Town Hall, Port Stanley. The Town Hall, on the
east side of Main Street was built in 1877, three years after the village was
incorporated. The southwest corner of the building contained the village jail,
which boasted two cells. Hepburn tells us that an unusual notice appeared in
the press at the time. “Five dollars or a new meerschaum pipe will be presented
to the first person incarcerated in the new jail.” The Town hall was used for
church suppers, bazaars and concerts, as well as public dances, plays and
political meetings. It served until 1928 when a new community hall was built on
Bridge Street. There is no stamp by the serviceable looking wagon and the
bowler hat on the gentleman sitting on the porch of the cottage south of the
town hall suggest the early years of the last century.
Bridge Street. This card represents one of the
frist genuine color photograph (as opposed to a colored black and white image).
The cars are identified as a 1955 Pontiac and a 1956 Ford Fairlane parked on
the street. Buildings on the South side of the street (left to right) are the Superior
Food Market, Elliot’s drugstore, the IGA Supermarket, Downing’s barber shop,
two unidentified buildings, the town hall and the library. The firehall was
located just went of the Town Hall. Note the tall tower which was
used at one time to dry the canvas fire
hoses.
King George VI Bridge. The King George VI lift
bridge across Kettle Creek was opened in 1939, and this scene is it’s opening
day. The ceremony was presided over by Mictchell Hepburn, a local Port Stanley
boy was the Premier of Ontario. The building of the bridge was accomplished by
a tragic event which is still vividly remembered by some Heritage Port members.
On a cold evening in December, thirteen men were working inside a coffer dam
which had been built around the east abutment. The dam suddenly collapsed and
eight men lost their lives. The construction of the lift bridge represented the
culmination of a long series of bridges which had been built crossing kettle
Creek. An 1832 plan of the village shows a bridge at this site, and in 1856 the
London and Port Stanley railway company built a swing bridge here, which was
replaced in 1865 by a wooden stationary bridge. In 1894 a two span steel truss
bridge was built. In 1939, the politicians speaking at the opening ceremonies
envisioned the day when ocean liners would be steaming under the lift bridge to
enter the inner harbor.
William Street. William Street is on the west
side of the harbor, and this photograph would have been taken looking south,
towards the lake. Although the post card bears a postmark of 1942, the
automobiles on the street suggest that the photograph might have been taken ten
years prior to that. The white building on the right, once owned by Port
Stanley reeve, Garnet Speers, is now a hair dressing parlor situated at 162
William Street, so that the photograph would be taken in from of what is now Barnacle's Beerhouse.
