Welcome to Wayback Wednesday sponsored by Cavalcade Color Lab! Every week, we’ll be sharing a vintage photo and asking our readers to chime in with anything you can recall about the photo, other related memories, or even a funny caption. Have some vintage photos of your own? Send them to [email protected] and we may share them with our readers! Scroll waaaaay down to see last week’s photo.
It’s Wayback Wednesday! Do you know why and where this collection of boats has gathered? Can you guess the date? (Photo: Muskoka Heritage Place collection)
Wayback Wednesday is sponsored by Cavalcade Color Lab
Ted Turner adds: “If I remember correctly, the Dominion Hotel was bought by a man named Massiola who came from Timmins. He had it torn in the 1940s and built the Empire Hotel in its place.” (Almost, Ted – see below.)
Victoria Birchill Morgan commented via Facebook: “Love love love the wooden sidewalks and the ramps to get to them.”
Barry Groomes guessed the date is the 1890s
Gibson David commented, “That retro look could still work today, a mixed use structure. Better than an empty lot.”
We know that the wood sidewalks began to be replaced in 1908 and that the Dominion’s owners converted the hotel from frame to brick in about 1902 (see a photo of the old, wood Jacobs Hotel below), placing the date this photo was taken likely somewhere between 1902-1908.
The Dominion changed hands several times over the years. In 1902, it was owned by the McLaughlins, who later sold it to Bob McNairney. Sometime before 1922, it transferred hands again to Bruce Simmons, who began building a new wing on the hotel. In 1945, Simmons sold the hotel to Louis Mascioli. The Mascioli family changed the name to the Empire Hotel in 1948 when they built a four-storey addition. (Details courtesy of Huntsville: With Spirit and Resolve by Susan Pryke.)
In this 1886 photo, the Jacobs Hotel is the large white building at right
If anyone has other information about this photo, comment below!
I was there for the 1958 races, I was 5 and I remember we were up at the top of the lookout my mom and I when that accident happened.
Boats galore. The year of this photo is either 1948 or 49. Location is Camp Kitchen, Memorial Park on Fairy Lake. Lots of American and Canadian hydroplanes were in action. Canadian greats, Bill Braden, Art Hatch and Art Asbury saw action. The steamer Algonquin was the starting barge and also held many spectators. I was lucky enough to see all the exciting action during the Duke of York races held at the same local in 1958 & 59. The 1958 event sadly ended in tragedy as Bill Braden was killed.