The Old Canadian National Railway spur in Fort William(Thunder Bay)

Do you recognize the building at the far left of this photo?....Yes it is the Fort William Gardens and this is Vickers Street in Fort William(now Thunder Bay). This photo was taken in the 1950's and since then, the CNR station beside the passenger cars is long gone and so are the tracks, as no locomotives travel any longer down Vickers Street towards Arthur Street, behind the Bell Telephone building, curving towards Arthur Street, travelling down the north side of Arthur and finally turning left right through the new mini golf course and curving behind the Kingsway Motel to finally connect to the main CN line that still goes right through our city. I know that because as a kid I lived on Arthur Street right across from the train tracks. My mother would have a train schedule hand so she would be sure not to hang clothing on the line when the steam train was passing. In the new photo you are looking at an extra wide Vickers Street at this point, but the Fort William Gardens is still there...so far anyway!

Below, and just out of sight at the bottom of this 1940's photo is the tracks that I had explained above. Here, highway 61(Kingsway St) was the main highway into town from the USA. It is interesting to see this photo and the one taken today as the only similar thing in the photo is Mount McKay in the background.

The Kingsway Motel in the photo below is actualy built in a triangular shaped because the train tracks curved from Arthur Street at a tight angle behind the motel to attach to the main line as mentioned above.

I really enjoy these four photos as I actually remember the complete transition. No matter what our city does, it's still sad to see many of our historic buildings disappear into the oblivion.
Thanks for looking and click on to enlarge as usual!

OK Port Arthur folks...it's your turn....

Mount McKay from Hillcrest Park looking towards Fort William 1920 and 2009.....that makes uh...89 years...WOW!


Here is Cumberland Street looking south/east and Red River Road(was Arthur Street before Amalgamation) in Port Arthur(now of course Thunder Bay, Ontario). The B&W was taken in about 1950.

In the upper photos you can make out an old grain elevator on the left and you can still see it today if you look closely. Some of the buildings near the mountain look similar too, otherwise its pretty barren. There has sure been great progress in the intercity area for sure.
In the bottom photos, only two structures are the same, and the rest has changed quite a bit. Atkinson's Jewelers is the only store front in both photos, but just closed this year.
Love the '50? Mercury on the left of the bottom photo, and how busy that part of Cumberland Street was. The today shots were taken this July. click on pictures to enlarge!!