Have a seat and relax! Here are some interesting vintage Canadian postcards of North Bay, Ontario. These old postcards from the Nipissing District and that part of the Parry Sound District which is in the “Blue Sky Region,” are shown for educational purposes. If you have images or historical information which you’d like to share with our digital virtual museum, feel free to do so. You might also enjoy visits to our Alderdale, Bonfield and Rutherglen, Callander and Corbeil, Commanda, Dokis, Ferguson Highway (Highway 11), Lavigne and Verner, Marten River, Mattawa, Monetville and Noëlville, Nipissing and Restoule, Powassan and Trout Creek, South River, Sturgeon Falls, Sundridge, Temagami, Tilden Lake, Trout Lake and Trout Mills pages. Enjoy the story of Antoine’s Moose-Yard.

The North Bay area was first settled by Nipissing Indians. Due to North Bay’s location on a system of interconnected waterways, one could navigate from Montreal up the Ottawa River, down the Mattawa to Lake Nipissing and then to Fort William (Thunder Bay) on Lake Superior. French explorer Samuel de Champlain traveled this “voyageur route” or “voyageur’s highway” as early as 1615. This ideal geographic location, encompassing the Ottawa River watershed to the east and the Great Lakes watershed to the west, opened the region to early fur trading.

Eustach de Laronde, a Métis fur trader associated with Montreal’s Northwest Company, established Fort Laronde in the late 1700s or early 1800s; in 1821, it closed following the merger of the Northwest Company and the Hudson Bay Company. This was the white man’s first outpost in North Bay and was on the La Vase River, which was part of the “voyageur’s highway.” The voyageur route had been used for thousands of years by the First Nation people in the Lake Nipissing area. This c. 1907 antique postcard, published by Phillips & Wrinch of Toronto for druggist H. S. Campbell of North Bay, shows a local native American family, with two white men posing by their tent. The postcard bears an RPO (railroad post office) cancel from the Ottawa & Port Arthur railroad, Train No. 8.

While the village of North Bay began as a trading center in 1851 and was chosen as the Nipissing District seat in 1858, rapid growth didn’t occur until about the time that William A. Ramsey, chief surveyor for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) mapped the railroad’s path in 1881. From the time of Canada’s 1 July 1867 confederation, the CPR, described in this artist-signed (Cyrus Coneo) advertising postcard as “The Empire’s Greatest Railway,” was seen as a means to link Canada from coast to coast and unite the new country by building the world’s longest railroad. Visit the Canadian Pacific Railway Archives for more information on this fascinating story. Frederick Jackson Turner’s seminal essay, The Influence of the Frontier in American History, presented at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, also offers much insight into the enthusiastic expansionism occurring in both the United States and Canada. It was a time of boundless optimism. See also Pierre Berton’s two seminal Canadian history books, The National Dream: The Great Railway, 1871-1881 and The Last Spike: The Great Railway, 1881-1885. The idealized patriotic postcard seen below, heavily embossed, highly detailed and judiciously glittered, reflects the optimism of the times. Nothing could stop the railroads, and progress!

North Bay as we know it today was founded in December 1882, when 19-year-old John Ferguson, a Scotsman who delivered mail for the CPR, arrived via the CPR’s “Lucy Dalton” train on the north bay of Lake Nipissing. “Lucy,” which had traveled west from Mattawa, was the first train to reach North Bay, with regular passenger service beginning the following year. Land speculation has always gone hand-in-hand with the westward expansion of railroads; not coincidentally, Ferguson was a nephew of CPR vice-president Duncan McIntyre. Upon his arrival, Ferguson built a log cabin, the stone for which apparently came from an earlier construction by explorer Samuel de Champlain, bought 288 acres for $1.00 an acre in what’s now the downtown area and the CPR yards area, opened a post office and became North Bay’s first postmaster. The earliest scene of North Bay from that time period that we’ve found so far is this view showing participants in the first agricultural show/fair, held at North Bay on 5 October 1894. It’s a private post card from 1901-1907.

Notice the dirt roads and wooden boardwalk for pedestrians in this finely detailed, hand-colored 1907 postcard of Main St. looking east in downtown North Bay. On the left is Richardson & Co., with a large sign on its two-story frame building advertising “Stoves & Tinware.” This was the store of early settler and tinsmith John William Richardson, who arrived from Sturgeon Falls in 1885 and initially ran his business out of a tent; within the year, he was successful enough to open this storefront. Richardson served as mayor beginning in 1902 and also variously on the school board and Town Council. Beyond Richardson’s and a row of red brick storefronts, one sees a large white Catholic church, St. Mary’s on the Lake, which was located where the Cochrane-Dunlop building was built in 1911 (now Lefebvre Sports, 122 Main St. W.). There’s a livery on the right side of the street, likely the Cook & Armstrong stables seen below. The steeple of St. John the Divine is seen on the horizon, also on the right side of Main St. The image was published by Phillips & Wrinch of Toronto for W. J. Herbert & Co. of North Bay.

An early Canadian patriotic postcard, published by Knowles & Co. of London, Ontario, also shows a view looking east on Main St. The row of red brick storefronts and St. Mary’s on the Lake are seen in greater detail.

This charming 1907 real-photo postcard is a scarce view of W. J. Herbert’s store, which sold stationery and china. Children romp by a sleigh out front. The store has a concave mansard style roof popular in the Second Empire period of architectural history, dating the building to no later than about 1885.

This c. 1908-1913 postcard provides an overall context for the location of Herbert’s store. The Pacific Hotel is across the street, with a sign for what was perhaps the Royal Theatre down the road. The location is thought to be the intersection of Klock Ave. (now Algonquin Ave.) and Main. The First Baptist Church anchors one corner to the left of Herbert’s store, while the Pro-Cathedral anchors the right-hand corner. An interesting aspect of this card is the prominent placement of two automobiles in the foreground, portending the beginning of the automotive era. In 1908, Henry Ford rolled out his first factory-built Model Ts. These two-seater, open cab vehicles were known as the “Tin Lizzie” and, at $850.00, were the first semi-affordable and reliable cars on the market. By 1913, cars had hardtops and were being built to accomodate four passengers; thus, this view showing open cab, two-seater cars can be dated to 1908-1913. Postcards of that era sometimes included images of cars and occasionally airplanes, to show how progressive and modern the town was. Additional examples are referenced below.

A scarce 1903-1905 souvenir folder published by Phillips & Wrinch contains small images of other early North Bay scenes, most of which have been located in larger images, with the exception of the the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (G. T. Pac) survey view and the stock yards view. The G. T. Pac was incorporated in 1903; it was envisioned that it would compete with the CPR for traffic and trade in developing western Canada. Initial plans called for a line from North Bay to Winnipeg, which could later be exanded to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. This view shows surveying work being undertaken for the line in North Bay; however, the plan never came to fruition, as the government did not approve it. As for the stock yards, they were located where the sewage disposal plant now is, at 640 Memorial Drive, i.e. “Ontario Water Resources.” As John De La Vergne wrote: “It is the obvious site for a stockyard, if you neglect environmental concerns. It is where the (CPR) rails start to peel away from the lake to provide enough room, and there is a creek (Chippewa) running nearby to provide water for the cattle.”

Another scarce private postcard shows a mail carrier on the G. T. Pac Survey. Postmarked in 1910, it bears a Railway Post Office (RPO) cancel, a single ring reading “Toronto & North Bay R.P.O. No. 6 46,” and the cancel was marked with number 0-383 in Ludlow. Interestingly, the correspondence was addressed to the “Daily Nugget” in Cobalt and says: “Reduce [illegible] Kelly’s order to 35 daily and send bill.”

Here are some CPR views, the first depicting their roundhouse on Lake Nipissing and the second, a nicely detailed private post card published by local druggist Campbell, showing use of a pushcart on one of the CPR’s railroad trestle bridges. The image at top right, also published by Campbell, identifies the location as Duchesney Creek; this trestle was on the left side of Highway 17 heading towards Sturgeon Falls. The 1910 postcard at bottom right, published by the Thomas Co. of North Bay, shows canoeists paddling near this CPR bridge.

The depot at Oak and Ferguson (100 Ferguson St.) was a grand two-story structure built in 1903, as seen in the scarce 1905 undivided-back patriotic postcard at top left which was published by the aforementioned Knowles & Co. It replaced an earlier log station and was, in a way, a symbol of North Bay’s rising importance in the railroad era. Steam engines required refueling every 120 miles and North Bay’s location 120 miles west of Chalk River proved an ideal stopping point. Due to its fortuitous location, the CPR in 1881 had chosen North Bay as a home terminus and divisional point on the transcontinental line and thus additional facilities such as the roundhouse, storage, maintenance and repair facilities, a coal depot and additional facilities not usually found at smaller stopping points were built. A 1905 postcard shows throngs of people walking on the boardwalk to and from the station, with more crowds and horse-drawn vehicles on the dirt road. Eventually, the station would close when rail operations were relocated, but the city of North Bay bought it in 2001, restoring it as a heritage discovery centre.

This 1904 patriotic private postcard, published in Toronto by the Atkinson Bros. as part of their well-known series of patriotics, was postmarked in North Bay on 23 December and in Stratford, ON the following day. Showing another view of the depot, it bears a practical message saying: “Tell Auntie Carrie that the spoon has not arrived yet.” Although Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1874 in Brantford, ON and his Canadian patent was issued in 1877, telephones remained a luxury for years to come. Postcard collecting was all the rage between about 1901 and 1915, and trains were a fast and reliable means of mail transport. Thus it was both practical and fashionable for “Cousin Maggie” to send her message on a postcard, which traveled the 285-mile distance to southwestern Ontario in one day.

The scarce hand-colored postcard to the left below was published by Phillips & Wrinch for Mrs. R. E. Karp of North Bay. The second similar image of the CPR in the gold surround, in which a train has pulled into the station and passengers mill about, is included to show a fancier way in which postcard images were sometimes presented. The center image is a close-up of the station, while the vintage postcard to the right is interesting in that it shows an otherwise unseen view of a news stand occupying the right front corner of the building.

The image at top left shows passengers at Union Station; the one below it is an overview of the CPR which illustrates its size and importance in relationship to the downtown area. In the second postcard and looking to the left of the train station, one sees the building which housed the CPR Lunch. We think the lunch counter may have originally been in the train station, where the newsstand was, but relocated. CPR Lunch closed in about 1975 and was torn down in either 1975 or 1976. Note the Mackey House, further discussed below, behind the train station. Next to the Mackey is a cafe, and a large sign that says “Rooms to Let.” Two doors down from the Mackey, a large sign along a building cornice says: “Canadian Employment, Steamship…,” the last word being illegible.

The bold c. 1907-1915 image of a steam engine, published by Rumsey & Co. of Toronto, is of CPR Train No. 97, Engine No. 1160, at North Bay. The unknown sender, writing at 10:00 a.m., said: “Am at North Bay now. This is the train to Moosejaw. Leave here at 10:30 and don’t have to change again. Left Sundridge at 3:20 this morning… was to South River… It’s cold and damp… Will drop a card at Winnipeg.”

The Station Square image at top left, looking south on Front St. (now Oak St.) towards the CPR railway station, was published by Valentine & Sons of Toronto and shows many of the commercial buildings whose lifeblood was the railroad, including the Devlin Block built in 1910. The Dominion Café was in the Devlin building. The postcard was never mailed, but someone wrote on the reverse: “The young Prince of Wales was walking on this [sic] grounds during his stay, mixed along with all the people as though he was one of us.” The young Prince of Wales would grow up to be HRH King Edward VIII, best known for giving up the throne in 1936 to marry American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson in 1937. The c. 1907-1915 postcard at bottom left shows Station Square looking north, with the Queen’s Hotel turret and its large advertising sign seen in the distance.

The CNR depot at Second and Fraser looked like this. Grand Trunk Train No. 68, with steam engine number 1010, is shown in a c. 1907 postcard, when the CNR was known as the Northern Pacific and the Grand Trunk. Although never postally used, the sender wrote a message on the reverse to his father, which says: “A train leaving for Toronto on the Grand Trunk. The government railway of Canada comes into here a lot, runs up into the mining district [of] Cobalt, Porcupine and Cochrane.”

Viewed left to right, two finely detailed private post cards, published by Stedman Bros. Ltd. of Brantford, show the new offices of the T. & N.O. on Oak St., designed by architect Henry (Harry) Westlake Angus of London, Ontario. A boardwalk leads to the offices, and smaller buildings can be seen on either side. The 1907-1915 split-view card shows the T. & N.O. roundhouse. Founded in 1902 in North Bay as the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway Commission, the T. & N.O. was a provincial government railroad intended to facilitate Northern Ontario colonization from Lake Nipissing to New Liskeard on the northern end of Lake Temiskaming. The name was changed to the ONR (Ontario Northland Railway) in 1946. The third 1911 postcard shows T. & N.O. Train No. 1, Engine No. 128, the tender and some of the crew in North Bay. The c. 1907-1915 postcard to the right, published by Campbell, shows their office and freight sheds from a different angle.

If you misbehaved on the trains, you were liable to meet someone such as F. E. Drake, a CPR constable from Toronto. The CPR had a police force of 400 men, stationed at principal points along the railroad’s 18,000 miles of right-of-way. Kathleen Shackleton (1884-1961), sister of famous Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, immigrated to Canada in 1912, settling in Montreal. During the 1940s, she spent eight months, including much travel, to create a series of 48 portraits of Canadian Pacific employees. The portraits were exhibited throughout Canada including in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver. The portraits were also made available in two sets of postcards, 24 cards per set. You can see the artist’s signature just above the post card’s text area, on the right side. (And thus we have what is known as an “artist-signed” postcard.) The post cards were made available just before Christmas 1941, for employees to purchase as gifts. Or, you could buy the sets through CPR restaurants and newsstands, at a cost of 50 cents for the whole series.

The somewhat scarce Nipissing Junction postcard from October 1950, photographed by Omer Lavallée, shows a pair of new Ontario Northland RS-2 units - No. 1303 on the point - leading a northbound freight train on the approach to Nipissing Junction (ONR/CNR), a mile east of the CN station in North Bay. Lavallée was a recognized authority on railroad history, especially the CPR. He was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1989 and after his 1992 death, the reading room at the CPR’s archives was named in his honor.

Two chrome postcards to the left highlight the importance of the railroad to North Bay’s development. At top left is an image of a Class M-3-E engine, built in April 1913 by the Canadian Locomotive Company of Kingston and shown just after its June 1967 restoration. The photograph was taken at the ONR shops in North Bay by Carleton Smith. The ONR restored T. & N. O. steam engine No. 137 as its contribution to Canada’s 1967 centennial celebrations. William R. Forder, a prolific North Bay and area photographer, photographed the train when it made a Fall 1967 excursion north of town. Both of these centennial images were published by Audio-Visual Designs of Earlton, New York.

ONR No. 1403, leaving North Bay for Temagami, is shown at top left. Below it is the famous Northlander, showing passenger train No. 122 stopped for boarding at North Bay on 20 January 1983. The Northlander connects Northern and Southern Ontario with service between Toronto and Cochrane six days a week, along the Highway 11 corridor. ONR steam engine No. 503 (right) is in Lee Park, commemorating the days of steam engines and North Bay’s role as a southern terminus of the railroad.

Railroad development not only spurred development of the timber industry but also opened markets for the area’s other natural resources such as nickel, iron, copper, gold, platinum, silver and cobalt. North Bay became a supply center and a manufacturing base serving these industries. One of the lumber barons who rose to political prominence during this time period was Liberal Party member Charles Arthur McCool (27 February 1853-19 March 1926), seen in a scarce patriotic political postcard depicting Sir Wilfred Laurier and McCool. McCool, born in Chichester, Québec, served two years as a reeve in Mattawa before representing the Nipissing riding in the House of Commons from 1900 to 1908. He was defeated in the 1908 election by another lumber merchant, Conservative George Gordon. This postcard is No. UNK15-002 in Mike Smith’s Canadian Patriotic Postcard Checklist, 1898-1928.

Important dignitaries such as Prime Minister Laurier would have traveled the country in a luxurious railroad car such as the “Sir James,” which belonged to the Ontario Government Railway (OGR). We’d like more information on the OGR and the “Sir James.” If you recognize this location, let us know. Speaking of as-yet-unidentified locations, one wonders where the train wreck, only described as being “near North Bay” occurred, as seen in a private postcard which is perhaps as early as 1903.

Here we see two circa 1907 Campbell postcards of public improvements in North Bay, as the town grew: a jackhammer is being used to work on McIntyre St. in front of City Hall, and there’s a steam boiler on Main St. to operate jackhammers. We believe that engineer L. O. Clarke, who worked in conjunction with architect Angus, may have masterminded many of these improvements.

City Hall looked like this, c. 1907-1915. The court house and district buildings as they appeared about the same time are seen at bottom left. M. W. Flannery, who had moved to North Bay in 1887, became the town clerk and division court clerk in 1897. It’s believed that Wesley Coleman was the first policeman, from 1882 to 1890. Coleman wore many hats, including those of bailiff and tax collector. The North West Mounted Police (NWMP), forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), is said to have established its presence on the northeastern shore of Lake Nipissing in 1882 as well, although we’ve been unable to document that information. Isaac Kinsella was North Bay’s first chief of police, serving from 1895 to 1906. A handsome, if fanciful, patriotic view of City Hall is seen below, in which it appears improbably exalted to the level and grandeur of surrounding images of Niagara Falls, the prairies and their agricultural fertility, the Rocky Mountains and Parliament. High hopes abounded.

By 1908, the race was on between North Bay Light, which could supply steam-generated power, and Nipissing Power’s hydraulically generated power. There was much jockeying for position between the two companies. The Nipissing Power plant was completed in March 1910 and, later that spring, a 22,000-volt transmission line was completed which ran from Nipissing Power’s South River location to the current Worthington St. East substation near John St. The interior of Nipissing’s powerhouse is shown here in a scarce real-photo postcard. We think this confident, suited gentleman was William Robertson (“Bill”) Stewart (1883-1969). Born in McNabb Township on 10 September 1883, he began working for North Bay Light when he came to town in 1906. He stayed with Nipissing Power when they bought out North Bay Light in 1912, and with Ontario Hydro when they bought out Nipissing Power on 10 March 1916, eventually retiring from North Bay Hydro in 1952. And thus began the modern era in which power is supplied to customers at cost.

Another early service was the fire department, located in the rear of City Hall. The postcard to the left was published by J. B. Cornell of North Bay. Many thanks to North Bay Fire Department Chief Ted McCullough for supplying the names of these 1908-1910 firefighters. Left to right, they are: Driver Jack Mulligan; Fire Chief J.W. Sewell; Deputy Chief Joe Burke; J. Schoefield; Seaforth McKenzie; T. Schoefield; J. Dyer; J. Setchell; Vic Casper; and Oliver Garvin. The man in the back is Mr. Jamieson, a blacksmith, and the horses are Paddy and Barney.

Eleven members of the fire brigade and three civilians are shown in the c. 1915 postcard at bottom left. Notice what appears to be a brass hand pump on the horse-drawn vehicle at far right. Where was the large 1902 fire seen in the image at bottom right? The postcard is simply titled “The Fire at North Bay,” with no mention of what building this was. It appears to be frame. One identical 27 June 1907 image references this as a factory fire in which several homes were also lost, while another indicates that the fire occurred at about 10:00 p.m. See other photographs of historic North Bay fires at the North Bay Fire Department’s web site.

In downtown North Bay at the corner of Main and Algonquin, the Ferguson Block looked like this. It replaced an earlier grand, turreted Victorian building of Mr. Ferguson’s which burned; ironically, the building seen here also burned, in 1964. In addition to being a successful land speculator and the town’s first postmaster, Ferguson had mining interests in the Cobalt and Montreal River areas, at one time managed Sudbury’s Dominion Mineral Co., owned substantial amounts of North Bay Light, Heat and Power stock, was president of North Bay’s Board of Trade and apparently had an interest in the North Bay Brick & Tile Co. This old private post card was published by A. C. Rorabeck, a North Bay druggist. At bottom left, we see another approach to the Ferguson Block. Just beyond the Ferguson building and in this early Stedman Bros. private postcard, we see in the distance a three-story Empire style brick building with a mansard roof, c. 1865-1885, and a large two-story residence which was likely one of the earliest homes in town. The Second Empire commercial building was the Pacific Hotel, before its major additions.

A 1920s postcard below shows a larger view of how the Ferguson building was situated on the block. Some sort of stop sign is in the street, and (Patrick) McCool Drugs (advertising candy and Kodak film) and Nichols Real Estate are seen.

The image to the left, published by Warwick Bros. & Rutter of Toronto for the Thomas Co., shows construction at Main and Front Sts., in front of what we believe was John Bourke’s similar “flat iron building.” More public improvements are occurring. Some of the other area businesses near Main and Front can also be seen.

Ferguson and Bourke were forward thinking in their choice of a “flat iron” design. The original Flatiron Building in New York City, one of the great monuments of 20th century architectural history, is located at the corner of Broadway and Fifth Ave. and was designed by noted architect Daniel H. Burnham. Built in 1902, it was innovative in its use of a steel frame and is considered by many to be the first skyscraper. It was ridiculed as “Burnham’s Folly” during its construction, as people thought it would collapse (It’s still there.). Bold and sophisticated in design and only six feet wide at its apex, the 21-story, wedge-shaped structure has been likened to the bow of a ship. In this regard, the choice by Ferguson and Bourke to use a flat iron design was appropriate to the shores of Lake Nipissing.

Mr. Rorabeck’s drugstore was at the corner of Main St. and Klock (Algonquin Ave.), probably in the Ferguson Building. He bought the business from John G. Cormak, the first druggist in town. A small park is now located at the former site of the Nipissing Drug Store, as it was known. By about 1906, Rorabeck relocated to 158 Main St. West, which would be the location from where these particular postcards were sold. He created several well-known products, including Rorabeck’s 110 cough preparation. Perhaps the cure was worse than the disease, as this concoction contained cod liver oil, creosote and Scotch whiskey to wash it all down with. It was made in-house and was wildly popular. It was later manufactured for him by the Sterns Co. and by Wampoles. To the left are two images of the pharmacy’s bottles. This one was dug in Tillsonburg by Jay Preston, who kindly supplied the photographs. The text reads: “The Nipissing Drug Store/A.C. Rorabeck, Phm B./North Bay, Ontario.” The bottle itself was manufactured in the United States. Pharmacist Frank Tipler started work there in 1928. Reg Harris purchased the store in 1933; the name changed to Harris Drug Store.

A glimpse of Rorabeck’s Pharmacy is seen at right front in this 1910 Campbell postcard. Rorabeck’s name is etched into the streetside glass window, and a second-story sign says “Rorabeck Chemist & Druggist.” In between the red-and-white striped awning and the blue-and-white striped awning is the storefront of the Thomas Co. jewelry store, which published several of the postcards on this page. The sender, named Hannah, wrote: “This is the Main St. Our house is behind that building with the flag on it. It is the post office and Will works across the way.” A private postcard at bottom left offers a different view of Main St., with Rorabeck’s at front left and the N. McCubbin menswear store next door.

The Rorabeck-published postcard at top left is a view of Main St. looking east which shows the Traders Bank of Canada - the first bank in town - at right front. It opened on 18 March 1895 with we believe L. P. Snyder as the manager and John Stephens following after that. Can’t quite read the other store names. Does anyone know? Incidentally, Traders opened a Sturgeon Falls branch on 16 February 1899. That branch of Traders was absorbed by the Royal Bank on 3 September 1912. A wintry 1908 view, finely detailed and published by Campbell, shows many more Main St. storefronts. Notice the large advertising clock on the left side of the street.

Streetside advertising clocks were often employed by jewelers to promote their businesses; perhaps the one seen in the wintry view denotes the location of jeweler Gerald C. Thompson’s W. Main St. location (in the same block as Harry Mulligan Woolens). This scarce 1908 advertising postcard from Thompson suggested holiday gifts including a series of ornate and bejewelled Victorian lockets manufactured by the W & H Co., which we believe was the Wightman & Hough Co. of Providence, Rhode Island, in operation from 1856 until 1922.

Just as the manufacturer had pre-printed Thompson’s advertising message, so postcard publishers printed generic greeting postcards, into which the town name was inserted upon receipt of an order. The publisher of this floral North Bay greeting is unknown, although the verse is charming. It says: “Well, here I am in North Bay/Enjoying its sights and cheer;/Everything’s great and I’m feeling first rate,/But, O, how I wish you were here!”

The view is made scarcer by the fact that the cancel is from a DPO (dead post office) and the name on the front of the vintage postcard is misspelled as “Commando.” The image appears to be in a picture frame, which is a trompe l’oiel (“fool the eye”) artistic technique not commonly seen in vintage postcards but is employed here in the suggestion of a three-dimensional wooden picture frame surrounding the image.The Atkinson Bros. of Toronto, noted for a series of Canadian patriotic postcards such as the CPR train station seen above and Duchesney Creek seen below, also published a series of town views such as these two postcards. An early group of Main St. stores is shown in the 1907-1915 postcard at top left which looks like it’s in a picture frame. The trompe l’oiel artistic technique, meaning “fool the eye” or “that which deceives the eye,” isn’t commonly used in vintage postcards but is employed here in the suggestion of a three-dimensional wooden picture frame appearing to surround the image. One of the stores has a canopy which says “The Old,” but I can’t make out the rest of the name. Who knows the answer? The second Atkinson image in this North Bay series depicts the post office, about which more is written below.

Harry Stiner’s Mission Cigar Store was in a modest one-story frame building immediately between the Chicago Café, further described below, and what was at one time Campbell & McDearmid’s clothing store. (Is this the same Campbell family which published postcards?) The interior of the cigar store, as seen in this real-photo postcard, had a central aisle, with display cases on either side, moose antlers hung on the right-hand wall above shelving, and a pressed tin ceiling and walls. The sign in the window says: “Our system retains all the natural flavor and aroma of the tobacco.”

Interestingly, the bottom of the cigar store sign gives the name of photographer J. A. Noel, who worked in North Bay between 1904 and 1925, partnering with his brother, Alex P. Noel, between 1916 and 1925. There are 23 photographers presently documented as having worked in North Bay in the late 19th and 20th centuries. See the Northern Ontario Postcard Photographers page for more information. J. A. Noel also published postcards, such as this c. 1913 view of Main St. looking west, which wasn’t postally used until 1930. In this image, one sees the storefront of E. W. Ross, who also published postcards, at right front. Several examples of Ross postcards are shown on this page. The Crystal Palace movie theatre and the Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) are across the road.

The Beamish & Smith dry goods store was on Main St. by 1905. It’s the one-story building with the red-and-white striped awning and the concave mansard roof. Use of the Second Empire style mansard roof dates Beamish & Smith to the 1880s. The second view of the store was published by the Thomas Co. At top right, one sees a graphically striking 1905 postcard showing tan two-story frame buildings on the right side of Main St., including a bakery. The 1907-1909 postcard at bottom right shows Main looking towards Ferguson, with a jewelry store being the second store in on the right side.

Strangely, although Campbell Drugs was the source for many fine early North Bay postcards, this c. 1915 view of it, in an image looking west on Main St., was printed in France for the Pugh Specialty Co. of Toronto. Campbell’s is the three-story brick building at right front. Druggist Campbell came to North Bay in 1902; his pharmacy was originally in the Queen’s Hotel block.

There were a number of nice hotels downtown, including the Queen’s Hotel at the intersection of Front St. (now Oak St.), Fraser and Main, as seen in this 1909 postcard which was published by E. H. Ross of North Bay. Built c. 1888 by contractor Robert Wallace and his son and owned by Edward Lynch, it had lavish ornate wooden gingerbread trim, typical of Victorian tastes, on balconies overlooking the CPR. This view shows the entrance to the Queens’ dining room. This part of the hotel is still standing and has the original ceilings. It later became Lovell’s Music Shop, which closed in 2000. A second private post card, published by druggist H. S. Campbell of North Bay and sent to Florence Darling of Wisawasa, shows the hotel in relationship to the post office.

Hand-colored postcards, such as this image of the Queen’s as viewed from Oak St., are usually of very good quality and are highly collectible. The nicely detailed image of the Queen’s also shows a barber shop pole at curbside, the Royal Café and Beamish & Smith. It was not inexpensive to stay at the Queen’s, which could accommodate up to 100 guests, with room rates between $1.50 to $2.00 a night when the hotel opened. Most of the Queen’s burned in the 1930s, with the dates we’ve found variously reported as 1936 and 1938. The CIBC bank at 195 Main St. W. now occupies most of the former site of the hotel.

The Victorian opulence of the Queen’s is seen in the 1913 view of the lobby, when the hotel was owned by Harry Shepherd. Heavy Edwardian chairs, upholstered in black leather, are scattered throughout the room (erroneously labeled as a “rotunda” on the card), with an almost equal number of brass spittoons strategically placed beside the chairs. Two potted palms, de rigeur for interior decorating of the era, are shown. To one side of the desk clerk’s counter, stairs are seen leading to upstairs rooms. The image at bottom left shows the Queen’s as viewed on Front St. While it looks similar to the images above, window and door placement appears to be slightly different, perhaps as a result of remodeling at some time. This postcard was published by the Atkinson Bros. of Toronto.

Below, we see a highly romanticized 1908 image of the Queen’s, with the hotel inset against an improbable background evoking the sweeping majesty of the Rocky Mountains, with the final touch being a cottage at lake’s edge. We are brought back to the more mundane realities of life in North Bay when reading the sender’s message, which says: “I am here at last and don’t find that things have changed very much. One thing sure, it is awfully hot here and not many shade trees.” So much for romantic fantasies!

The Grand Central Hotel (also known as the Grand Union Hotel), was built by John Flannigan and was at the intersection of Foren and McIntyre Sts., as seen in this c. 1905 postcard in a view looking east. It’s the prominent yellow or tan building with a Second Empire-style mansard roof, which dates the Grand’s construction to about 1885. It perhaps predates by a few years most of the other hotels mentioned here. Patrick M. Bourke, a machinist with the CPR, bought the hotel in 1903. Mr. Bourke, who was only 49 when he died on 24 May 1913, was also the head volunteer fire chief of North Bay at some point in time. He was known for his fondness for horses and horse racing, with one of his mares, Gracie Pointer, finishing second in a 1906 Montreal race. The postcard image is thought to have been taken from the top of the Pro-Cathedral, during the cathedral’s 1905 construction. Klock (Algonquin) Ave. heads off to the right, while McIntyre heads off to the left. St. Andrews’ spire is seen in the distance. The business in the right foreground bears the name of J. E. Farrell & Co., Plumbers & Fitters.

The aforementioned Mackey House, built in 1886 by George Fee and J. J. Mackey, was also clustered near the CPR. This scarce private post card, published by E. E. Seiber of North Bay and bearing a 1911 Train No. 8 RPO cancel from the Ottawa & Sault Ste. Marie (a.k.a Ottawa & S.S. Marie), shows the intersection of Front (Oak) St. and Ferguson and the corner entrance to the Mackey House, which is the large two-story white frame building in the foreground. The Mackey extended to Main St. In 1945, it was destroyed by fire. To the left of the Mackey entrance is a store which is probably either “The American Fair,” owned by W. J. Parsons, or “The Cheap Cash Store,” whose wares included dry goods, groceries and glassware. Adjacent to that store is a streetside, life-sized barber pole, with a liquor store to the left of it. F. A. York’s name is on one of the store canopies.

A second vintage postcard also shows the liquor store to the left of the Mackey House and the three-story brick Winnipeg Hotel, complete with a grand second-floor balcony ornamented with Victorian gingerbread trim, on the opposite corner. It would appear from the Italianate-style of the large eave brackets, placed on a deep trim band, that the Winnipeg was built c. 1885. The popularity of the Italianate style waned by about 1890.

The Hotel Cecil, built by the Wallaces for owner Thomas McAuley in 1898, was a handsome four-story brick building at the corner of Main and Wyld. The center c. 1912 view of it, looking west on Main St., was published by Stedman Bros. Ltd. of Brantford. It shows many of the surrounding buildings, including a laundry in the modest one-story gray frame building across the street. Today, the Hotel Cecil is known as the Continental, which is further discussed below. Dole & Son five-and-dime store published the c. 1907-1910 postcard of the Pacific Hotel, also built in 1886 to cater to rail traffic. As was the case with the Queen’s, its balconies overlooked the CPR yards and, like some of the other hotels, it ferried its passengers back and forth between the hotel and the train station. Demolished in 1981, it was at the corner of Toronto (now Oak St.) and North Bay Road (now Algonquin). G. H. Mackey was the manager in 1887. The Pacific had a bar at the far end, and there’s an interesting sign hanging in a first-floor window which says “Committee Room - Hospital Campaign.” The final view of the Pacific, published by Rumsey and mailed in 1913, shows its ornate roofline advertising sign.

The dating of the Pacific Hotel view is an interesting example of how small details can help date vintage postcards, as the hospital campaign referred to in the window sign occurred in either 1907 or 1910. It concerned construction efforts at Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital, seen in the 1907-1910 postcard at top left and in the 1927 postcard at bottom left. The Dutch gambrel roofline incorporated in the gables was somewhat uncommon but fashionable during the latter years of Victorian architecture, and was part of the Neo-Colonial Revival style which swept the nation in its various permutations from about 1910 to 1925. One of the drawbacks to use of gambrel roofs in Canada was that they tended to collect snow more than other rooflines did.

The first Separate School, with its Victorian bell tower, is seen to the left of the Queen Victoria Hospital in the image above. Although the c. 1907 postcard, published by Thomas of North Bay, was never mailed, it bears a somewhat cryptic message to Mary Ann Cochrane of Douglas, Ontario. Another lady named Mary wrote: “I am sending you this card of the hospital. It is up on what they call Priest Hill. I pass where it is but never was in it. It is not a very nice place where it is built.”

As early as 1899, the Victorian Order of Nurses for Canada (VON) had established a “Queen Victoria Cottage Hospital” in North Bay, with a nurse in charge. In 1902, a temporary hospital opened and in 1904, Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital was built on Klock (Algonquin) Ave. That same year, Dr. Edgar Brandon, specializing in pediatrics and surgery, came to Memorial Hospital from Toronto. Monies for hospital construction came via a grant from the “Lady Minto Hospital Fund.” Lady Mary Caroline Minto (1858-1940), wife of Canada’s Governor-General, lived in Canada from 1898 to 1904. She was a prominent philanthropist; one of her causes was providing health care to then-remote areas of Canada. In all, 38 hospitals across Canada were built in part with monies from the Lady Minto Hospital Fund. (Some sources give the number as 43.) Today, only two Canadian hospitals still bear Lady Minto’s name.

An example is the Lady Minto Hospital at the north end of Eight St. in Cochrane, seen here in a c. 1915 Azo real-photo postcard. In July 1911, a fire nearly destroyed Cochrane and, after government relief funds paid out claims, the remaining money was used as seed money for Cochrane General. Construction began in 1915; the name was changed to Lady Minto Hospital on 20 December 1915, to meet eligibility requirements for a $3,000 VON grant. The Minto Hospital at Cochrane opened on 24 May 1916 and was signifiantly altered and expanded in 1955. Many thanks to Marc Larose of Shannon, Québec for this image. The Lady Minto Hospital in Chapleau apparently had an “Indian wing.” One can only imagine what conditions were like in the “Indian wing.” Mail to the hospital was sometimes misaddressed to “The Lady’s Mental Hospital.” Another Minto hospital was built in New Liskeard. Learn more about Lady Minto’s husband and his importance in Canadian history on the Lord Minto page.

Additional building referred to in the hospital campaign sign in the Pacific Hotel window in North Bay occurred in 1907 and, in 1910, an added wing brought the number of hospital beds to 46, with 10 bassinets. On 31 December 1924, the VON ceased its connection with cottage hospitals throughout the country; Queen Victoria Hospital in North Bay became self-governing. The City of North Bay accepted the property in 1931, by a special Act of Parliament, operating the facility as a general hospital. Nurses were trained there until 1933. We believe the old Queen Victoria Hospital was demolished during construction of the 100-bed North Bay Civic Hospital, which opened on 8 April 1951 and is seen to the left in a Forder real-photo postcard of great clarity. The Civic Hospital was further expanded in 1969 and 1991, finally consolidating with St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1995; the consolidation produced the North Bay General Hospital.

To the left is a c. 1951 Forder real-photo postcard of St. Joseph’s Hospital, earlier than the PECO view to the right, which shows that parking has been expanded at St. Joe’s. Plans are now underway to build a new North Bay General Hospital on College Drive across from the Nipissing University residences. Northeast Mental Health Centre, at 4700 Highway 11-N, is the region’s psychiatric hospital. Built in 1956, it opened in 1957.

Two views of McIntyre St., both published by Rorabeck, are seen to the left. The 1908 image at top left was taken looking east on McIntyre towards the Pro-Cathedral of the Assumption. The second Rorabeck postcard, from 1909, shows more substantial brick homes and, interestingly, another glimpse of the old court house at far left, at the intersection of McIntyre and Plouffe. The court house was torn down in the 1980s, replaced by a larger one; this site is now a parking lot. John Bourke, North Bay’s first mayor, lived in this neighborhood. One can catch a glimpse of the Methodist church, of which there is a larger c. 1907-1915 image below. The latter postcard is also occasionally found with a patriotic “From the Land of the Maple” theme with a caption identifying it as “The West End” of North Bay, as seen below. Postmarked in Wisawasa, it was sent to Master G. Darling of Ottawa.

Worthington St. homes and the school, discussed below, are seen in this 1908 postcard. Published by Campbell, it contains an honest message on the reverse which says: “I am having a good time. No, I ain’t.”

The Methodist Church was organized by the Rev. Silas Huntington (1829-1905), who was North Bay’s first minister. Ordained in 1854, he was posted to Mattawa in 1882 and used the Mattawa mission as a base for extensive missionary travels to settlements along the CPR, including North Bay. In 1882, a railroad boxcar on a siding and in a rock cut was the location of Huntington’s first North Bay service. This was the nucleus of the Methodist denomination in North Bay, and the first Christian congregation in the bustling town. The church’s first Board of Trustees was elected in 1883 and, the following year, a small church was built at what was then 8 Main St. E. However, the congregation quickly outgrew the first church, which was replaced in 1887 with a modest frame building seating 175 to 200 people. The 1908 postcard at top left shows the “New and Old Methodist Church.” As you can see, the “old” church from 1887 was on Ferguson St., due west of the present Trinity United building. The “old” church was replaced in 1907 by this much grander brick church, which seats 700 in the sanctuary and is located at 111 McIntyre St. E., at the corner of Ferguson and McIntyre. In 1925, the congregation amalgamated with the United Church of Canada, and is now known as Trinity United. The c. 1907 postcard at bottom left shows Trinity United from a different angle, on a snowy day, while the c. 1930s to 1940s PECO postcard to the right shows the church’s interior.

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church at 389 Ferguson St. (now St. Andrew’s United Church), with newly planted trees at curbside, is seen in the finely detailed private postcard to the left. Note the small frame homes and outbuildings. Druggist Cormak chaired the church’s building committee; it was his wife who, on 15 August 1904, laid the cornerstone. The similar 1911 image to the right was published by Sieber. A scarce private postcard below shows the church’s interior, much as it would have appeared right after construction.

The horizontal view of the church additionally shows a modest frame cottage to the left of the church which is Gothic Revival in style and configuration and which would date the home to the 1850s to 1860s, making it one of the oldest houses in North Bay.

Barely two months earlier, on 19 June 1904, the cornerstone for St. Mary’s on the Lake, also designed by architect Angus, was laid, as depicted in a finely detailed 1906 postcard. St. Mary’s was in a small frame building on Main St. W. (where Cochrane Hardware later was) dating back to the mid-1880s, but the congregation outgrew it.

A c. 1907-1915 postcard depicts St. John the Divine, an Anglican (Church of England) house of worship which was built in 1895, opened in 1896 and is at 301 Main St. E. The sender worked in one of the booming town’s hotels, writing to her sister that she was being paid $25.00 a month for her efforts. The Anglican presence has been felt in North Bay since 1883, when their first service with a congregation of 15 was held in the CPR engine house. While not the earliest Christian congregation in North Bay, this is now the oldest church building in town.

A 1940s CKC real-photo postcard shows the Bethel Gospel Hall housed in a handsome late 19th c. brick building at the corner of Fisher and McIntyre Sts. which undoubtedly originally served some other purpose, as the structure is devoid of the usual religious ornamentation or architecture typically used to signify a house of worship. We have just learned that the Bethel Gospel Hall congregation building was originally the Orange Hall, about which we will write more later. Mayor John W. Richardson was the first master of the Orange Lodge. When the brick building burned in 1963-1964, the church, now known as Bethel Gospel Chapel, relocated to the corner of O’Brien St. and McKeown Ave. (1710 O’Brien St.) Two of the four corners at the Fisher and McIntyre intersection are parking lots, including a parking lot for the Sands Motor Inn at 366 McIntyre St. E. which incorporates the stone foundation of the Gospel Hall. Many thanks to Val Croswell of North Bay for information on the history of Bethel Gospel Hall.