While some may be gearing up for summer vacation, this week we couldn’t help but think about the hotels that lined the streets of the past.
With the roaring success of the mines, heads turned to the attention of our booming little region. Following a Toronto Star article, the Porcupine Advance published an article praising the Porcupine for its vast variety of hotels. Just one year after the great fire in 1911, the town replaced tents with permanent buildings filled with businesses. They praised the community for its quick recovery saying, “It is a twentieth-century example of the phoenix rising from its ashes – a town such South Porcupine is, with its population of men of strong purpose, could never sleep in its ashes.”
Porcupine by the summer of 1912, had more good hotels than any place of its size in Ontario. Many beautiful theatres and hotels were built across the Porcupine including the City Hotel in 1911. Many other familiar hotels may include, the Palace Hotel, Goldfields Hotel, Hotel Kingston, King George Hotel and many, many more. Another reputable hotel that gained attention was Hotel Connaught. Just down the street from the T & N.O. railway station in South Porcupine, this hotel was one of the most up-to-date hotels of its kind in Canada. More on this hotel next week!
Each week, the Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre provides TimminsToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.
Find out more of what the Timmins museum has to offer here and read more Remember This columns here.
