Streetcars and Advertising from The Civic/Electric Railway era in our hometowns of Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario

Yes....I'm still here with the Hot Rods and Jalopies Facebook page.  Many apologies for being so preoccupied with other things that I have been negligent in my writings here on my blog.  Myself and my family have had a very busy summer....but no more excuses...I have a new post for today which I have been working on on and off during the summer months.

My good friend Des Stolz is also an eclectic collector and like myself was lucky enough through the years to find some very interesting and valuable items that stimulate the mind and the memory.
If you are old enough to remember, many buses and streetcars through the years used advertising which were displayed inside to help with the cost of running bus and streetcar services.  Fort William and Port Arthur Ontario was no exception.  The colorful streetcar generation and I mean the rail type, not the trolley Brill bus generation with rubber tires, had the most diverse and and vivid advertising considering that the printing press and lithograph were the only means to reproduce colored advertising in that era.  The rubber tired electric trolley buses were introduced in our home towns in 1947 and sadly the electric rail streetcars stopped carrying passengers in 1948.  Both Fort William and Port Arthur until amalgamation ran their own civic/electric railway independently of each other.

This post is not a transportation history but mainly about our street railway era.  It begins with a series of electric railway photos from my own collection which I purchased on-line quite a few years ago now (a few of which have been on this site before).  These photos were all taken in 1941, and edited for this blog.  Following that will be photos from Des Stolz electric railway advertising days collection for you to enjoy.  Be sure to click on each photo for a nice screen size view then return to the photos and continue right to the end.
All the streetcar photos are titled and all photos are copyright.

This one also shows the J.M. McCartney store with the very famous clock below it, Mahon Electric, the Woolworth's and Kresge's five and dime stores, as well as a number of era motor vehicles in what used to be Fort William's bustling downtown.

Port Arthur and Fort William painted their trolley's different colors in the day, but many ran in both cities, so both colors of Trolley's were seen everywhere.   Vividly in view was Quinlan's and the F.W. Woolworth five and dime store, the Prince Arthur Hotel, the Pagoda and the head and chest of our famous Sleeping Giant, as well as what looks like a Lincoln beside the streetcar and a Model A Ford sedan waiting for the light.

 The Chapples Store (Grain Exchange Building) was the anchor store for the Fort William downtown area.  The building does still exist today, but inside a mall called Victoriaville.

Many a family excursion headed out across the swing bridge and down Mission road to Chippewa Park for a picnic, kids rides and the zoo, for many who couldn't afford a car in the day.

If anyone can tell me the exact spot for this next photo...it would help.  Note the Orange Crush advertising sign on the front of the store, and the new home or business being constructed.

Other family excursions also headed north on Memorial Avenue in Port Arthur to go to Boulevard Lake for a swim and/or picnic or to Current River Park for a family day or the Casino Dine and Dance near the Current River Dam.

The Car Barns or Transit sheds in Port Arthur were located at the foot of Van Horne Street on Water Street where the recycle depot is today.  The next three photos were all taken at the Port Arthur Sheds.  

There are no photos of the Fort William transit building here, but it was located on the south side of Walsh Street between Franklin and Selkirk Streets.

 The advertising was viewed by passengers while riding the Trolleys....some as shown here.

The first group of advertising cards are likely from the 1920's and show a few companies that are still in business today such as Wrigley's and Buckley's.  The Chevrolet dealership was handled by the Badanai family for many years in Fort William and Port Arthur, but in the 1920's, Roach and Irwin ran the dealership in Fort William and Ernest Parker in Port Arthur.

 Just by looking at some of these advertising cards, you can guess that most were from the 1920's and 1930's

 In this group as well as just above some of the same companies as mentioned are still in business almost 100 years later.  Also there are two more beautiful Roach & Irwin and Ernest Parker Chevrolet ads.  The art work is spectacular.

 Another local one is shown in this group.  The Scollie's Ice Cream ad with the phone number of S.128.  Scollies had a few different locations in Fort William....the first being "Scollie's Locker Service" which was located on Catherine Street in Fort William.  I remember my parents sending me there to pick up some fresh meat back in the day.

My favourite poster of the lot is this Sellers & Jones Limited.  This poster brought back a huge memory of my father telling me that the Kam Motors building which was on Leith Street(the building is still there) was once called Sellers and Jones.  Up until I started this blog and communicating with other historians from our area I had never seen an advertisement or photo of Sellers and Jones until this advertisement in Des Stolz collection turned up and also a photo below which was on the Facebook page Thunder Bay Then and Now.  Obviously this was very exciting for me to see.

Thanks to Richard Mark...Thunder Bay Then and Now for finding this great photo of the main portion of the original Kam Motors Limited building.  This photo is looking east down Leith St towards the corner of Leith and Simpson St.  At the lake end of Leith Street and Hardisty stood a huge Elevator which I can't recall the name of.

This is Kam Motors as it looked in and Advertisement in it's prime.

 ...and this is how the building looks today as Ace Automotive and Diamond-Lacey's Taxi.  Both the words "Diamond" and "Lacey's" were always icons in the taxi business back in the day as well as now.

 Many thanks of Des Stolz for letting me photograph his Streetcar Advertising Posters, to the original photographer of the Streetcar photos and to Richard Mark of Thunder Bay Then and Now.
I hope you have taken the time to read the attached stories and view all the photos.  Thanks for being loyal fans of The Hot Rods and Jalopies generation blog pages.