The St. Louis Hotel - by special request........

These first two pictures, one from the horse and buggy days and the other from the early 1930's show where the St. Louis Hotel was....on the corner of Victoria Ave and North St.  It was an icon of the hotel and dining business for many years and the building was actually 113 years old.  During that time it went through many changes in its architectural look, mainly the removal(or change) to the mansard style roof on the 3rd floor as seen in the first photo, and later the squaring off of the first floor windows.  The brick was also painted a number of colours through the years, the final colour being a creamy yellow as shown in the 3rd photo.

This is how the old place looked days before its demolition.

This is how the property looked shortly after demolition.

This is a Victoria Ave. view of the property as it looks today.  The Royal Theatre was just next door and next to the Royal was the Commerce Bank.  Both those buildings stand today but the Commerce Bank is just a facade and completely empty behind.

 Here is a menu pad from the famed "Little Red Room", and a menu cover from the Beacon Room.  My parents frequented the restaurant there in the 1950's and was consided one of the best places to eat here at the Lakehead cities of Fort William and Port Arthur.  A page from the Beacon Room bar shows a shot of Rye for 44 cents, Rum at 45 cents and cocktails between 65 cents and one dollar.

Here are a couple of match book covers from The Little Red Room showing two different phone numbers and both being pre 1960.  The entrance for the bar and restaurant was off North Street.
I can't believe that it was demolished 6 years ago already...how time flies. 
To read the article from the paper, you will have to click on each half to read the left then right column.  Be sure to click twice on all photos and clippings to enlarge them.

Typically our city tears down historic buildings before the so-called bleeding hearts can complain enough to save them.  It has happened many times in the past and many others are noted in this website.  As noted in the above article, historic buildings are tourist attractions but here in Thunder Bay, they just tear them down.  Just drive around our city and see the new construction that has taken place in just one year, over the top of many of our historic structures. 

Barry and Johnny.......

Here is an interesting tidbit.  You will notice in the 1961 B&W photo that above the door on this service station it says none other than Barry Kettering as the proprietor.  Incorrect data in brackets...new information received about this story.....corrected in the blog post link below. - (This building was located at 520 North May Street.  The interesting information is that this station was soon to become Johnny's Texaco which belonged to Johnny Zatti.)  Barry and Johnny were brothers-in-law.  The address on google today shows this empty lot which is just to the north of Thunder Country Diving and Rollie's Cigar Shop on May Street.  New Data corrects the above information click here to see the story.... http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/2011/07/would-real-johnnys-texaco-please-stand.html

Here are a couple of matchbook covers from Johnny's Texaco both from the same era as the B&W photo above. The MA in front of the first matchbook cover stood for Mayfair, later to become 6-2 in front of all 5 digit numbers. The second cover here was from 1960 just before the Mayfair thing started.

This is a typical ad that you would see in the local newspapers in the late 1950's.  What great entertainment was offered for a dollar for adults and 50 cents for kids.

Here is Barry as he looked after winning the 1958 Championship

Johnny as he appeared in a Newspaper ad in the mid 50's

Here's a nice photo of Johnny in front of his Texaco Station showing that Stock Car Racing wasn't his only sport!!

Barry - When he was driving his #47 car.....the #57 and the famed Red/White paint job came in the same year as his number...1957.

Johnny and (I'm not sure) his son?  Is it you Don?

Thanks to Don Zatti and Rene Kettering for some of these clips and photos.  Click on the following link to read more about Johnny's service archived in this blog site, then come back.
 http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/2010/11/johnnys-texaco-service-johnny-zatti.html
More interesting things about Barry Kettering to come....click on all picture once or twice to enlarge.  Thanks for visiting........Dave

Tribute to Barry Kettering, Local Hero, Fearless Racer and Fine Gentleman.....

     This coming Saturday, June 11, 2011 commemorates the 35th anniversary of the passing of our own local hero Barry Kettering, well known in racing circles locally and throughout the mid western USA.  As a young local boy, I had the privilege of meeting and talking with Barry on a number of occasions, at their service station, riding on the Kettering truck down to the races at the CLE, and a few times with his wife Rene( I don't believe they were married yet) at my grandmother's home on Heron St.  Myself and my little friends had built a number of push mobiles with the famous #47 and #57 on the side and proudly brought the car down to Kettering's garage to show Glen and Barry our car.  They always made us feel welcome and never discouraged us from our endeavours.

 As a tribute to Barry, "Hot Rods and Jalopies" is proudly reprinting an incredible article about Barry by the well known racing journalist Marsh Muirhead from "Open Wheel Magazine" originally printed in the November 1984 issue.  "Open Wheel" has since merged with "Stock Car Racing Magazine".  Please click on the article once then twice to enlarge and read the complete story below.....
More about Barry in this blog by clicking on each of the following two links:
http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/2009/06/barry-kettering-stock-car-jockey-part-1.html  and
http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/2009/06/barry-kettering-stock-car-jockey-part-2.html

A little video memory....

We still miss you Barry and will always remember you!  Thanks to all those who have donated photos to this website through the last two years as noted in the information to the side of the web page, and thanks to the former Open Wheel Magazine and Marsh Muirhead for the inspiring article.