More Then and Nows to ponder here in Fort William and Port Arthur.....

Here a few more great photos from then and now in Port Arthur, Ontario(now Thunder Bay).  Red River Road near the water front in Port Arthur was originally called Arthur Street, but had to be changed due to the amalgamation of Fort William and Port Arthur into Thunder Bay in 1970.

Same spot taken in 2009

Photo is taken just west of Court Street on Red River Road

NW Corner of Court and RR Road taken 2009

Taken on the North West corner of Red River Road and Court.

Court & Red River Road a little closer to the lake early part of the Century

Photo taken in the same spot as above

Taylor's Men's Wear photo taken in the late 1940's.  The OLG Casino would be
just to the left of this photo as seen in the today photo below.

This is the same building as above....you can see the casino behind it.

This is the Tomlinson Block.  It is situated directly across from the Prince Arthur Hotel on the water front in Port Arthur Ontario.  This was an early 1950's photo, showing a Simpsons Sears mail order depot, and a variety of other business long gone and changed as noted in the today photo shown next.

Here Thunder Bay Insurance Services occupy the same spot that Simpsons Sears did in the 1950's.  This photo was taken in 2009, thanks to Google Images.

Continuing on with the Tomlinson block....this photo was taken in the 1920's and a little further south down the street and faces the W.T. McEachern Drug store on the north west corner of Cumberland street and Red River Road.  You can see the public utilities building a little further down Cumberland street in the distance.  A little known fact was that the F. W. Woolworth store was originally located this far down Arthur Street(Red River Road).

A little more recognizable on this same corner is the Burke Jewelry store and just left of it, Bryans.  Bryans also had a store on Victoria Ave in Fort William.  This photo was taken in the early 1950's.  St James Music Store just to the left of Bryans was a mainstay at this location right into the 1970's and beyond in a different location.  It was called St. James Stereo.

A great aerial shot taken likely from the roof of the News Chronicle building in the 1950's around the same time as the photo above was taken.  You are facing west and up Arthur Street(Red River Road).  To the right are the fire escapes from the Prince Arthur Hotel, and also in the photo is a Brill Bus vividly painted in the Port Arthur colours of burgundy and cream.

Th final shot here is how the corner looks today.....not very glamorous at all!

It is sometimes difficult to come to terms with how our city looks today.  A lot of the old buildings are long gone and all the cars look like clones.  Back then, you could tell what make a car was from two or three blocks away.  It would be nice to think that our siblings and grand-kids could remember how it was by viewing some of the vintage photos shown in this blog site.  My own 11 year old grand-daughter is very interested in our city's history and said that she would like to help preserve some of our past........  "Progress is wonderful...but not at a loss of our past".

Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge them...Thanks