2014 by Glenn Ogilvie for The Sarnia Journal THEN Hundreds of milling residents can be seen surveying the wreckage in this aerial photo, taken May 21, 1953, just hours after a powerful tornado ripped through Sarnia’s downtown. The twister damaged 250 buildings, left dozen of families homeless and caused $5-million [...]
by Brian Bolt for the Sarnia (2001) In its glory days in the late 1800s, the former Belchamber Hotel building was a downtown Sarnia landmark reputed to be one of the finest hotels in Ontario. Today, while the historic four-storey building at 178 Front St. N. isn’t about to revisit [...]
By Jean Elford for the Sarnia Gazette (1961) Everyone familiar with downtown Sarnia refers to building number 176 on the east side of Front Street south of Lochiel as the Belchamber. It has been called that ever since James Belchamber had it built as a hotel in 1866. The name [...]
by Tara Jeffrey for the Sarnia Observer (2014) Chris Hadfield was at his family’s Stag Island cottage when he watched the television coverage of the first moon landing in July 1969. That’s when he decided he wanted to be an astronaut. Thirty-two years later, dressed in a white spacesuit with [...]
By Jeffrey M. Rottman While investigating the history behind the Jewish Community of Sarnia, I have realized that it is an on-going experience with so many variables. Having lost valuable references through death or relocation, of important members of our community, I can only surmise. I will endeavor to tell [...]
by the Sarnia Gazette (1978) In 1880, there were about 6,000 people living in the Town of Sarnia which was described as a thriving railway and shipping centre having an extensive waterworks and sewerage system, a horse-drawn street railway between Sarnia and Point Edward, a number of industries, including a [...]
by Jim Blake for the Sarnia Gazette (1978) “We played for the fun of it and we played the full 60 minutes per game. The only way you got off the field was if you got your neck broken, your arm broken, or your brains kicked out.” So says 74 [...]
by the Sarnia Gazette (1970) When General Ulysses S. Grant stayed overnight in Point Edward [Editor’s Note: in 1865] he had a choice of six hotels…one of which was the Holder’s Hotel on Michigan Avenue…still going strong today as a popular oasis for village and other beer drinkers. Built in [...]
by Jean Elford for the Sarnia Gazette (1971) When a small ship flounders in a Great Lakes storm, there is generally not a sailor left to tell what happened. In a tragic loss of the Kate Bully on October 4, 1869, however, four of the crew of ten survived the [...]
by George Mathewson for The Sarnia Journal (2014) City councillors seemed to surprise even themselves last week by granting the condemned Cull Drain Bridge a second chance at life. In a unanimous vote, city council agreed to spend $230,000 to demolish the bridge but save its steel trusses, which will [...]
