Belleville’s History – Terry Barratt
Credits to: Gerry Fraiberg – Hastings County Historical Society
Downtown Belleville was once the bustling commercial hub for the region. From the 19th Century right into the 20th Century suburbanization, the development of malls, and the advent of the big box stores all combined to change shopping patterns and the Downtown streetscape. In its glory days, there were butcher shops, bakeries, and banks, two hardware stores, three large food stores, four large national department stores, five flower shops, and six shoe stores.
When many hear the name Barratt it means “stationery and office supplies”.
Terry Barratt was originally from the UK, born in 1936 in Northern England near Manchester. There he worked as a sheet metal worker as an apprentice. During this time, Terry longed to experience the “new world” as things were very dim in Northern England in a very old male industrial town. It was dirty, rainy, and had poor air quality as well. He claimed that this was no place to be and Terry had big ambitions and a drive to do something different.
So, in 1957, Terry had plans to move to Canada. Terry worked to catch up on school, doing night school courses before the big move. Before his travels to Canada at 20 years old, Terry married his wife Margaret who stood by his side on their endeavours to Canada where “the grass was greener”.
Terry and Margaret originally started their Canadian journey in Toronto, where Terry worked two jobs in hopes of building their repertoire. On the way over to Toronto from the UK, Terry and Margaret met a couple – the husband had a very good job in Orillia and convinced Terry to come over there from Toronto.
So, Terry and Margaret went from Toronto to Orillia with these new friends in hopes of better work. There they got just that – Terry got into the printing business in Orillia with the man and he learned the ins and outs of what it took to run a store and deliver quality prints to customers.
In 1962, Terry was eager to move yet again and so he and Margaret decided to leave to check for greener fields. Without hesitation, Terry got into his car and started driving to survey all of Eastern Ontario – a place he had yet to discover before. As he explored, he imagined his family’s future in each city as he knew he wanted to start a printing business of his own after gaining much skill and expertise in Orillia.
Finally, Terry decided on Belleville. He promptly went to the City Hall to further check things out and scan for specific openings. He decided in 1962 to rent a store on Front Street where he would house his new printing business. He became immensely dedicated to his new store – he slept in it in a small bed and spent all working and living hours there. The building worked perfectly as it was an insurance company that rented the building previously with the name “Barratt Insurance”. All Terry did was scratch off the “Insurance” and kept the sign for his own new store.
A couple of months later in August after building a life for himself in the new city of Belleville, Terry was comfortable enough to transfer his wife and young child to Belleville from Orillia. Together they got a little place on Cannifton Road where they called home, and never looked back.
At the Barratt’s store, lots of business came from builders who needed drawings and blueprints for their homes and structures, and plenty of specialty work. The store became busier and more well recognized as the first copy company of all time in Belleville! Terry remembers that Front Street had very good retail and was thriving, lots of competition began as 3 other office supply stores moved into town.
The next big step for the Barratt family was the relocation of their store. What is now Jim’s Pizzeria became the second location, and the whole family lived above the store. Over time, two other relocations followed as Barratt’s Stationery moved to the four corners at 215 Front Street, then to 301 Front Street. It finally finished up at 290 Front Street in a 5,000 square foot store – the largest yet! Here they had earned enough to be able to gut the building, renovate the store and redo the entire storefront. With family living above or near the store, Barratt’s became a true family business with Terry, Margaret, their three sons, and one daughter all helping.
With these store expansions and renovations and with the business’ great success, Barratt’s was able to venture into other sales beyond printing. They expanded into furniture, more office supplies, and other products. They even kept in touch with the new technology world enough to become a certified Samsung retailer, selling Samsung computers. If the technology was new, then Terry was involved with it
As things started to switch towards the bend of the century and Belleville became more suburbanized with big box stores and strip malls, things also started to negatively change for many downtown businesses. With the new builds like the mall, there was a ton of outside pressure and competition for these stores.
Reflecting back, Terry says that of all the things his store brought him, his favourite memory was meeting all of the loyal customers and hearing unique stories. Customers came from different cities and each brought a different story. Terry says that “businesses in most cases don’t make it to the second generation, and ours made it there just about”.
Today, Barratt’s stands as a successful office supply store in our Downtown District at 314 Front Street. They also have a second location in Brighton. They are a proud member of Office Pro Canada and are one of the largest independent office supply buying groups in Canada! Keep up to date with Barratt’s Office Pro today on their website and Facebook page.
