Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario....interesting tidbits during the Hot Rods and Jalopies era...

I can never get enough of the vintage photographs of the bygone era that folks in my generation or even younger for that matter love the most.
This era will go down in history as one of the most colourful times of the 20th Century......The Hot Rod and Jalopy era from beginning to end and in between.
I have had a number of emails lately asking why this blog is called what it is.  My answer to that is mainly an era between the 1920's and the early 1960's when no sane gear-head could leave their cars alone or just as they came out of the showrooms.  They would modified them into race cars either for the street or the track....so actually everything that fit into that generation including bits and pieces of our own home town`s history or any interesting phenomena of that era would become fair game!
Make sense? .....hope so.

The first photo here is taken in 1959...see that cool 4-door sedan 1959 Chev Biscayne....well, it was my dad's company car from Kam Motors, and it is parked right behind the house where I lived on Arthur Street in Fort William.  My dad also made that cool swing on which I had my first kiss at about 14 years old.

 .....and here is where I lived on Arthur Street in Fort William until I was married.....the car above was parked in the back yard as most everyone who lived on our street then probably had been hit by a drunk driver at one time or another.

This next photo is of the Lakeside Esso Station at 514 North Cumberland Street in Port Arthur, Ontario.

 ....and here is the same location and how it looks today....I believe it's called "Lakeside Husky" now.

Thanks to Gary Spence(again)....comes this very cool photo of May street near the Fairgrounds, taken in 1959.  The interesting thing is not just the wonderful arch that we miss so much, but the billboard on the left.....enlarged below.(by the way....Always click on all the photos once or twice for closeups.)

 Here is the close-up of the billboard with a sign showing Heath Court Cabins....which were just a little further down(north) on May Street(Memorial Ave.) just past the river and arch.

Note below a Coca Cola magazine ad with exactly the same picture that`s on the Billboard.

 The CNR Trestle

The Canadian Nation Railways Ore Trestle with a Port Arthur Brill Bus heading under it....Fort William Road and Downtown Port Arthur is in the distance.  The picture on the right is very close to the original site after the trestle was removed.
The little store just behind the bus is still there today shown just behind the traffic heading in this direction in the newer photo.

 Here is a punch card from Mandel`s Shell Service on 376 Memorial Avenue....If you buy this much gas, you would get a free Lubrication.  There is only $30.00 on this card, which means...in today`s standards, you would get at least 2 or 3 free oil changes with EVERY fill up.

Mandel`s Shell building today...I believe it belongs to the Honda Dealership now.

Castle Boulevard Inn

 This is an interesting image that I had never seen before.  It is an old late 1920`s post card advertising Castle Boulevard Inn.  It was located on the Corner of Algoma Street and Lyon Blvd., just as you reach Boulevard Lake heading north and turning left onto Lyon Blvd.

 

 The closeup reveals a late 1920`s BA oil sign and a little teapot sign advertising that they sold tea.

The location is shown as a star in each of these photos....fairly close to the LPH.

Remember the Arthur Cafe on 220 Arthur Street, now 220 Red River Road in Port Arthur, Ontario

Now Kim Lee`s Restaurant at the
same location. 

Finally is a wonderful photo of the Twin City Wine Company in the East End of Fort William, Ontario.

Peter Belluz is advertising the Best Quality Wines.  The photo on the right is the same structure modernized into apartments on the same property in the east end of Fort William.




Thanks to all those who loaned or donated photos to produce this particular post and all others who send in photos......be patient as your pictures will be posted some time in the future.