December 2020 When the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) opened their brand-new District 7 Headquarters on Rose Street, beside the newly-built Highway 400 in Barrie, Ontario, in 1958, it replaced the office in the basement of the Barrie Municipal building on Collier Street that OPP officers used during the decade they policed the town. Starting on …
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November 2020 The St. Catharines community of Port Dalhousie is a historic waterfront community, on the shore of Lake Ontario, near the American border. It’s the home of the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, and it’s Lakeside Park, which features one of only nine antique hand carved carousels still operating in Canada, was the inspiration behind …
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November 2020 Legendary Burlington eatery Emma’s Back Porch and the Water Street Cooker shut its doors in May, after a 28 year run at its Old Lakeshore Road location in downtown Burlington, Ontario. While Emma’s only operated for three decades, it was just the most recent business to occupy the building, which has stood over …
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November 2020 Opened in 1954 by Karl Ruehle and his wife Marlies, on a secluded 25-acre property near Pelham, Sun Valley Gardens was founded with the purpose of promoting nudism as a lifestyle. Initially, Sun Valley Gardens had 18 members, but within a few years, there were 300 members. Guests stayed either in tents, trailers, …
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November 2020 In Peace Memorial Park on Hamilton Mountain, in southern Ontario, is a large, 40 foot high brick structure, with limestone columns and an arch in the centre. Atop the structure is a carved limestone block that says, “Peace Memorial School.” While this may simply look like an ordinary monument, it’s actually the main …
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November 2020 While most homes throughout the centuries have been box shaped, perhaps with a turret at one or two ends on homes of the wealthy, a design that was popular in the mid to late-19th century was octagonal-shaped homes. The octagonal design was believed to promote good health, as advocated by Orson Squire Fowler, …
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November 2020 Near the abandoned pioneer hamlet of Williamsport, seven miles north-east of the Town of Huntsville, Ontario, is a 42-foot high granite monument, sitting in a small clearing, on top of a secluded hill at the end of a deteriorating dirt road that is slowly falling to the Big East River a considerable drop …
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November 2020 Algonquin Provincial Park in the Nipissing District of Ontario is the oldest provincial park in Canada, having been established in 1893. The almost 3,000 square mile park is one of the best places in Canada for canoeing, with hundreds of navigable lakes and rivers forming a 1,200 mile long interconnected system of canoe routes. …
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November 2020 While clock towers are usually architecturally pleasing, whether as stand-alone structures or as an accent to a building, their original purpose was more of a practical one. In a time before watches (pocket or wrist) and wall clocks in homes and work places, clock towers were the most common way to tell time. …
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October 2020 In the north end of the Village of Paisley, Ontario, in a small park called Willow Creek Park, stands a tall brick chimney. While seemingly out of place, this lonely chimney is a monument to a long vanished foundry known as the Paisley Agricultural Works. Originally opened around 1860 as Laidlaw’s Foundry, it …
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