Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by Marcel Rousseau.
Some were previously published by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and in the book Postcard Memories Orillia.
In the 1920s vehicles parked at a slight angle in downtown Orillia as shown in the photo looking toward the lake on Mississaga Street East.
Angle parking, with the right wheel to the curb, was a necessity, for the brakes on many of these cars could not be trusted, especially on a steep hill.
The first car on the right is a mid 1920s Overland and the third car is a 1924 Model T runabout giving us a time frame of about 1928.
A large steamboat can be seen docked at the foot of the street a short distance from Front Street. This was a time before much of the waterfront was filled in.
The first building on the left is the Palace Livery and Taxi. On the right is the A. L. Rom Clothing store that changed to G. H. Rom Clothing by 1933.
Soos Café was located at 119 Mississaga St. E. in the early 1920s and changed its name to the Star Café around 1936. Gin Seto owned the Star Café and after renovations in the early 1950’s changed the name to the Shangri-La Gardens, now the location of the Brewery Bay Restaurant.
Next door to Soos Café at 121 Mississaga St. E. was W. G. Thompson Billiards, later M. J. Morris Billiards. This location was a popular billiard hall for close to 60 years before fire destroyed the building in the late 1970s.
