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.
Construction started on the Swift Rapids Generating Station in 1913, but with the outbreak of war in 1914, work was interrupted.
As the factories in Orillia gained contracts for munitions and other work, the need for completing the power plant became urgent and the Swift Rapids Plant was completed in 1917.
Three horizontal turbines of 2,000 horsepower each was expected to look after Orillia’s power needs for many years.
Overseeing the expansion and completion of the Orillia Power Plant were some of Orillia’s leading citizens, Mayor Robert Curran and Commissioners C. H. Hale, F. H. Horne, J. B. Tudhope and A. H. Waite.
Mr. George Page was superintendent until his retirement in 1946.
The photographer, J. W. Bald, operated a photographic studio in Midland starting in 1898 and published hundreds of postcards of the Georgian Bay area including the Severn River. Bald died in 1961 in his 94th year.
