The non-indigenous communities in the township were a result of the Canadian Pacific Railway's development of its Algoma extension from Sudbury to Sault Ste.

The unofficial community around the station grew rapidly, and by the 1890s had got its first general store at the intersection of Hall and Front streets, which was built out of logs.

St Jude, located on MacIntyre Street, was demolished in the early 1970s and its site is presently used for the town's fire hall.

[5] In 1907, the town fathers began to petition the Ontario provincial government to fund a road bridge across the Spanish River, as a great deal of lumbering activity was taking place on the other side.

This was denied, but in 1908 a bridge was funded and constructed by the Graves Bigwood Company, which also built a set of stables and a barracks and cookhouse across the river for teamsters who were involved in hauling lumber.

Despite renewed petitions for a new bridge to replace the ferry, the service continued to operate until the late 1960s before discontinuing and effectively severing the connection between Nairn proper and the Headquarters area, which today is connected to Nairn via Highway 17 and Sand Bay Road over a causeway.

[10] With its strong base as a railway town, Nairn developed a significant logging industry which employed many people, and the population grew quickly.

Logging operations shifted elsewhere, putting up to 1000 men out of work, and causing the town's population to steeply decline.

Several public works projects were undertaken to create temporary employment, such as replacement of the town's original wooden sidewalks with cement, as well as road improvements.

The mill was quickly upgraded and expanded throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, and Merwin appointed his son, Bud, as superintendent of Nairn operations.

Over these decades from the 1940s to the 1990s, the town itself changed significantly as well: road travel had begun to replace railway travel as the Canadian Pacific Railway phased out passenger transportation, and the centre of activity in the community shifted south, with the original area of settlement suffering a long-term decline.

From two stopping trains in each direction in 1943 (with one western route turning south at McKerrow to serve Espanola and Manitoulin and the other continuing further west to Sault Ste.

Some businesses relocated to new highway-adjacent locations, while others closed one by one, and there was a gradual shift away from hotels, taverns, and small retail, toward garages and gas stations, as truck freight became more frequent along the new highway, and larger centres like Espanola and Sudbury became more accessible for residents.

The possibilities of car commuting depressed demand for temporary accommodation and therefore decreased the customer base for the town's hotels and boarding houses, as workers could now commute from larger urban centres, and seasonal industries, which heavily utilized temporary accommodations, declined.

However, a new residential subdivision was built south of the highway in the 1960s as the town experienced a population boom due to an increase in the workforce at the lumber mill.

[13] The focus of development in the town in recent decades has increasingly been on improving infrastructure and local services in the hopes of attracting new residents, and functioning largely as a residential community with significant industrial activity throughout the township relative to its population, with some remaining commercial activity remaining in the form of the truck stop.

The Nairn Falls Dam and Generating Plant, built in 1915, was once a source of employment for some people in the town, but has since become almost entirely automated.

[14] Nairn's historic commercial area, centred around the railway station and the intersection of Front and Hall Streets, once featured three hotels, three general stores, two barbershops, two pool halls, a boarding house, a butcher shop, a men's furnishing store, and a post office.

Highway 17 bypasses most of residential Nairn to the south, though there are a number of highway-based businesses that serve travellers.

The Huron Central Railway (HCRY) operates an active freight line that passes through the old downtown area of Nairn, which is now largely residential.

Remnants of the now-abandoned Algoma Eastern Railway are visible in the area, as it passed by Vale's Nairn Falls Dam and Generating Plant, then through the north of Nairn (with a station that was adjacent to Ferry Street), before dipping to the south to cross over the CPR line west of the town.

[25] In 2018, Ontario Northland announced a major expansion of its motor coach services west of Sudbury, which included a flag stop at Nairn Centre.

Fitzpatrick's Reading Camp is today commemorated with a sign placed at the entrance to Nairn Centre along Highway 17.

[5] By 1965, the school had once again become too small for the student population, so the facilities were again renovated with the addition of a third classroom in the basement, taking the place of the old boys' play area.