Tag: South Porcupine

South Porcupine Burns, 1911

Carrying the dead, Porcupine fire, 1911. Image: Arthur Tomkinson / Library and Archives Canada / PA-029806.
South Porcupine burning, July 11, 1911. Image: Henry Peters / Library and Archives Canada / PA-029808
Storm and fire in Porcupine, 1911. Image: Canada. Patent and Copyright Office / Library and Archives Canada / PA-029820
Refugees embarking in a boat on Porcupine Lake to escape from the flames of the Great Forest Fire of 1911. Image: Toronto Star / Library and Archives Canada / PA-179598.
The Porcupine Fire, 1911. Image: Canada. Patent and Copyright Office / Library and Archives Canada / PA-203588.

When you grow up in South Porcupine, one of the early historic lessons learned is about the Great Fire of 1911. In addition to burning more than 200,000 hectares of Northeastern Ontario and killing 70, it also levelled the two young mining settlements in the area, Pottsville and South Porcupine.

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Update: Porcupine General Hospital (1938) and the Tisdale Municipal Building (1940)

The Tisdale Municipal Building as it appeared in the local papers. Source: Porcupine Advance, September 26, 1940, p. 5.
The Tisdale Municipal Building as it appeared in the local papers. Source: Porcupine Advance, September 26, 1940, p. 5.

Almost two weeks ago, I wrote a short story about the Tisdale Municipal Building in South Porcupine. While I was able to get an architect and speak a little about the context, that was about as far as it went. If you’ve followed along on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, you’ll see that I’ve just returned from a trip to Toronto, where I spent time at the Archives of Ontario. While I was there to do some research for my thesis, I took the opportunity to peruse some of the pages of the Porcupine Advance.

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Tisdale Municipal Building (1940)

Tisdale Municipal Building, Main street facade. Image: Google Maps, September 2009.
Tisdale Municipal Building, Bloor Avenue facade. Courts and Council wing entrance. Image: Google Maps, September 2009.
Tisdale Municipal Building, rear facade. Image: Google Maps, September 2009.
Tisdale Municipal Building, Shamrock street facade. Administration entrance. Image: Google Maps, September 2009.

When I was growing up in South Porcupine, the Tisdale Municipal Building was always an interesting one. The white stucco, though worn by the 1980s, glistened defiantly in the sunlight. When I would walk the single block from my family’s Bloor Avenue apartment with my mom, she’d often point out that my grandfather had worked out of an office in there in property assessment.1Brian Ehman. See Diane Armstrong. “A Proud Community,” Timmins Times, July 27, 2011. When I began to notice the building, it was more than a decade past Tisdale Township’s amalgamation into the City of Timmins2See John Slinger. “1,000 square miles: Timmins biggest city in McKeough plans,” Globe and Mail, June 13, 1972, p. 1; “New challenge for Timmins,” Globe and Mail, October 9, 1972, p. 6. and after hosting the new city’s engineering department for a short period, it was sold off and converted into apartments.

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Notes

Notes
↥1 Brian Ehman. See Diane Armstrong. “A Proud Community,” Timmins Times, July 27, 2011.
↥2 See John Slinger. “1,000 square miles: Timmins biggest city in McKeough plans,” Globe and Mail, June 13, 1972, p. 1; “New challenge for Timmins,” Globe and Mail, October 9, 1972, p. 6.