UNIQUELY FORT WILLIAM, Ontario, Canada......more hot rods and jalopies later.....

I'm not in any way trying to snub Port Arthur-ites (you know...people from Port Arthur) with this post, however, as I lived in Fort William and rarely ventured over to Port Arthur until I had my own set of wheels, or unless I was swimming in Boulevard Lake with my parents, I spent a huge percentage of time in Fort William.  In this post I am trying a new idea in posting a number of collage photo groups which I have been working on for some time. I tried to find one of my posts that would represent the uniqueness of Fort William in it's heyday.  I chose this old HR&J post, re-entered here as it looked back in 2009.

To me Fort William had the best cruising strip anywhere, and it was duly taken away from us baby boomers when we needed it most....well, you get the idea.....

This next group shows the beauty and excitement of a Shriner's Parade on Miles Street in Fort William.  I can't recall where this photo originated but I am very grateful that it was taken...it brought back a ton of memories when it was a bustling down town district.  BE SURE TO CLICK ON ALL THE GROUPS OF PHOTOS ONCE THEN TWICE TO ENLARGE AND VIEW.  A big thank you to my friend Al Yahn for checking on addresses and places for me in his 1950's Henderson directory.

 

 I had done a blog post about Bourke's Drug store way back when, but I recently came across a very old Bourke's Drug envelope while looking through my own archives from the era before dial phones were here at the Lakehead (I love saying Lakehead).  Note, the phone number is 1400.....pick up your phone, wait for the operator, then say "South 1400 please", and she would plug you in to Bourke's.  That was "the" place where my parents purchased all their drug needs back then....read all the details an data on these collage photos.

Fryer Studio was pretty much where everyone would get their photo finishing done.  In the 1940's if you wanted a colour photo, you would have to get a studio to hand colour or hand paint one.  Jessop's Pharmacy on Simpson St. is where my grandparents purchased all their drug needs, as they lived close to Jessop's address.....In those days it was pretty safe to head down Simpson Street....even at night to your corner store or drug store or even go to the movies at the Lake Theatre.

A recent yard sale find is this incredible brochure.  Read all the data as it was a very special event here in Fort William when Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip came to open the St. Lawrence Seaway.  My great aunt Catherine Seppala was Mayor of Fort William at the time and as you can see by the seating arrangement at the bottom, she sat directly beside Queen Elizabeth.....Click twice to enlarge as stated above.

One of the most interesting finds this year was this Fort William travel brochure which I had never seen before.  The map and data about Fort William is below, and I kept it at a fairly large format so you could read about how we promoted our city back in the day....click twice to enlarge.

I found this Dominion Motors newspaper clipping showing the 1952 Pontiac and decided to show these photos again of Dominion Motors on May Street.

As stated on the next photo collage, I have never seen the full size card for this photo....so we have a photo drawing of the original "Fort" William.

These are the things I love to collect...little tidbits of advertising from our city.  There was a lot of it back in the day and it is getting more difficult to find.  Note the phone number is MA 2-6463.  MA stood for MAyfair and is actually 62 on the old dial phones.  DI - DIamond and MU - MUtual were also used.  The clipping below is from a 1961 Fort William phone book.

HR&J hope you enjoyed this post which to me is UNIQUELY Fort William, Ontario.

ALSO BE SURE TO CHECK OUT "THUNDER BAY MEMORIES" ON FB FOR MANY MORE PHOTOS OF OUR TWIN CITIES.

100 YEARS OF DOMINION MOTORS - 1911-2011

In 1908 George Dolcetti started a bicycle repair shop and in 1911 the entrepreneurial businessman went into the automobile business.  George was also the owner of a very sophisticated Essex race car driven by the notable Frank Colosimo.  Frank would later drive the famed “King’s Special”.

This is how Dominion Motors looked in the 1940's - Photo
Courtesy of Jerry McKenzie.

I detect a hot rod in this close-up from the above photos!!

Later, his sons Guido and Alfred operated two separate dealerships, one in Port Arthur, Ontario and one in Fort William, Ontario until Guido’s death in 1968.

This is how Dominion Motors looked in the 1950's - Photo Courtesy of Jerry McKenzie.

In 1970, Alfred amalgamated the two dealerships and moved the entire operation to May Street in Thunder Bay South, the same year that the City of Thunder Bay was established by the amalgamation of the two cities previously mentioned.

Always a familiar sight at the Stock Car Races at the CLE was

the Dominion Motors tow truck.

Here's the Dominion tow truck again

rescuing Prokosh and Zatti!

In 1980 John purchased the business.  Looking toward the future in 1988, John built a new dealership at its present location on Copper Crescent.  After thirty one years as a General Motors dealer, John remains in an advisory capacity today.  Present owner and manager, Tyler Dolcetti, George’s great grandson proudly carries on his family’s legacy into a fourth generation.

 Here is how Dominion Motors looked in the 1970's. The tall facade in the front was removed to make it more modern looking and the used car lot was enlarged. The "Used Cars" building is there to this day. The long curved top building and its attached building belonged to the well known May Auto Parts.  Most of this building is still there today as well.

This is the back of the above postcard.

This is how the complete building looks today.

This is the Ken Peterson Used car lot that used to belong to Dominion Motors.  If you look hard at the 1970 photo above, you can see this.

A recent photo of Tyler Dolcetti.

Dominion Motors looks today.

   

Thanks to all those who donated photos to this and all other blog posts.  Click on all pictures for enlargements!