Broad Perspectives......Then's, Now's and More History From Our Home Towns of Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario....

Top photo #24 -?, #88 Albert Massaro, #87 Tony Massaro, #10 Don Marsh.......

We love to confront our broad perspective on history by seeing what was and of course what is now.  As historians we enjoy placing pictures over pictures to visualize how it was.  This one of the CLE Coliseum building taken in about 1957 is a perfect example along side the same Coliseum building we can still see on a daily basis if you're so inclined....you can actually go and stand on the same spot today where Albert Massaro's #88 car was.
Double click on
photos to enlarge.








The next photo is a little different....It is John Panvica driving the #83 1952 Studebaker....now John wanted this pretty ugly car mainly because it had a V8 engine 3 years before General Motors started putting them in their 1955 Chevys.
John didn't care what his car looked like.  It was still faster than your typical flathead Ford and faster also because the Studebaker was only one year old.  John had purchased a wrecked newer car and did do pretty well that year, and oh, you can see the Coliseum building behind the fence too.  How his car might have once looked.....is the nice new 1952 Studebaker 4 door sedan below.

The program line-up for 1953 below shows a picture of John and also shows him listed in the roster squared in blue.

A note here is that Jessiman Motors at that time was located on the South/West corner of May and Bethune Street where the new Tim Horton's is today.  Many of you will well remember the names on this stock car jockeys list from 1953.

                                                                             
This is what the SW corner of May & Bethune looked like before the new Tim's was built.....Jessiman Motors was right on this spot.    










Just as all those CLE racers did, many of us young racing enthusiasts had to find some great race car  material when we dug in our heels at Riverview Raceways.  Mind you, the old jalopies at the CLE could very well have been some very cool hot rods today.  Now all these years later we realized that we destroyed some pretty cool cars too.  The nice Teal car top left is a 1956 Pontiac 2-door sedan....the race car of the same vintage is my own that I raced at Riverview in 1968.  I had actually destroyed 4 old Pontiacs, 2 1955's and 2 1956's in total until I retired from racing.  The bottom photo in the left group photo is the location the race car picture was taken, near the corner of Brock and Frederica Street where I lived at the time.
The top of the two photo collage on the right is an advertisement for Bear Safety Service located at 519 E. Brock St.  Sam and Aldo were incredible front end men, and I brought many a vehicle there for a flawless front end alignment.  The building still exists today and near the top left of the bottom photo you can make out a bit of the original sign down at the southern end of Syndicate Ave.

Here's a nice photo of the Uncle Franks's Supper Club sign just before the building and sign were being readied for a total makeover.  My friend and HR&J proof reader Al Yahn and I decided that we should take a picture of our cars in front of the sign before it was gone forever....we're so glad we did.

 

 Uncle Franks was a pillar of the community for many years, and it was very nice to see someone purchase the old building and re-purpose it as another already well known eating establishment, known as Beaux Daddy's Grill House.
It's nice to see that the building was saved from the wrecking ball.
Kudos to Beaux Daddy's.....

Red Top Cabs was located on the north/east corner of Leith and Simpson Street as noted on the business card in the following collage.  I've had the metal flake decal from quite some time...and can't remember where it came from or actually how old it is.  It is quite large and likely would have been used on the doors of the cabs.

The following group of photos are such a part of my younger years.  We lived on Arthur St., about half a block east of Vicker's Park.  The CNR steam trains would go right down Arthur St. from a spur off the main line, and right past the house where I lived, then make a slow turn to the north starting at Marks St. towards the CNR station just before the Fort William Gardens....heading right down Vicker's St and re-joining the main line at the northern end.  The picture is taken just east of Marks St......the little grain elevator in the background is a Davidson Elevator (There were a few small Davidson's around the Lakehead including one on Hardisty St. which is now Boles Feed).  To put this all in perspective the photo below shows Arthur Square on the corner of  Marks and Arthur St. which is the exact location of the little Davidson Elevator.....there were many other small businesses in the area as well.

Continuing on with my neighborhood, I was quite a Roy Rogers fanatic as you can see.  At this young age and as I stood in the back yard of our brand new house on Arthur St. there was nothing to be seen between Franklin and Selkirk....everyone was just starting to do their landscaping, garage building etc.

Here is our house, how it looked in about 1954....my kid sister is leaning out the window as I stood on the train tracks across the street and took this picture.  Try to stand on Arthur St. on this spot today and you'd be run over.  My dad's mint refurbished wreck 1952 Chevrolet midnight blue, parked in front of our home.  If you go by there today, nothing much of the house has changed.

In the last two pictures taken from our doorstep facing north, you can see the train tracks across the street as well as a good view of the south side of St. Joseph's Boarding School as it was called then.  In the distance in the black and white photo to the right was St. Patrick's high school where I went for 3 more years after Selkirk High and where I met my future wife.
With my dad being the body shop manager of Kam Motors, he was able to fix a few wrecks for himself, but the '57 and '58 Chevrolet's you see below were actually company cars....the managers would get a new car to drive in the day...soon to end when the 1960's came along.  Oh, by the way, that's my little sister Daryle sitting on the hood of the '57.....she wasn't quite 5 years old.

Hope you enjoyed this new post....
Dave

Anytown Canada, Northern USA, or Fort William Ontario in the 1940's....

These wonderful winter photos could very well be from here in Thunder Bay(well one is).  The clarity of these pictures are incredible and a must share with anyone who enjoys vintage photography.  This week during Christmas and New Years day is always a time for myself and family to reflect on our past and be grateful for what we have in today's modern world, however, as you can see from these photographs that everyone was as happy as can be enjoying life on a day to day basis back when things were simpler and sometimes happier.

 

This house looks exactly like the one in the movie "A Christmas Story" only missing the 1937 Oldsmobile in the driveway and the Leg Lamp in the window.  The kids are having a great time sliding down the small hill.  This photo was taken in 1940.

Here we have a 1928/29 Ford Cabriolet with opera windows.  I have never seen a soft top with windows like this before.  Oval windows like this were mostly used in commercial vehicles such as roadster pickups.  This photo was taken in 1940.

Here is one more 1940 photograph which could have been taken in any small town Canada or Northern USA.  This is a wonderful picture of a young man on his bicycle with all the great 1930's cars along the street and all the store fronts decorated as they did in that era.  It almost looks like a movie set.

Here we have a January 1943 photo of a caboose man cave....wouldn't any guy love to have this on his property.  The girly photos etc. may have been allowed in those days but not now.  Times have sure changed on the railroad.  The end of the caboose era was about 1990 mainly due to the fact that rail cars had roller bearings by then and there was no need to watch for hot boxes(?) or worn bearings at that time(I hope i am fully correct on that data).

This last picture is a favourite of mine although the quality is poor.  It was taken near where I lived as a kid.  Looking at the picture the CNR engine (Circa 1950) is turning down a spur at the corner of Marks and Arthur Streets in Fort William.  The CNR spur turned east just behind the Kingsway Motel, headed down Arthur Street with a gradual turn north at Marks Street and headed down Vickers Street to reconnect to the Main Line, with a station just before the Fort William Gardens.
In the picture, a small elevator called the Davidson Elevator is just behind the train.  That property is now called West Arthur Place where the Spence Clinic is today.
MacDonald Equipment Co. on the right which faced Marks Street is now a portion of the parking lot for West Arthur Place.  Ray's Esso Service station which faced Arthur Street would be behind the picture taker.
For a little more data about this CNR spur click on this link http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.ca/2009/10/old-canadian-national-railway-spur-in.html
....then reture to this post.

Thanks to our friends at www.shorpy.com for some of the great photos above....and as usual BE SURE TO CLICK ON ALL THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM.

More Port Arthur and Fort William then's, now's and Tidbits....

This is one of my favourite photos from the early Port Arthur days.  It shows Port Arthur Motors used Car lot, a great Coca Cola painted ad sign and further down you can see the Paramount Theatre sign. The era would be early to mid 1940's in the winter and during the WWII years.

The same spot today across from the old Port Arthur Motors Garage and Show

Room which is now "Tony and Adams" restaurant and bar.

J. H. McLennan Lumber Co.
Below is a very old blotter(you remember blotters, don't you?....when you used a real ink straight pen, there would be excess ink still on the page and you would blot out the excess ink.....geez, I guess I'm really dating myself).....anyway a blotter from before dial phones when you would pick up your phone and tell the operator,"North 2157, please", and she would connect you without any dial....1930's.  The address for all of these J. H. McLennan Lumber ads is 80 North Cumberland Street

Operator assisted phone number here at "North 2157".

This is a dial phone era ad from a 1957
Fort William phone book.

Here's another ad from a 1962 phone book with DI(meaning

Diamond) in front of the number.  Diamond on your phone

is 34, hence the following year they dropped the DI and said

345-5453 in the phone books.

Well, here is a 1974 ad for the same address as McLennan Lumber at 80 N Cumberland street.  It's none other than the famed local Stan's Pizza.  The "Closed" building at the same address today still sports the "Stan's Pizza" sign.

Bobby Curtola

Here is a great photo of none other than Bobby Curtola being interviewed by CKPR 580 radio personality Larry Christie.  Larry was giving first spin to Bobby's new release "Hitchhiker"...coloured shot of the album below.

I hope you were one of the lucky ones who's seen Bobby locally and in person, backed up by our own Sensational Hot Rods rock and roll tribute band.  They always put on a great show together.  WOW...Bobby still entertaining today after all these years......Good Job Bobby!!

The Flamingo Club

There's always been a soft spot in my heart for the Flamingo Club Dine and Dance, as that's where our own wedding reception was held back in the late '60's.  It really was a nice place back then.....and before it was finally bought out and torn down had turned into a real dive......although a dive with great history.....The Flamingo was owned and operated by Scott Shields, who was a neighbour of my parents back in the Arthur Street days.

This is actually an enlarged matchbook cover from my own collection!

 The card to the left is a post card from about 1961 given to prospective clients to book for a wedding or any type of formal reception....It was quite an elegant place at one time.  The ad to the right shows none other the Neil Young and the Squires playing at The Flamingo Club - Tavern.  The address was 344 North May Street in Fort William.  The photo below shows the present day apartment building built on the same property.

Former Flamingo Club property at 344 N. May Street

 Talbot Street, Port Arthur
Always click on all the photos once or twice to enlarge them!!!
An Internet find shown below is a house on 344 Talbot Street in Port Arthur taken in the late 1910's or the early 1920's.  This is a then an now set showing the same house today which still has the same roof line after almost 100 years.

Canadian National Railway

This is my all time favourite photo of the Canadian National pier in Port Arthur which is of course today's Marina Park.........we've come a long way baby!!....since 1922.  The building at the bottom right is the CNR Baggage building which is still used today and extensively refurbished as the arts building.  The roof of the building at the bottom left is the old Canadian Pacific Railway station, long torn down to make room for present day "Water Street".

This is another similar post card photo to the one above showing the S. S. Noronic and
the S. S. Hamonic at the Port Arthur and CN Docks.

 Kam Motors again
Here's an advertising 1939 post card from Kam Motors during the period of time my father worked there before he ended up in the Canadian Army.  It shows what the Kam Motors body shop could do if you ended up in a collision.

How the Kam Motors building looks today!

East Victoria Avenue Fort William circa 1954

One more picture of our cruisin' strip and how well we remembered it in pre Victoriaville days....The St. Louis, The Embassy Grill, Bryans Limited, White's Drug Store, and many more...all you 50's and 60's cruisers will remember it all!!

Another Port Arthur Then and Now

 Both of these photos were taken on the south east corner of Park and Cumberland street in Port Arthur, Ontario...the first one is from the 1930's and the second one is from 2011.

Cumberland and Arthur(Red River Road) Port Arthur, Ontario

The following three photos are taken on the same corner of Cumberland and Arthur Street, now Red River Road.  The first and third photos are great local Street Car shots taken in the late 1930's and the middle one was taken in the late 1910's.  They all depict the busy street life back then near our waterfront....photos here are thanks to Thunder Bay Face book.

The streetcar is coming down the hill toward Cumberland Street and just passing
St. Paul Street.

This shot shows the complete Tomlinson Block in about 1918 Showing the F.

W. Woolworth block and the W. T. McEachern Drug Store on the north/west

corner.

This final shot of this post is a wonderful one of tandem streetcars coming down Arthur Street and just passing St. Paul  Street.  Circa late 1930's.

Thanks to all those who donated photos for this post.  They are all wonderful shots of our early days here in the Canadian Lakehead(Fort William and Port Arthur) ....Thunder Bay.