The Thunder Bay City Records and Archives is giving free tours this week as part of National Archives Week. What you see above is a photograph of the original property assessment book for the city of Fort William from 1915. You will notice a familiar name, “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” the famous author of the Sherlock Holmes series. The famous author owned property in Fort William. The property was commercial land he purchased as an investment because he believed the city of Fort William and Port Arthur had the potential to become the biggest city in North America, a rival to places like Chicago. In fact, in his auto biography he provides a half a page manifesto of his confidence in the twin cities. Doyle was on his way to Winnipeg to give a lecture (he decline to an invitation to give a lecture in Port Arthur). His train was a bit late so he was wandering around Fort William and liked what he saw, so he purchased a bit of a land. I believe it costs him about $12,000.
The property was sold in 1965 by his estate and is the current site of Holland Bakery on Victoria Avenue (by that time the value went down, so his estate tried to hold on to it for a while to make money off of rental income).
The archives have some other interesting articles on Doyle, including a two page interview with the author that appeared in the Times-Journal. In the second half of the article, Doyle talks about his beliefs in spiritualism. Once I get a copy of his auto biography I will post his quote about Fort William and Port Arthur.
The archives is giving tours every day this week at 11am, 12pm and 1pm.
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