Thunder Bay: July 25 to August 22 - Includes panos!
All pictures were taken by me myself, and are mine and my own. I own them and they belong to me
because I was the only one who took them. They don't belong to anyone else. You can click on
the pictures to see a larger one on my Flickr account. You may recognize some of them from the
SkyscraperPage Flickr Group. If you have a Flickr account, I encourage you to join it!
You don't have to read anything, but please do before asking a question that I've already answered.
These pictures were taken on various days between Friday 25 July 2008 and Friday 22 August 2008.
They're in the order in which I took them, but backwards. We start on 22 August...
I hope you enjoy them.
1 This is the Royal Edward Arms. It was built as Fort William's top hotel in 1928, and upon
completion became the city's tallest building. It is 8 storeys tall and built in an Art Deco style
with Neo-Gothic influences. The queen stayed here during her 1972 visit (the one where our mayor
grabbed her ass!) and shortly after that, it became social housing. It's now full of seniors and
poor people. There is a café on the main floor.
2 This is the small plaza in front of the Finnish Labour Temple. It was built by Finnish
immigrants in 1910 to house meetings of the Community Party. The basement is the home of the Hoito
Restaurant, one of the city's most popular. It was opened to serve lumberjacks when they were in
town. (They eat a lot. A LOT.) It isn't the best food in the world but the price is right and the
portions are very liberal.
On most days, the line up to get in goes right out the door.
3 The Little Finnish Hall. This one was built a little bit after the big one, after they kicked
out the extreme commies. It's now home to a café called "Calico's", which is very popular in our
photographer community. It's one of several buildings in the Bay and Algoma area that is painted
bright yellow.
4 This is the sunrise on 21 August. Isn't it fantastic? We're the only city that gets them!
5 This is someone's garden in the East End, which is one of the city's poorest neighbourhoods.
I made it into sort of an HDR picture with Window's Live Photo Gallery, which snuck onto my computer
a few weeks ago. There was mist over the garden area and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take
the picture. There are lots of really neat scenes in the East End.
6 Looking up the bell tower of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Built in 1909 in a Gothic revival
style, it's one of the most prominent buildings in the downtown Fort William area.
7 This is Maple Crest Tower, a 14 storey condominium near the University. It's the city's
second tallest conventional highrise.
8 The Advanced Technology and Academic Centre at Lakehead University, opened in 2006, is Northern
Ontario's most technologically advanced building. This is its rear end.
9 A graffiti mural in a back alley on Victoria Avenue. This particular stretch of Victoria Avenue
is lined with vacant buildings, so the colours really add a nice touch. The windows reflecting
a bit of light on it makes the image a little more interesting, too. I saw the guys painting this
the day they did it.
10 Another shot of the Finnish Labour Temple/Hoito, from a little farther away and a couple
weeks earlier. The owners are trying to raise about a million dollars to fix the place up. The government
of Ontario recently pledged 125,000$ to help them make the facility more accessible. They will install
an elevator and handicapped-accessible washrooms. The most important thing that needs fixing is the
tower, which, like all towers built in that era, was neglected and is now collapsing.
11 At first this looks like an unassuming patch of greenspace. NOT SO!!!!!! This particular patch
of grass is currently proposed to become an ambulance dispatch building. The north end of the city
has very poor ambulance response times so the regional ambulance provider is trying to build a new facility
for them. Their first location was the site of a now closed school, but people living in the area said
that the noise and traffic created by ambulances would be too much, and succeeded in having it removed
from their neighbourhood. Their second location is this park space, which, as you can see, was bursting
with people on the hot Saturday afternoon!! The people in this area opposed the ambulance facility as
well, which made me realize something: I should oppose it too! If the people of Port Arthur are going
to get so uppity about an ambulance dispatch, then fuck them. They don't deserve ambulances. Besides,
when this place opens, the dispatch down the street from my apartment will close, and I oppose that.
12 The Royal Edward Arms again, looking north on May Street. Our homeless shelter is just down
the street between the building and that little house-shaped business. The ugly three storey building
on the right is the International Organization of Odd Fellows Temple, which is now apartments. The owner
did a shit job "beautifying" it. Would you believe the city provides incentives on that crap? He could
have at least used a decent material.
13 The Canadian Pacific Railway Station. CP Rail has put a lot of time and money into fixing
up the building, and they've done a fantastic job. It's a shame we don't have passenger rail service.
They currently use the building as office space.
Now, some panos!!!
14 This is Port Arthur and the Sleeping Giant, as seen from Hillcrest Park. I biked up there
one day, all by myself! Got drenched in sweat but it was worth it. Downtown Port Arthur is the cluster
of low rises on the left. The Hoito and Bay Street are on the right, just above and right of that
brick and white siding house. (I think it might actually be two houses?)
15 Fort William and Mount McKay from Hillcrest Park. Look at all the trees we have!!!!!! You
can't really see it too well in this picture, but if you can spot a white bubble-shaped thing, well,
Downtown Fort William's skyline is behind that!! This gives you a bit of an idea of how far apart
our two downtowns are. I've recently taken to calling Downtown Port Arthur "uptown", which I guess
would make Intercity "Midtown". Too bad we don't have skyscrapers.
And of course, those are the
infamous grain elevators in the middle. The land form behind them (except for the mesa out there) is
Isle Royale Nation Park, in Michigan.
If you have never been there, you should go. It's fantastic.
16 This is Mount McKay, as seen from the Neste Boat Launch at the end of Mountdale Avenue.
It's a view of the mountain that many people haven't really seen before. The setting sun adds a nice
light to it.
In closing:
17 This was a thunder storm. I got stuck in it. Huddled under a storefront on May Street, where
I snapped
this picture.. Fantastic, huh? Yes there was hail. It lasted 10 minutes, tops.
Thanks for visiting!
If there is anything you want to see more of (aside from skyscrapers
) let me know and
I'll try to include it in a future thread.
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