OLD LOCAL ADVERTISING in our home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario.....

Throughout the years there has been literally tons of local advertising to make one visit our home towns or to sell products here.  The following items are a small portion of my personal collection of local advertising.  Most are pretty self explanatory, so be sure to click once or twice on each to view them screen size.  ENJOY!

These of course are automotive window decals...everyone would put them on their campers or travel trailers to show where they have travelled.  Local ones are very difficult to find especially here.  These were found in an antique shop many years ago in Minneapolis.

Former Alderman Hubert Limbrick dubbed our area "The Land of the Sleeping Giant"

Bill Spicer also a former Alderman of Fort William, with 

his brothers, ran Spicer's Tire Service for many years.  I worked for them in

the 1960's

The use of the Esso tiger started after WWII.  

"There's a Tiger in your tank".

Remember when you got your oil changed

they would put a sticker like this on your

car's door jamb.

This is a cool little Auto Expense booklet to keep
track of  oil changes and servicing of your vehicle.

 In the Lakehead area, windshield scrapers were probably given out more than any promotional item through the years, and here are some great examples from T&S Service, Don Long's White Rose in Westfort and D. J. McCall, BA fuels agent.

This is always a favourite that I have used on a post before.  This is an ink blotter advertising card from the 1950s.

The graphic art on this Ossie's White Rose map is fantastic, as well as the Kettering Brothers (Barry and Glen) Husky advertising card above.  These business were very close to each other on Syndicate Ave.  The White Rose was on the South/West corner of Arthur St. and Syndicate Ave.  Kettering's Husky was just across the road from the CPR Station on the corner of Isabella St. and Syndicate Ave.

Here's a group of glass advertising ashtrays from Henderson's Taxi in Fort William, Ed's Triangle Service at the corner of Memorial, John and Fort William Road in the day(it is a Confederation year ashtray), and George's B?A Station which was on the corner or Waterloo St, and Victoria Ave in Fort William.

This was a very popular button in 1975.  Car

Enthusiasts were forever trying to get a Drag

Strip going in our towns from the 1950s to the

present with never any luck.  Terrace Bay finally

succeeded a few years ago.

If you click on this one you can see the tiny print saying
Fort William and Port Arthur shown at the head of the lakes.

Here are 3 advertising pens and a small tune-up screw driver from some local businesses....the first one is from Brescia's Gulf Service and the second is Brescia's when it became a B/A Station.  The tune-up screw driver is from the well known Dominion Motors....still serving our city today.  The last is from Spicer's Tire Service, where I worked in the 1960's.

Here is a little Dunlop Tire Sales and Service ladies rain hat from the 1960s, as well as a newer small key fob from Spadoni's Dealership in Schreiber.

Here are a couple of advertising thermometers , one from Gino Antoniazzi's B/A agency from about 1961 and the other from Woods Gulf is a little newer.  Woods was located between Spud's Burger Major and Green Acres Plaza near the North/West corner of Arthur (Thanks Roger for the correction ☺).

Key Fobs were another smart advertising piece, which usually stayed on your key ring even until you sold your old car to buy a new one.  They made them of leather to survive the tests of time.

The last two pieces are not automotive related but interesting anyway.  This Fryer Studio one, would hold a few pennies for your parking meter.  Sadly they won't hold loonies that you need to park today.  The final piece is a Street Car Conductor's badge from the days of Rail Trolly (electric railway) here in Port Arthur and Fort William.  This is a recent new find for me and is one of my favourite pieces.
We hope you enjoyed this post, a little different from the others.  Thanks for watching and looking.  Dave