Fort William and Port Arthur.....more old and new!

Fort William's first town hall 1892-1903 was actually located in front courtyard of the present city hall property. In those days it was a multi purpose building and also used for live theatre until the motion picture industry started in 1912. It was constantly being updated with newer plumbing and lighting through those years, however the structure burned down on Mar 6, 1903 devastating extremely important documents of the day, such as papers between the city and the Canadian Pacific Railway. The fire was a terrible blow to the community.
The generosity of sister city Port Arthur proved very helpful with the rebuilding of a new city hall which was completed only 2 years later in 1905. This was a much more decorative and ornate structure than the first.(The original photo of this building with the tower is shown in the top right corner.)
The tower of the new city hall was removed in the 1940's as the building had deteriorated somewhat by then. Many updates and renovations took place through the years and it stood as a testimony of strength until 1966. The current city hall building was built behind the old structure and was torn down when the new one was completed. In 1970 when Fort William and Port Arthur amalgamated, the newer building became Thunder Bay's one and only city hall. The new city hall was completely renovated last year in 2009 and is shown in the bottom left corner of the photo.

On November 11, 1916 after a number of name changes and ownerships, the Port Arthur "News Chronicle" came into existence. It was originally located on Lorne Street in Port Arthur for 39 years and in 1955 was moved into the former Customs Building which was built in 1914, shown above behind the Pagota. This location is Water and Red River Road(formerly Arthur Street). It continued there and in 1972, 2 years after the cities amalgamated the Port Arthur News Chronicle merged with the Fort William Times Journal to become the present day Thunder Bay "Chronicle Journal". The paper continued in this location until 1977 to 75 S. Cumberland Street and continues there to this day. The colour photo in the top corner shows the relatively new government building in its place. A Pagota story will be coming soon.

Ten acres of land was donated to the Parks and Cemetery Committee of 1902 by Catherine Vickers, with the stipulation that the park be a memoriam for her late husband John Joseph Vickers. In 1912, four large boulders were placed on the corners of the property and inscribed with the names John Vickers, Catherine Vickers, John McKellar and John McIntyre as a memorial of Catherine, her husband and their friends. The careers of these gentlemen were pivotal in the early years of the City of Fort William's development. Vickers Park remains one of the oldest parks in the former city of Fort William and the boulders are in place to this day.

No fewer than 8 people have claimed they are the mother and daughter in this photo, but in fact they are Verlie(child) and Sally Umpherson. Sally was a close friend of my mother and father in the 1930's and 1940's and still lives a healthy life to this day. I knew Verlie in high school and Sally's son Ken and his wife Sue are old friends of ours as well.

This first photo here shows a photo of Boulevard Lake from the bluffs extracted from a 1960 Ontario Travel brochure and the fall shot on the right was taken in the last couple of years. We are very fortunate to have wonderful scenery around our city as long as these parks and views are kept up and not forgotten by our city fathers.
Click on photos once or twice to enlarge!

....More Merv Dove thanks to Merv's Nephew Randy Dove...circa 1953!

This is a continuation of Merv Dove photos from the previous post ...click here if you haven't seen the first post then come back... http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/2010/07/merv-dove-gentleman-to-be-admired.html

This is Merv's first car. Above the back window is written "Brent Park Special". Merv says that he lived on Brent St.....so the name! Also on the side is written see Rothchild's for the Hudson Jet. Rothchild's was on the corner of Bay and Secord Street in Port Arthur. The next photo not too clear, but you can see all the extra bleachers that were set up in front of the old grandstand to accommodate hundreds more at the races....not too safe either, as jalopy jockeys were tearing down hundreds of feet of wooden fence on the backstretch and there is only a light chain-link fence here between the racers and the fans.

Merv's next car was totalled(geez, Merv, how many '33 and '34 Fords did you wreck...I'm already getting a sick feeling in my stomach...LOL). Please note that his next sponsor here is Leo's Service which was on Shuniah St. in Port Arthur. The first photo by itself and the second one here with a very young and dejected looking stock car jockey, Merv Dove.

This is none other than Merv's Sponsor Leo Dyson himself in full Texaco Service uniform. The next photo is a dead-on shot showing the front damage, all taken at Leo's on Shuniah Street.

Here is another photo of the good side of the car with Leo at the front, Merv to the right of him and the guy with the flat hat is one of Merv's pit crew Bruce Larson. In the next photo Merv is messing it up with a few other jockeys. Also note the little #2 model "A" pickup truck in the pit area. That is Tom Dow's hauler, painted exactly like his own jalopy. A story is forthcoming on Tom Dow.

Here are a few great shots of the #31 car from the Grandstand at the old CLE track. Just a reminder....this is the exact spot where the Golf Dome is today. The photo on the right is taken as the drivers pile into the pit area before the races. The #57 car here is before Barry Kettering used that number. This is Brent Hard's car.

The above was taken shortly after the one just before it, showing how the jockeys all lined up nice and neat in their individual pit spots...how many cars do you recognize? The #10 car in the last photo is Pappy Fowler's with "Darling's Service" prominently painted on the side. Darling's would later become Kettering's service station, and later yet would become "Ray Charles Texaco" in the '60's. Check out the little model "A" coupe pulling the #6 car with a V-bar. The popular "RO" sign with the gas pump below near the middle of the last photo is of course Riverlake Oil which was handled by McEwen fuels at the time. There is a story about Riverlake Oil back into my blog archives.
These pictures are full of great memories. Much thanks again to Randy Dove for loaning Hot Rods and Jalopies the photos to add to Merv's portfolio....and finally thanks to Merv for being himself and always a gentleman!
Be sure to click on each individual picture for full effect(some twice).

GONE....Another Important Historic Building!!

Here we go again, but this time our city tore down an incredible historic building. It was actually dubbed, possibly the oldest standing structure in Fort William by a clipping found while researching this structure. The clipping is shown below and was published in our newspaper in 1985. The "Coo House" just down from the Fort William Gardens wasn't even as old as this one and its still here designated "historic". This one was built at least 122 years ago and by the photo(circa 1888) and the article, was originally located on Brodie Street approximately where the old Capitol Theatre building stands today. They even thought that its historic value was important enough in the 20th century to move it to the corner of Arthur and Brodie streets to its address of 240 Brodie and face it West.

This is one of two homes torn down(one at the corner of May and Arthur) and this historic structure and for what reason?? Why would the city(or whoever) remove this building?? Does anyone know?? They sure did it in a hurry so no historical club or so called bleeding hearts would try to save it, or would anyone even bother!
It would be nice to get rid of Victoriaville the same way...It doesn't have any historical value and it still stands dividing a MAIN street in two. I sure wouldn't stop that from happening!

Here is the article that was found in the Chronicle Journal published by our museum in 1985 with reference to the building in question. NEXT - Today!

Here is the empty property today with both buildings gone but specifically the beautiful Mansard roofed three-story 122plus year old historic building. All we can now say is "Oh Well, too late!"

Click on photos to enlarge!