Thursday, November 19, 2009

City of Fort William....a "where's waldo" of 1960




OK...Here's a where's waldo if you will...of most of downtown Fort William(now Thunder Bay south) taken in about 1960. Where were you in 1960.....do you remember...give it a try!!
Look for the following places: Royal Edward Hotel, Columbia Grill, "D" Room, Cooper's Ladies Wear, Canadian National Railway Station, Fort William Gardens, Chapples Main Store(Grain Exchange...now inside Victoriaville), Chapples Home Store(best toyland in Northwestern Ontario...sold those made in England Dinky Toys), City Hall(beautiful...should never have been torn down to build and re-build the current one), St. Andrews Presb. Church, Buds Service(Ray Charles Texaco), Breeny's Auto Body(still with a car on the roof, but not the '62 Comet that's there today),Marsonet's, Canadian Tire, YMCA(recently removed), Eaton's Groceteria(yup, there was a grocery store in Eaton's in Fort William),Twin City Gas Building(will be torn down next spring to make room for new court house to encompass nearly half of the old downtown), Elks Club Hall(another one to bite the dust), Tourist Bureau(recently removed), Public Library(wow, beautiful and still there today), Post Office Building( to become the Unemployment Insurance Commission and Canada Manpower, later to become the Income Tax office), Safeways, Victoria Ave Liquor Store, Brill Bus(in front of Chapples), Kam Motors depot(Donald and Syndicate...saw my first '55 Chevy there), Pilkington Glass, The Police Station and now the city Museum(beautiful saved building), and more and more. How many do you recognize? How many other places and things do you recognize? You may have to scan around the pictures to view all corners! Click on the photos and click again to enlarge them.

1 comment:

Shaun Hopkins said...

Wow. I remember the mid sixties when I was 5 or 6 years old and my mother would take me to Chapples Toyland when it opened for the season. Strong memories! I was too young to remember much else downtown.I had many a trip on the brill buses since we had no car in the family then.