Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by Marcel Rousseau.
Some were previously published by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and in the book Postcard Memories Orillia.
In 1874 the Toronto, Simcoe and Muskoka Junction Railway completed a line from Allandale to Gravenhurst including the construction of this station at Severn Bridge.
Later taken over by the Grand Trunk Railway the small station one and a half miles north of Washago became a convenient connection for the expanding summer trade. Tourists would stop at the Severn station and take a steamer down the Severn River to the resorts on Sparrow Lake.
Severn Bridge peaked in about 1900, boasting six stores and shops and a population of 150.
However, in 1906, the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway bypassed the village and the same year a devastating fire destroyed many of the buildings.
With the establishment of stations at Sparrow Lake and Hamlet in 1907, the tourists began to travel directly to Sparrow Lake, which meant Severn Bridge lost much of its trade.
