tank milk pick-up
- New offices
- A private dining room
- A modern garage for servicing the company's truck fleet (which number 25+)
- An enclosed, continuous flow system for pasteurizing the milk
- Upgraded bottle washing and filling equipment
The business's continued growth led to Lakeview purchasing the Hillsdale Dairy, a portion of Riverside Dairy in Alliston, Barrie Allendale Dairy, Coldwater Dairy, Tottemham Dairy and Dubbins Dairy in Midland.
Heading to Collingwood
Now covering most of Simcoe County's milk supply (as well as supplying orange juice and carbonated beverages), Lakeview moved into Collingwood. This included buying distribution routes for Wasaga Beach and Blue Mountain, as well as renting space in the Collingwood Dairy and Creamery. This move was followed by further acquisitions of Norris Dairy in Barrie, Beeton Dairy and Joe Carney Milk Transport, as well as the 1965 acquisition of Ken's Dairy in Collingwood.
By this time, Kinzie had improved business 10 fold. Lakeview Dairy served 8,000 people, employed 150 workers and was selling 25,000 quarts of milk daily. Kinzie had also added a bakery and restaurant serving Col Sanders Kentucky Fired Chicken in place of the Dairy Bar. At one time, Lakeview even had a comedy club that hosted Jim Carrey before he became a huge star!
Lakeview Dairy was sold in 1971 but not before having over 250 employees, being the number one stop on the way up to cottage country, and becoming a fixture of Barrie life before its demolition in 1989.
To learn more about Lakeview Dairy and all of Barrie's history, head over to the Barrie Historical Archives, Barrie's online museum.
It's full of pictures, videos, audio, and documents spanning nearly 200 years and it's completely free! Be sure to check back soon for more in our Barrie Through The Ages series so you can explore Barrie's history yourself!
Image Credit: Featured Image courtesy of the Barrie Historical Archives via barriearchive.ca