View Full Version : Mitchell, Ontario (My Hometown) Tour: September 2005


Jaybird
September 2nd, 2005, 03:40 AM
Yeah, I know you guys have already seen pictures of my hometown of Mitchell, Ontario, 20 km west of Stratford on Highway 8, but that was in the WINTER time. Now you'll get to see what it looks like in the SUMMER time! The WINTER pics I had didn't do much JUSTICE for my town of 4,000+ and growing! I took all these pictures September 1st. Look for them soon to replace the current Mitchell pictures on Trillium Photography, possibly. :)

Start our tour first at the Howie Morenz Gardens... named after the Montreal Canadiens player born in this town...
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Cute gazebo overlooking the Thames River...
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Tourist Information Booth and nice little garden with Fountain with the old clock tower bell, from the old post office torn down in 1974...
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The Founding of Mitchell...
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And here are the very few mansion/old homes in my town...
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This is the oldest surviving house in Mitchell, called DUNELG. It was built in 1876 by John Hicks, who opened and built the Hicks House hotel, Mitchell's most beloved and famous building downtown
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Mansion with gates
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Building on the right, the old Royal Hotel, where John A. MacDonald, Canada's first prime minister stayed in 1891 once, and sometimes gets ruined by the stupid pigeons. However, it is being renovated and improved by new landlords. Too bad the awnings at the bottom is aluminum!
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The Gem of Mitchell, the Hicks House Hotel (now Luxury Apartments)
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UGH! An ugly building left to rot by an idiot landlord in town named DODIER! MMM! Godfathers again!
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Stone Cairn commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Huron Tract (Huron Road) from Goderich to Guelph.
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Sadly, the shoe store and furniture store there closed recently, not because of declining business, but Smyth's, because the small chain's president died and the operations have ceased and Lockhart Furniture, because they operate a funeral home here in town and sold the store.
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The block where Lily's Chinese Restaurant and a Craft Store are on are owned by that Dodier Guy as well, what a horrid landlord!
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Our modern (but kinda cheesy) new post office where a grand post office and clock tower used to stand until torn down in 1974.
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Memorial Cenotaph
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Cute Victorian house, now a beauty salon business
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Here is a mural of the grand old clock tower before it was torn down, sadly.
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Mural of Howie Morenz
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Public Library
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Tallest church in our town
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This Rotary Park has a little bit of history. Believe it or not, there used to be a huge shoe factory here back in the old days (1920s), before it became just a warehouse in the 1980s and was consumed by fire in 1987 and was remade into a little park recently.
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Parmalat Factory, this was once the home of a huge independent butter and milk company, Stacey Bros., until it was sold to parmalat 7 years ago.
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Now, here are some good things about our town, here is a bit of growth happening in the west end, all these houses on this street were built this year
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These houses/condominiums were built just last year near the golf course.
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These shots are at the southwest end of town, a new street is gonna be built and this part of town is poised to grow into a residential subdivision
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New homes and a couple of cul-de-sacs just off Highway 23 in the south end of Mitchell, man this town is growing!
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Here's a few great vintage views of downtown and the nature trail of Mitchell from the hill on Highway 23 going North...
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A nice fountain in the middle of the Thames River, visible from the Main Street bridge and the Dam
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Nice nature trail
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Town Hall of Mitchell
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Crystal Palace, recently became an Ontario Agricultural Historic Monument
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This weekend is also the Mitchell Fall Fair, the self-proclaimed "BIGGEST LITTLE FAIR IN ONTARIO", so here it is being setup
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The Arena
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Yup, those are more construction machines at the north end of town, another subdivision of like 25 lots is gonna be built here, so Mitchell is growing pretty darn good for a small town and is the fastest growing town outside of Stratford in Perth and Huron counties.
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Hope you enjoyed my SUMMER tour of my town of Mitchell, SMALL WORLD! :)

Steeltown
September 2nd, 2005, 06:10 AM
Whoa that's a lot of pictures jaybird!

What's Mitchell main source of employment? Petroleum industry?

Mitchell looks like a great town.

Jaybird
September 2nd, 2005, 07:49 AM
Mitchell's main employer is agriculture, like grain silos and elevators, including FS and W.G. Thompson and Sons, Parmalat Canada, and Cooper-Standard Automotive, Mitchell's largest employer makers of auto parts for Chrysler cars. We also just got a new farm equipment distribution centre with other locations in Illinois and Michigan. We also have a lot of construction companys and services. We used to also have a hog processing plant here in town, but it closed and the property is now for sale, so don't know what's gonna happen with that. Hope it's anything good, our town can use it!

Another major employer in Mitchell is quite interesting. You know those uniquely designed concrete/cement gates or fences along expressways or highways or streets that sometimes are used as medians or used as sound barriers between residential neighborhoods and busy freeways, a company called Durisol, Inc. based in this town, makes all of those!

Mitchell's nice and quiet in the summer, but the winter it's a little different. It doesn't seem so nice. Small world, I tell ya! When I tell a lot of people I am from Mitchell, say always say "it's a growing town".

Sadly, though, it is rumoured that Cooper-Standard is closing a plant in North America and Mitchell is on that list. So if the Mitchell plant closes, that would be devastating for our small local economy. I hope and pray, that does not happen.

Oaronuviss
September 2nd, 2005, 10:14 AM
Lovely Jay!

Goku
September 2nd, 2005, 03:18 PM
quite a nice town...thanks for sharing the pics!

xzmattzx
September 2nd, 2005, 05:32 PM
nice town. the golf course looks nice.

Jaybird
September 2nd, 2005, 08:02 PM
Yeah, thanks everyone for the comments of my town. I appreciate them, I know the town is not much right now, but it's growing and we are not isolated by any means... so those are good things.