My quest to document all of Canada's CMAs brought me to Brantford, finally, the last Ontario destination on my list. Yvon and I drove down on a warm August day and took in the central city, and then drove around to a number of destinations outside the core. Brantford reminded me of so many other cities that we have visited, that they days when these smaller towns easily produced a lively middle class might be over. Wilfred Laurier university has a big presence in downtown Brantford, and they have contributed to preserving many buildings in the core, even as the city council voted to demolish block on block of Colborne Street some years ago, where today a new YMCA is being built.
Photo List (Total 150 Photos)
Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
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Downtown Brantford (101 photos) - This gallery starts at Victoria Park and the buildings that surround it. The park is bordered by an old time library, a few churches, some substantial office buildings, a large ornate courthouse, and the modern brutalist City Hall is at one corner. Though the churches are undistinguished, the space is actually quite charming and really shows that at one point even smaller places like Brantford knew how to build cities. It continues along Dalhousie Street, and Colborne. We crossed the Grand River on two different railway bridges, then took in some of the pretty squares and statues near the armoury. The Bell Memorial statue by Walter Allward, the same artist who created the Canadian memorial at Vimy, is very beautiful and was an unexpected treat.
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Brantford Outside Downtown (49 photos) - This gallery is basically everything that we drove to see outside of downtown. It starts at the train station, which we dropped by just in case it was interesting, and it was lovely, dignified and dated. We went to Alexandra Park to photograph a Crimean cannon, then on to the Glenhyrst Art Gallery which was small but pleasant and surrounded by a garden. We drove through the grounds of the W. Ross School (for the blind) and then went to the Bell Homestead National Historic Site. On the way out of town we dropped by the Wayne Gretzky statues at the sports centre.
