The postcard above was postmarked in 1948, however it is likely a much older photograph.
Tourist Camps were all the rage in the 1930’s as more and more people traveled around by car. Tourist camps were motor lodges where you rented a little hut in a campground type setting.
Here is the same scene as the postcard shot the other day.
The building looked to be similar to a General Store. Today, the building has been enlarged and a peaked roof added, and it is very much vacant, but there is no mistaking it.
Kavanagh’s also served as the Oldcastle Post office, and featured the products of Windsor’s Purity Dairy.
Interesting that the roof of the garage in the rear of the house on the property advertised the availability of gas.
No trace of the building’s history is visible today, but it is still interesting to note. There were hundreds of these kinds of camps all over Ontario in the days before the 400 series of highways were built. Kavanagh’s was right on Highway 3, which incidentally was the only Canadian Highway to begin and end at a US border crossing. The Highway once ran from the Ambassador Bridge at the Windsor/Detroit border to the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie/Buffalo.
Nice reminder of how road trip have changed since our parents’ and grandparents’ era of “motoring,” Andrew.
Actually, I still take Highway 3 most of the way to and from the Peace Bridge each summeras a preferred alternative to the monotony of 401’s ribbon. The bit of extra time is worth the small-town views of toboccao and tomato fields, drying huts, commercial floral growers, “Budgies for Sale” yard signs, brick churches, pioneer graveyards and other rewards of a “real” road.
There’s even a vintage gas pump or two to reinforce the nostalgia, though no Tourist Camp signs or rooftop gasoline ads.
Alan Stamm
Michigan
Also, where have all the trees gone? It looked a bit like an oasis before, now it looks bleak (the boarded up windows, not withstanding).
Alan> I took #3 back to Toronto last year (well, heading to the 401 around st. thomas). I was stunned at how many abandoned homesteads, farmhouses, etc there were. Some overlooking the lake. No time to stop on that trip — one of these will go back and explore more.
Unless I’m in a terrible hurry, I always take Hwy 3.
It is worth it to set aside a Sunday, get on the road early, and just take your time stopping at all the antique and curio shops, abandoned farm homes, roadside diners, etc. The strip from here to St. Thomas and back is a most pleasant road trip if you like that kinda thing.
Don’t forget to stop at Holland House for some homemade soup with your lunch!
You know… I have to go to St. Thomas tomorrow for work. You’ve all got me tempted to take #3 home…. 🙂
I miss the house about halfway between Wheatley and Blenheim that looked as if it was one windstorm away from falling into the lake (I’ve noticed its absence the last few times I’ve driven that stretch of 3).
Want a picture, Jamie? 😉
Reminds me of the little rural stores you’d see on a secondary state highway. Groceries, light lunches, a couple of Imperial gas pumps out front. Too bad interstates have driven these places to the same fate as the joy buzzer and the dribble glass.
This enterprise belonged to my grandfather’s brother and his wife, Albert and Marguerite Kavanagh; thanks for a little nostalgia!