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Downtown Port Arthur is the urban core of Port Arthur. This is where the rough draft of its article will be written.

  • Urban growth in the Lakehead was centred on three focal points. The first was Westfort, known then as "the Town Plot". Located on the Kaministiquia River 7km upstream from its mouth, Westfort was the early favourite for development in the Lakehead after being designated by the Canadian Government as the Lake Superior terminus for the Transcontinental railway. This changed in 1883 when the government transferred responsibility for financing the railway to the private Canadian Pacific Railway, which relocated the terminus to the McKellar area, 6km downstream. A second node was developed at this new terminus on land originally owned by the McKellar Family. Centred on the intersection of Simpson Street and Victoria Avenue, this node would be chosen as the administrative centre of Fort William when the town was incorporated in 1893. A third node was the community of Prince Arthur's Landing. Located 5 miles north of the McKellar area, it formed along Cumberland and Water streets, and would become the centre of the town of Port Arthur upon its incorporation in 1884.[1]
  • Port Arthur in 1885 was confined to the area west of Banning and College streets, north of Bay Street, and south of Dawson Street and McVicar Creek. At first, growth spread north and south from the core along the street railway.[2]
  • The area between McVicar Creek and River Street is the "McVicars Addition", and includes what is now the "Harrington Avenue - Ray Court Heritage District". The "O'Brien Addition" was the area located south of Downtown, between Bay Street and John Street, east of Banning. The "Russel Addition" is the area between Red River Road and River Street, east of Pine Street and west of High Street.[3]
  • An example of Port Arthur's optimism is evident in a 1914 map of the city, which includes an area labelled "Prince Arthur Heights" covering much of what is today County Park and Grandview Gardens, and located north of that area is Lancaster Heights and Superior Heights, five kilometres from the CBD. Some streets were laid out, such as Lancaster Avenue, but full scale development of those areas never came to fruition. The area that would have been Lancaster Heights and Superior Heights is today home to little more than 200 people.[4]
  • The street railway extension to the intersection of Hodder Avenue and Arundel Street opened in 1912. By 1920, Current River has only 100 homes on 17 streets.[5]
  • Development of the Mariday Park area was slower than in the area along south Windemere, Empress and Kenogami avenues. As a result, that part of the city actually grew toward the core, not away from it.[6]
  • Port Arthur had less municipal involvement in subdivision planning, as the city's displaced growth resulted in large quantities of vacant lots in existing areas. Demand for modern subdivisions didn't come until 1956, several years later than in Fort William. Several streets in the Mariday Park area have conspicuous amounts of wartime housing, and much of the north end of Port Arthur had grid streets laid out prior to the 1950s that were not completely developed until the 1960s.[7]
  • When demand for modern suburbs in Port Arthur began in the mid-1950s, the private sector played the leading role. As the municipality owned much of the land beyond the urban area, developing subdivisions in Port Arthur was much less difficult than in Fort William. A private company would buy land for its subdivision, with a clause issuing a time limit for development and requiring a certain number of lots to be sold to individuals to hire their own contractors if they so desired, to prevent companies buying land for speculative purposes. The private land owners would have a minimum size for homes built in their subdivisions, which removed uncertainty over what may be built beside existing homes. These measures resulted in more homogeneous streetscapes than the older parts of the city.
    Headway, a Port Arthur development company, developed the 150 lot subdivision Grandview Gardens East located around CD Howe Public School in 1956. Two years later the company would develop the 196 lot subdivision which was then known as "Patricia Park" on the opposite side of River Street. In 1964, they developed Grandview Gardens West, located southwest of Grandview Gardens East. Development in Forest Park began in 1959, in the area north of Windsor Street and between Clarkson and Algonquin. Development south of Windsor Street took place in 1962.
    Lakehead Holdings Limited developed St. Joseph's Co-operative in the 1960s. Located north of River Street, east of Elm Street and west of McVicar Creek, it was described as "one of the loveliest tracts of residential land in Western Canada" because of its irregular terrain and views of the lake. It was laid out by V. J. Kostka of the University of Manitoba Faculty of Architecture. The plan consisted of 101 lots on narrow crescent streets and cul-de-sacs, but the Port Arthur Planning Board forced the inclusion of wider streets and a decrease to 85 lots. The intended exclusiveness of the area is indicated by covenants stating that homes could not be less than 1000sqft, and the typical price of a dwelling was 15 to 25 thousand dollars, compared to 13 to 18 thousand dollars in Grandview Gardens. St. Joseph's is unique in North America in that it is rare to see a modern suburb so close to the central business district.[8]
  • Like St. Joseph's Co-operative, the street layout in Jumbo Gardens is unique for its location. While St. Joseph's is a suburban style subdivision close to the core, Jumbo Gardens has a grid plan almost 5 kilometres away from the core, and is surrounded by modern subdivisions. Homes had been built in the area as early as the 1930s, which made it almost impossible to develop a modern subdivision in the area. Like many other areas of Port Arthur at the time, Jumbo Gardens had many vacant lots which were developed into the 1980s. As a result, there is an unusual combination of building styles spanning three quarters of a century.[9]

[edit] Downtown Port Arthur

The Heart of the Harbour, downtown Port Arthur is centred on Red River Road and Cumberland Street. Downtown Port Arthur is the location of Marina Park.

Downtown Port Arthur is home to Waverly Park and Connaught Square, and the new location of Magnus Theatre. OLG Casino Thunder Bay is located in the southern portion of the neighbourhood at the corner of Park and Cumberland, and area sometimes referred to as "the Entertainment District" due to its many bars and nightclubs.

Harrington Avenue - Ray Court Heritage District is centred along Ray Court and Harrington Avenue. A historically significant neighbourhood.

Apollo

Downtown PA

Gargoyles

Heart of the Harbour

Matthews House

Kilroy's

Masonic Hall

Maudslay Court

McVicar Manor

Old Building

OLG Casino

Ontario Superior Court

Polish Alliance

Port Arthur Skyline

Prince Arthur Hotel

Prospector Steak House

RBC

Red River Road

Regency Court

Ruttan Block

St. Joseph's Hospital

Thunder Bay Marina

Waverley Park tower

Hydro Building

Hydro Building

[edit] Bay and Algoma

Bay and Algoma is known for its European community. The neighbourhood is home to large populations from Scandinavia, especially Finland; Italy; and Poland. The Finnish community is most prominent, with the neighbourhood being the location of the Finnish Labour Temple and Hoito Restaurant. The Bay Street Film Festival and is annual film festival held in the neighbourhood in September.

Bay Street

Beside the Madhouse

Scandinavian House