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 1870, John Dean moved to Orillia and started a boat-building business at the foot of Mississaga Street, east of the town dock.
John’s son moved to Toronto and started the Walter Dean Canoe and Boat Co. in 1888, at Sunnyside.
Walters’s son, Edgar, was born in 1893 and, being the son of a boat builder, was not allowed to paddle in any races held by the Canadian Canoe Association until the rules changed in 1914.
After that, Edgar was on nine Canadian championship teams.
John Dean conducted a successful business in Orillia until his death in 1894. Mrs. Dean then managed the boat building and rental business on Orillia’s waterfront for many years.
The old Dean Boathouse stood on piles, well out on the water south of the town dock, until it collapsed about 1957.
This souvenir postcard, dated 1907, shows two Dean canoes racing in the Henley Regatta Aug. 4 1906, with the Toronto Canoe Club placing first and Orillia second.
