Market
About
Holly
Holly is the southwest neighbourhood built around the Peggy Hill Team Community Centre — two arenas, a 25-metre pool and a gym on one site. Mostly detached homes from the 1990s, groceries and restaurants on two arterial edges, and Highway 400 at Essa Road or Mapleview Drive.
What Holly is actually like.
Holly's case is convenience, and it is a strong one. The Peggy Hill Team Community Centre at 171 Mapleton Avenue — what most people still call the Holly rec centre — has two arenas seating 350 each, a 25-metre leisure pool with a water slide and a separate toddler pool, a full-size gymnasium, a fitness centre and a youth centre for 11 to 17 year olds. It passed its one-millionth visitor in 2024.
The housing is consistent in a way that makes Holly easy to shop for: census-derived figures put it at 64% detached, with 62% built between 1991 and 2000, mostly three and four bedrooms, and 81% owner-occupied. If you want a nineties family house, this is the most reliable place in Barrie to find one.
Holly was not always suburban. It was a village in Innisfil, annexed into Barrie in the 1980s, and the archive record still has Chula Vista on Essa Road built in 1920 and Holly United Church from 1926. That history is mostly gone from the streetscape, but the name is not an invention.
Schools in and around Holly.
These are the schools in and near the neighbourhood, with the board each one belongs to. They are not a catchment list. Both boards set attendance areas by address and both say plainly that boundaries change, so confirm your specific address with the board before you let a school decide your offer.
- Holly Meadows Elementary School151 Mapleton AvenueSCDSB · JK–8
- W.C. Little Elementary School11 Bear Creek DriveSCDSB · JK–8
- Bear Creek Secondary School100 Red Oak DriveSCDSB · 9–12
- Ardagh Bluffs Public School159 Summerset DriveSCDSB · JK–8
- St. Bernadette Catholic School101 Marsellus DriveSMCDSB
- École secondaire Roméo Dallaire736 Essa RoadConseil scolaire Viamonde · secondary · French-language.
A rec centre, and parks with things on them.
- Peggy Hill Team Community Centre, 171 Mapleton Avenue — two 350-seat arenas, a 25 m pool with a slide and diving boards, a toddler pool, a full gymnasium, fitness centre, youth centre, meeting rooms, EV charging and Wi-Fi.
- Holly Community Park, 171 Mapleton Avenue — 11.9 acres on the same site: lit basketball courts, senior and junior soccer fields, a City-maintained outdoor rink and a playground.
- Bear Creek Eco Park, 121 Ferndale Drive South — crushed limestone trails and a boardwalk through the marsh, with wheelchair-accessible pathways and accessible parking.
- Bear Creek Park, 25 Bear Creek Drive — 7.8 acres with a baseball field, soccer field and playground, plus a wooded area and a creek.
- Mapleton Park, 38 Mapleton Avenue — 5 acres with a full basketball court, mini soccer field and playground.
- The Ardagh Bluffs trail system is immediately north — 518 acres and over 17 km of trail.
Where you'd shop.
- FreshCo — 319 Mapleview Drive West
- Food Basics — 555 Essa Road
- Shoppers Drug Mart — 380 Mapleview Drive West
- Walmart Supercentre — 35 Mapleview Drive West
Holly's shops sit on its two arterial edges — Mapleview Drive West and Essa Road — rather than in a village centre. In practice that means a two-minute drive rather than a walk.
Where you'd eat.
- Cora Breakfast & Lunch — 135 Mapleview Drive West
- Jack's Pancake Factory — 222 Mapleview Drive West
- Wild Wing — 490 Mapleview Drive West
- Nawab's Indian Cuisine — 70 Essa Road
- Burgers n' Fries Forever — 241 Essa Road
- Grillicious Restaurant & Wine Bar — 2 Marsellus Drive
- Sicilian Gourmet Pizza and Pasta — 225 Ferndale Drive South
The highway, and the commute.
Highway 400 access: Essa Road, Exit 94 off the eastern edge, or Mapleview Drive, Exit 90 off the southern edge.
Strong for drivers, weak for the train. Two interchanges serve the neighbourhood, and census-derived figures show 91% of Holly residents commute by vehicle, with 30% getting where they are going in under fifteen minutes and 55% staying inside Barrie. There is no GO station in Holly. Walk Score rates the Essa and Mapleview corner 59, which is somewhat walkable, with four Barrie Transit routes at that intersection.
On drive times
I have deliberately not published minute-by-minute drive times here. They depend on the hour, the season and which end of the neighbourhood you are in, and a number that looks precise on a website is worse than no number at all. Ask me and I will tell you what the drive is actually like from the street you are looking at, at the time you would be doing it.
About Holly.
Is the Holly Community Centre still called that?
What kind of houses are in Holly?
Where do you shop in Holly?
How far is Holly from Highway 400?
Thinking about Holly?
Tell me which streets you are looking at and I will tell you what is actually selling there, what the drive is like at the hour you would be doing it, and what any work the house needs is likely to cost. A real answer within 24 hours.
Other Barrie neighbourhoods: Ardagh Bluffs · Downtown Barrie · South Barrie · Painswick · Barrie's East End