Main Street 2
This photograph was submitted to Flin Flon Visual History book by Art Dodds showing the original Bell's Hardware in 1929. Since that period of time it went from a hardware to a confectionary and pool room, and today as shown in the above photograph, known as the Flin Flon Flooring Centre.
Next to The Orange Toad, which was once The Royal Drugs, there were four businesses which were destroyed by fire and water damage. There once was the Shamrock Meat Market owned and operated by Archie & Don Donaldson, next to their business was the Golden Gate Cafe, The Singer Building which housed a sewing centre and the long time notable Club News owned and operated by Jack Marantz & Johnny Myers. The fourth structure was Ross's Style Shop which was a men's wear store owned and operated by Eli Ross, also a long time Flin Flon merchant. When these four businesses were destroyed by fire, a lot of history and memories were removed forever from our Main Street. Shortly after the site was cleared and restored to a vacant lot, a government office was erected, which today houses Man Power and Immigration and other government services.
Today, directly across from the Subway Cafe, once known as Jack Freedman's Fall Inn, stands another landmark next to the Flin Flon Hotel which was once known as The Northern Cafe. This was a business which was operated 24 hours a day, almost 365 days a year. This was owned and operated by the Wong family. Flin Flon was no different than many other communities, without a Chinese restaurant, you would not of had a place to get a meal. They existed long before McDonalds, Subway, and many other fast food outlets. There is no doubt in my mind that the Chinese people have contributed a lot to the development of our communities and our country.
This image shows one of Flin Flon's first movie theatre's known as the Northland Theatre. In 1957 when I came to Flin Flon we had 3 movie theatre's and no television. Along with the Northland shown above, and also the Rex Theatre which was directly across the street where Warehouse One is located today, and in Creighton, Sask., there was the Paragon Theatre. In those days we got first line movies and in the summer months we went to the Big Island Drive-In theatre. The Big Island Drive-in still operates, and is probably one of the only drive-ins operating today in Canada. Last year it went under new ownership and was completely renovated, and will likely operate for a good many more years from May to Sept.
The second building in this image is Gateway Drugs. In 1957 when I arrived in Flin Flon, it was owned and operated by the Burkett family. They operated it for a good number of years, then sold it to Len & Merv Ginsberg, they in turn sold it to Super Thrifty Drug Mart. With the arrival of the new Walmart, Super Thrifty sold the building to The Dollar Store owned and operated by Kathy & Lyle Lofgren.
Today when you look at this vacant lot, it is hard to believe that there was once a very nice movie theatre on this location. Back in the early 1960's when television became part of our entertainment in this northern mining community, we had 2 channels, CBC and CTV. All you needed was an outside aerial on your roof pointing in the right direction, a television set, later on with the improvement of signal, a set of rabbit ears on top of your TV worked just as well.
An individual by the name of Ron Nicholson set up Romik communications, and the name was a combination of Ron and wife Micky who owned and operated the business. They brought us cable TV. Their business was bought out by Shaw Communications which still runs cable services for Flin Flon.
The Dollar Store stands on the location which was once the Gateway Drugs, Burkett's Rexall Drugs, Ginsberg Rexall Drugs (Merv & Len), and Super Thrifty Drug Mart.
Joe's Taxi – When I first arrived in Flin Flon there was a number of taxi companies – Mel's Taxi which operated out of a small little room on the corner of the Northern Cafe, also Mel's Trucking operated out of the same location. This operation was owned and operated by Don Still and Glen Murray. In the latter years it was purchased by Lyle Garrioch. The third company was known as Ready Taxi, owned and operated by Frank Lisitza out of Mile 84. These operations were all competitors to the gentleman in the above picture by the name of Joe Pallanik. Joe's business operated out of a small little corner of the Golden Gate Cafe right next to the Singer Sewing Centre and Club News. Joe and wife Rose ran a first class operation, their cabs were always black, relatively new and even had a checker limousine which was used for airport runs and special occasions. The vehicles were always clean and always were operated by a clean and tidy individual. When you walked by Joe's Taxi stand, you knew that there was a group of individuals who were more than willing to serve you.
Joe had a special delivery to work program, which many of the senior employees at H.B.M.&S. made arrangements with Joe to be picked up very early in the mornings, and delivered to H.B.M.&S. main gate. This made it very nice for many people, stepping out their back door into a warm cab and being delivered to work. At the conclusion of the day, these individuals would ride the local bus service home in the evening. Joe's wife Rose probably was one of the first female taxi drivers in Manitoba. In todays taxi world we have to have special shields for the driver, tracking and warning devices for the safety and security of the operators. Times have changed but Joe was very much part of Main Street.
This is another image from the Flin Flon Visual History book showing a July 1st parade and also a large portion of Main Street that no longer exists. The Golden Gate Cafe, also Joe Pallanik's Taxi stand which was part of the cafe, the Singer Sewing Centre, and Club News and the next building have all been destroyed by fire.
This image showing the MTS Building of today, was once Allan's Dry Cleaners operated by Allan Pollmeir and Joe Schiefele. In the upper level of the building there was once Bob's Diner operated by Bob & Gertie Willliams. In later years North Star Studio was owned and operated by Steve & Doris Persson in this building. After the Dry Cleaning business was closed down, Dr. Ed Yauck had been operating a Dentist Clinic out of the upper level for a number of years. He then purchased the building, and the lower half became occupied by The Source Electronics and MTS. Today The Source no longer exists, and is solely occupied by MTS.
The Royal Hotel, one of the older remaining businesses on Main Street was once owned by the Plummer family, then purchased by Steve Novak and son. Today it is owned and operated by a firm out of Winnipeg. The Dining room is known as The Royal Rib & Steak House operated by Madarash.
The hotel still operates a lounge and VLT's.
This image shows two long time businesses, todays H&R Block, was once the offices of Frank Blackburn & Lawrence Brough on the upper level, who sold insurance and real estate, and the lower level was Flin Flon Dry Cleaners, owned and operated by the Siryj family and the principle owner of the building was father Pete Siryj and sons John and Mike. In latter years they sold it to Gordon Rose who operated the dry cleaning business until he closed, then the space was occupied by Joe Cormier who retailed Helly Hanson products. When he closed down the space became occupied by H&R block.
The Flin Flon Insurance Building and Autopac was owned by John & Donna Paskiw and today is owned by daughter Anita and husband Andy Burbidge. This building was once owned by Orville Thompson and known as Thompson Electric who sold electrical appliances and fixtures. The basement also housed a music store known as Bert's Record Bar. In later years there was a pizza business known as Best Pizza owned and operated by Nellie Petryk. Ernie Chocholik also operated an insurance business from this location, as well, prior to selling it to John & Donna Paskiw.
This photograph shows the Royal Bank which still operates in the same location today. Next to it was O.H. Lamont & Co. which was a hardware store. This business was then sold to W.B. Hardware which was a larger firm and it operated in this location for a number of years, until it was bought out by the Royal Bank sometime in the 1970's. It was then demolished and the bank expanded and still operate on this location today.
The next building shows Thompson Electronics which today is the Flin Flon Insurance Bldg., explanation which is shown above.
Today we are looking at Flin Flon's Royal Bank which has come a long way from it's humble beginnings.
This is an image which was passed onto me by Ron Dodds, which shows the location of the Royal Bank long before stores like Lamont's and W.B. Hardwares ever existed, and also Northland Drug Co., which appears to be in the location that was occupied by Schieders Men's Ware in latter years.
