Some images from my recent visit to my old hometown featuring West Street which borders the Welland Canal. West Street was once on my paper route.
Canal Days, West Street, Port Colborne, Ontario
Canal Days is an annual summer festival celebrating the town’s important function as a strategic port on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Featured above is the triple masted schooner Empire Sandy and an American replica of a war of 1812 naval frigate.
Heritage architecture on West Street
VIKING POLARIS
Moden tour ships now ply the waters of the Great Lakes duing the summer months. Port Colborne is now a mandatory stop for passenges who wish to visit Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake and the vineyards of the Niagara peninsula in luxury buses. Quite a change from the old days when steam driven, smoke belching, lake freighters would dock here to buy coal from my uncle’s old coal dock!!
Modern Condos
Port Colborne real estate has exploded in the aftermath of Covid as Toronto pandemic refugees found that they could work from home and avoid the daily hassle of Toronto traffic. Penthouse condos with canal views go for more than $1million.
CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS
West Street’s oldest house dating from the 1830s now a comfortable inn.