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.

The Times Journal, Fort William,Ontario...with a cool Model "T" Ford in front!

The Times Journal building and original business was owned by T.W. Rutledge and Dave Smith and located here at 115 North May Street. In November 1899 the company purchased the presses and assets of the recently defunct Fort William Journal and combined the two papers together known as "The Daily Times-Journal". In 1906 a new building was constructed on the original site in the Queen Anne Style. The new building was two storeys high, and the front was originally rented to J. W. Crooks & Co. for a drug store and in later years was a series of cafes called the T&H, Palace, Boulevard and Superior. The Times-Journal business office was at the rear of the building with entry from the lane and the second floor was the editorial office, typecasting machines and the book and job printing departments, with the large new presses being in the basement. This building housed the first power driven freight elevator in the entire city of Fort William. Later a more northerly addition was built and although owned by Superior Printing for years was not occupied by newspaper staff until 1960.
In 1972 the Times-Journal and News-Chronicle amalgamated(two years after the two cities did), and the operation became one at the Port Arthur ward plant. After 73 years as a printing establishment the building was converted to an office block replacing the entire facade with a stone commercial design featuring art deco design. The building now houses the popular "Victoria's Cupboard" featuring elegant home decor and gifts.


Here is an original paper bag in my collection as well as a front and inside copy of a Paper Boy's greeting to his customers for the Christmas season.

The following is an example of how the paper looked in the beginning(not too clear...sorry) and also some of the incredible headlines that were printed there. I was a paper boy for the Times-Journal in about 1952 and it was actually my first money making job. I remember that I had a small 20 paper route and made about $1.00 a week doing it....that money went a long way in those days, but you worked very hard for it.


Thanks for looking and be sure to click on each photo for a larger image.