April 2023 Before motor vehicles and paved highways made transportation of people and goods easier, railways were the fastest and most efficient method of land transportation. Every city, town and village along the railway lines had a station where the trains would stop to load and off-load passengers, mail and goods. Some were proper buildings, …
Category Archive: Things From My Travels
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/when-railways-ruled-the-world-and-their-passenger-stations-showed-it/
Apr 15 2023
What is to become of the vacant Kempenfelt Conference Centre?
April 2023 The Kempenfelt Conference Centre, or more importantly, the 20-acre property it occupies on the south shore of Kempenfelt Bay, screams big opportunity for Simcoe County’s tourism sector, either as a vacation resort or a wellness retreat. Right now, the Ontario government-owned facility in the Town of Innifsil is vacant and deteriorating, due to …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/what-is-to-become-of-the-vacant-kempenfelt-conference-centre/
Apr 15 2023
Remnants of a long-demolished Erie and Ontario Railway repair depot found on Niagara-on-the-Lake’s waterfront
April 2023 Like many waterfront towns, the southern Ontario town of Niagara-on-the-Lake was once a shipping port, transporting goods and people across Lake Ontario and back. Railways were a big part of that transportation system, going back to the first half of the 19th Century. The Erie and Ontario Railway (E&ORR), the third railroad in …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/remnants-of-a-long-demolished-erie-and-ontario-railway-repair-depot-found-on-niagara-on-the-lakes-waterfront/
Apr 02 2023
Century-old lakeshore cottage built by prominent Burlington-Hamilton developer lives on as a luxury fairytale-themed vacation home
April 2023 The waterfront of the southern Ontario cities of Burlington and Hamilton used to be dotted with cottages, built for wealthy area residents to escape the summer heat. While most have been demolished in favour of giant mansions and parkland, especially on the Burlington side, and an assortment of businesses, one century-old cottage remains …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/century-old-lakeshore-cottage-built-by-prominent-burlington-hamilton-developer-lives-on-as-a-luxury-fairytale-themed-vacation-home/
Mar 16 2023
Lyons Creek Elementary School – Rural school still standing 50 years after the last student left
March 2023 Not far from the Horseshoe Falls at Niagara Falls, Ontario, is the former Lyons Creek Elementary School. Opened in 1955 at as two-room school, it saw the addition of two additional rooms in 1959. The small school had a brief life, as declining enrolment throughout the 1960s resulted in the Niagara District School …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/lyons-creek-elementary-school-rural-school-still-standing-50-years-after-the-last-student-left/
Mar 15 2023
Raymore Drive – Monument to the destructive force of nature
March 2023 Raymore Drive is a peaceful residential street along the Humber River in the Toronto, Ontario, suburb of Etobicoke, one that dead-ends at Raymore Park. Looking at the area today, one could hardly tell that sixty-eight years ago, it was the site of the deadliest natural disaster in Canadian history. On 15 October 1954, …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/raymore-drive-monument-to-the-destructive-force-of-nature/
Mar 05 2023
South Humber Park Oculus Pavilion – A space-age vision of the future from the past
March 2023 The Oculus Pavilion in Etobicoke, Ontario, also known as the South Humber Park Pavilion, is a one-of-a-kind pavilion that almost seems out of place in a public park. With its fantastical space-age modernist design, the pavilion looks like something you would see at a science or space museum. Built in 1959 in the …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/south-humber-park-oculus-pavilion-a-space-age-vision-of-the-future-from-the-past/
Feb 28 2023
Port Credit’s Iconic Lighthouse – Part tourist attraction, part functional lighthouse
February 2023 The former Village of Port Credit, now part of Mississauga, Ontario, is a historic port community along the north shore of Lake Ontario. Dating back to 1834, when Port Credit was created from land bought from the Mississauga Ojibwe band, at the mouth of the Credit River, the harbour was a busy port …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/port-credits-iconic-lighthouse-part-tourist-attraction-part-functional-lighthouse/
Feb 24 2023
Frozen in Time – Marianne Schuett’s memory kept alive in Kilbride
February 2023 The unincorporated Village of Kilbride, is now a tranquil residential community, found in the rural north end of Burlington, Ontario. Founded in 1854, it was named after a town in County Wicklow Ireland. Like most small towns, where everyone felt safe and knew everyone else, little of any consequence happened in Kilbride. All …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/frozen-in-time-marianne-schuetts-memory-kept-alive-in-kilbride/
Jan 27 2023
Historic Fort Willow – Just one of Simcoe County’s connections to the War of 1812
January 2023 A little-known British Army Fort dating back to the War of 1812 can be found a little west of Barrie, Ontario, in Springwater Township. Situated along a historic trading route, the Nine Mile Portage, which was used for centuries by Indigenous Peoples, fur traders, explorers and missionaries, and located halfway between Kempenfelt Bay …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/historic-fort-willow/

