Christmas at F. W. Woolworth....in Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario

Here is a B&W photo of F. W. Woolworth five and dime store right here on Victoria Ave. in Fort William Ontario(now Thunder Bay...and sorry, I don't have a winter shot), taken in about 1950 when Woolworth's was at its peak of business. As mentioned in a previous post, this store is now an art gallery and is located in the present day Victoriaville Centre. The second photo is of their fountain menu(you'll have to click on this one and all the others to observe the detail) and finally the very recognizable red and gold marquis.

The F. W. Woolworth company (Woolworth's) was a retail company that was one of the original North American five-and-dime stores. The first Woolworth store was founded with a loan of $300.00 in 1879 to Frank Winfield Woolworth. Despite growing to be one of the largest retail chains in the world through most of the 20th century, increased competition led to its decline beginning in the 1980's. The chain went out of business in 1997 when the company decided to focus on the Foot Locker division and renamed itself Venator Group. By 2001, the company focused exclusively on the sporting goods market, changing its name to the present Foot Locker Inc.(thanks wikipedia)
The above are pictures of a couple of early shoppers catalogs and how an entrance to a Christmas toy department there would look.
The following photos show you what an older Woolworth store in the 1950's might look like inside around the Christmas season.

Enlarge this inside store shot to see all the Revell "Big" models for sale high on the back shelf(Big "T", Big Tub, etc.


How many of your old toys do you still have??


Great package art!!

We still have a couple of these bottle brush wreaths around somewhere.
Most of the above pictures are courtesy of the National Christmas Centre in Pennsylvania.
BE SURE TO CLICK ON EACH PHOTO TO SEE THE DETAIL.
Merry Christmas....hope you enjoy these!....more seasonal stuff to come!

Christmas...the best days of our lives in the '50's and '60's...

Chapples Limited Home Store.....(sorry no winter shot), which is now in Victoriaville(more about that, click here http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/2009/07/syndicate-and-victoria-aveunder-glass.html or scroll down on my blog) downtown Fort William..... which recently housed local government during the current City Hall renovation..... had the most incredible toy department during the 1950's, and here is me, a bit too big to sit on Santa's knee in about 1951 in Chapples Basement toy department(I'm sure everyone has a photo just like this one).
Chapples founded in 1915 as a family dry goods and ladies fashion store soon expanded to becoming Fort William's(now Thunder Bay) premier department store with branches throughout NW Ontario communities. They later built the "home store" shown above. Sadly Chapples closed for business in 1981 after an incredible run of business for almost 70 years.
.....The script of a radio program in 1950 sponsored by Chapples Stores Ltd in Nov and Dec 1950 entitled "The Santa Claus Show" was broadcast over the CKPR Radio airwaves in installments at 6:15 - 6:30 pm nightly except Sundays and had also been put on at the Orpheum Theatre as a stage show. However, on Dec 1, 1951 a much larger show was to be played out at the Fort William Gardens featuring such characters as "George the Porter" and "Suzie Snowflake". A single show at 10:15 am that day attracted about 4000 people as well as hundreds of performers from the Sylvia Horne School of Dancing.
This show continued annually at the Gardens until about 1962, however, the 44th annual Chapples Christmas Santa Claus Show in 1954 had attracted over 12,000 kids over two shows at 9 and 11 am.
....The letter and envelope below(an answer to my letter to Santa) was actually received just before the last Chapples show that was held at the Orpheum Theatre in 1950. My dear mother and I had saved the Chapples Santa picture above plus this wonderful(oh yes...pure advertising) letter from Chapples Limited in 1950 for nearly 60 years especially to share with you!(now that's really pure advertising...LOL)

I love the postmark........SNOW PALACE 1950 NORTH POLE!

Now here are a couple of old fuzzy pictures...the one on the left being Chapples Dept. Store (The Grain Exchange building as it was called as well), on the corner of Victoria Ave and Syndicate Ave(now mostly inside Victoriaville) was there many years before the home store was built.

The one on the right is the Orpheum Theatre(where about 40 some years of the Chapples Santa Claus show was held before being moved to the FW Gardens) which was on the corner of Victoria Ave and Archibald Street(now the parking lot for Centennial Square). The left end of the theatre(two story building) would be about where the doors are located for the west end of the present day Victoriaville Mall.
Please click on all photos to enlarge.

The Times Journal, Fort William,Ontario...with a cool Model "T" Ford in front!

The Times Journal building and original business was owned by T.W. Rutledge and Dave Smith and located here at 115 North May Street. In November 1899 the company purchased the presses and assets of the recently defunct Fort William Journal and combined the two papers together known as "The Daily Times-Journal". In 1906 a new building was constructed on the original site in the Queen Anne Style. The new building was two storeys high, and the front was originally rented to J. W. Crooks & Co. for a drug store and in later years was a series of cafes called the T&H, Palace, Boulevard and Superior. The Times-Journal business office was at the rear of the building with entry from the lane and the second floor was the editorial office, typecasting machines and the book and job printing departments, with the large new presses being in the basement. This building housed the first power driven freight elevator in the entire city of Fort William. Later a more northerly addition was built and although owned by Superior Printing for years was not occupied by newspaper staff until 1960.
In 1972 the Times-Journal and News-Chronicle amalgamated(two years after the two cities did), and the operation became one at the Port Arthur ward plant. After 73 years as a printing establishment the building was converted to an office block replacing the entire facade with a stone commercial design featuring art deco design. The building now houses the popular "Victoria's Cupboard" featuring elegant home decor and gifts.


Here is an original paper bag in my collection as well as a front and inside copy of a Paper Boy's greeting to his customers for the Christmas season.

The following is an example of how the paper looked in the beginning(not too clear...sorry) and also some of the incredible headlines that were printed there. I was a paper boy for the Times-Journal in about 1952 and it was actually my first money making job. I remember that I had a small 20 paper route and made about $1.00 a week doing it....that money went a long way in those days, but you worked very hard for it.


Thanks for looking and be sure to click on each photo for a larger image.