Sarnia is a city in Southwestern Ontario located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron flows into the St. Clair River, which forms the Canada-United States border, directly across from Port Huron, Michigan. It is the largest city on Lake Huron. The city’s natural harbor first attracted the French explorer LaSalle, who named the site “The Rapids” when he had horses and men pull his forty-five-ton barque “Le Griffon” up the almost four-knot current of the St. Clair River in August 1679. This was the first time anything other than a canoe or other oar-powered vessel had sailed into Lake Huron.
Captain Richard Emeric Vidal (1784-1854), one of the founders of Sarnia nurtured the little settlement for twenty years from his first visit in 1834. His wife, Charlotte Penrose Mitton (1790-1873) lived her last forty years in Sarnia and three streets bear her name (Charlotte, Penrose, and Mitton Streets).
Paul Blundy was born in Sarnia in 1918. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy in World War II. Following the war, he co-founded the McKenzie & Blundy Funeral Home. Paul served four years as a member of the Hydro-electric Commission, twenty years as a member of Sarnia City Council, eight of them as mayor. During his time on City Council, he was a strong advocate for the redevelopment of the waterfront. From 1977 to 1981, he served as M.P.P. for Sarnia. He died in 1992.
191 Brock Street South – Gothic Revival – 1890435 Christina Street North – 1890 – Gothic Revival – barge board trim on gable with stenciling, arched and rectangular windows with voussoirs254 George Street – McCormack Funeral Home, Stewart Chapel – 1880 – Italianate – three bay two story yellow brick building with a central frontispiece topped by a gable with projecting eaves; gable has a blinded round window; brick voussoirs over windows with carved oak leaf keystone; semi-elliptical brick arch doorway with a shared transom197 London Road, Mulberry House 1867 – Gothic/Georgian style – 1½ story yellow brick home, stone foundation; centered on the facade is a frontispiece with a gable roof – Sarnia Book 3223 London Road – 1880 – Italianate – three bay, two story yellow brick house with a centered frontispiece topped by a gable with a semi-circular arch decorated with barge board424 London Road – 1911 – gambrel roofed gables, sidelights and transom312 London Road – 1922 – Georgian – dormers, transom window144 Maria Street – Tudor style – Elizabethan Manor329 Vidal Street North – vernacular, cornice return on gable, wide cornice overhang, fish scale patterning, dentil molding – Sarnia Book 4280 Vidal Street North – 1872 – Gothic Revival, verge board trim on gables, voussoirs with keystones262 Vidal Street North – 1880 – French Canadian home – red and yellow brick detailing, gabled parapets, French bay window251 Vidal Street North – late 1870s – Christian Science Church – bell-cast mansard roof – Second Empire style, vousoirs and keystones, cornice brackets127 Christina Street South – Lawrence Family mansion – Mr. Lawrence was a lumberman – Queen Anne style – 1892303 Brock Street North – Victorian home – 1895 – Sarnia Book 1283 Brock Street North – 1900 – Queen Anne – turret, curved verandah279 Vidal Street North – Edwardian – 1900 – two-story tower with cone-shaped cap240 Vidal Street North – 1900 – Victorian – 3-storey tower with conical roof covered with cedar shingles, fish scale patterning in gable183 Vidal Street South – Queen Anne – three-story turret with cone shaped roof1031 Ellwood Avenue – 1890 – Edwardian – Sarnia Book 2270 Brock Street North – 1890 – Georgian
