The Gateway Motel was named such because it was one of the first motels you’d reach when arriving to Canada via the Peace Bridge from the USA. The reviews for the motel were below average. We visited this location during May of 2015 on one of my user meetups. At that time the beds were made up and the front desk looked ready to accept check-ins. Today the property has been demolished. It was located at 315 Garrison Rd in Fort Erie. The Niagara Shoe Factory next door was also open. Inside we discovered an expensive motorcycle under a blanket….

The Food ‘N’ Foam was owned and operated by businessman Jim McNiven and his wife Kay. Jim had experience in operating a restaurant, having previously owned the McNiven’s Dairy Bar in Talbotville. Food N Foam began operating in 1961 and was located at 9844 Sunset Drive in St. Thomas. The business was well known for their foot long hot hogs. Each summer Jim would order 35,000 hot dogs and 5,000 six-inch hot dog containers. The buns were grilled using real butter. Where does the word foam in the business’ name come from? The restaurant’s claim was that they had “Canada’s…

The three -storey Capital Theatre in the City of Brampton was built in 1922 based on a design by Toronto architects Herbert George Duerr and B. Kingston Hall. Financing for the theatre came from Thomas Moorehead, who spent $6,000 for construction(*) of the theatre. Mr. Moorehead would later become a Peel County Court Magistrate (judge).The theatre first opened for business on February 28, 1923 with an initial capacity of 714 people(*) which was considered quite large considering that the population of Brampton was 5,000 people. The cost of admission was .15 cents for a child, .30 cents for an adult…

Prudhommes Landing Inn was located on 80 acres of land in Vineland, Ontario close to the shores of Lake Ontario. It was a popular vacation getaway for tourists.It all began in 1948 when brothers John and George Prudhomme built a fifteen room motel. By 1960 they had expanded the motel to 180 rooms. A restaurant on the grounds had eight dining rooms and five dance floors.An amusement park was built on the property that included bumper boats, bumper cars, go-karts with a 1/4 mile track, a Tilt-A-Whirl, roller skating, putting greens, a children’s playground, a sandy beach and a video game…

This Holiday Inn hotel was constructed from factory-produced concrete boxes built in the shape and size of an individual hotel room. The boxes were trucked in and stacked into place with a crane where they were tied to the other structures. Construction was completed by 1970, when the Holiday Inn opened. The large lobby offered many amenities that many hotels of today do not: sauna, whirlpool, tennis court, billiards room and even a barber & beauty shop. There was an exercise room and two lounges (Café Monterey and Cascades Lounge) that served up daily cuisine. There were 16 conference and…

The Mohawk Inn and Conference Centre opened on June 3, 1967 as a Colonial style Inn. It was built by Bert Day in 1967 as a Centennial project.  The Days had become interested in Canadian antiques while up north and filled the inn with beautiful Canadian glassware, china and other items. The staff was outfitted in a deep burgundy, special Centennial tartan.  The motel began with 26 rooms, a restaurant that could seat 78 people, coffee shop that could seat 95 people, a lounge that could seat 50 and a meeting room for 60 people. It was considered to be…

The Town and Country Restaurant began as a classy eatery that was popular among Woodstock residents.The business later changed owners and renamed to the Iron Grill. The last change in ownership occurred in September of 2007 when Toronto businessman Umakanth Nadarajah purchased the business for approximately $1 million dollars. Flooding at the Iron Grill during the summer of 2009 led to the restaurant being closed for three weeks while contractors repaired the damage. On the evening of August 12, 2009 at approximately 10 PM an explosion occurred at the Iron Grill. The Oxford Community Police Service, Woodstock Fire Services and…

The Pines Motel was located at 395 Centennial Parkway North in the City of Hamilton. It was a single floor economy motel with rooms starting at $75 per night. The owner lived in a building also on site. The property was demolished around 2015.

Planet Night Club was located at 10 Windward Drive, between two large hotels in the town of Grimsby. It would have been a night club for local residents and hotel guests, except that it never opened it’s doors. The rumour is that the owner ran out of funds for the property.When I explored, it was evident that construction had stopped midway. Electrical outlets had exposed wiring, heating ducts were hanging from the ceiling and worker’s tools were left behind including scissor lift and a ladder.The club was elegant with a 60 foot granite counter top and marble tiled walls and…

Roseland Lanes Limited began operations in 1959 in a building located at 422 Guelph Line in Burlington. The bowling alley offered five pin bowling. When Roseland Bowl announced that they were closing on May 15, 2017, they were the only provider of five pin bowling in the city. The Burlington Thunderbirds program provides recreational five-pin bowling for a group of athletes who participate in the Bowl Canada Special Olympics each year. The group had used Roseland Bowl for over 20 years. The closure of Roseland led to Burlington Bowl to add eight 5-pin lanes to their existing fourty 10-pin bowling…