Sarnia, Ontario – My Top 20 Picks
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.
303 Brock Street North – Victorian home – 1895 – Sarnia Book 1
283 Brock Street North – 1900 – Queen Anne – turret, curved verandah
270 Brock Street North – 1890 – Georgian
191 Brock Street South – Gothic Revival – 1890
435 Christina Street North – 1890 – Gothic Revival – barge board trim on gable with stenciling, arched and rectangular windows with voussoirs
127 Christina Street South – Lawrence Family mansion – Mr. Lawrence was a lumberman – Queen Anne style – 1892
1031 Ellwood Avenue – 1890 – Edwardian – Sarnia Book 2
254 George Street – McCormack Funeral Home, Stewart Chapel – 1880 – Italianate – three bay two storey 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 transom
197 London Road, Mulberry House 1867 – Gothic/Georgian style – 1½ storey yellow brick home, stone foundation; centered on the façade is a frontispiece with a gable roof – Sarnia Book 3
223 London Road – 1880 – Italianate – three bay, two storey yellow brick house with a centered frontispiece topped by a gable with a semi-circular arch decorated with barge board
424 London Road – 1911 – gambrel roofed gables, sidelights and transom
312 London Road – 1922 – Georgian – dormers, transom window
144 Maria Street – Tudor style – Elizabethan Manor
329 Vidal Street North – vernacular, cornice return on gable, wide cornice overhang, fish scale patterning, dentil molding – Sarnia Book 4
280 Vidal Street North – 1872 – Gothic Revival, verge board trim on gables, voussoirs with keystones
279 Vidal Street North – Edwardian – 1900 – two-storey tower with cone-shaped cap
262 Vidal Street North – 1880 – French Canadian home – red and yellow brick detailing, gabled parapets, French bay window
251 Vidal Street North – late 1870s – Christian Science Church – bell-cast mansard roof – Second Empire style, vousoirs and keystones, cornice brackets
240 Vidal Street North – 1900 – Victorian – 3-storey tower with conical roof covered with cedar shingles, fish scale patterning in gable
183 Vidal Street South – Queen Anne – three-storey turret with cone shaped roof
