By John Rhodes
Special to The Chatham Voice
I think the photo I have included with this Chatham Voice article tells a number of impressive stories; I will tell them to you in parts as there is not the space to do it all in one instalment.
The picture dates from 1915 with the focus of attention being the partially submerged vessel in the mid area of the picture.
Just exactly where was the photo taken from and facing what direction ? It looks east-northeast from the south foot of the Third Street Bridge, towards the northwest approach to the Fifth Street Bridge.
What is in the photo? Let’s start with the boat. The vessel is the Frontier; she was a side wheeler that was brought to Chatham during the first war to replace the Ossifrage on the Chatham–Detroit run.
She was a combination freight and passenger vessel with two shortfalls. She leaked badly and her local sponsors had no money. Two men were employed to run the pumps but they were not paid. They stayed on the job until frustrated; they walked away and the Frontier sank the next day.
The Frontier was later refloated and taken to the western shore of lake St Clair, I think near Algonac, Mich., where she was stripped for salvage and allowed to sink. As far as I know, she rests there to this day.
Looking to the extreme right of the photo, you can see a long two-floor wooden building on the northwest approach to Fifth Street Bridge. This was the Crow Apartment Block which had previously existed as the Prince Edward Hotel and had been moved here from the west side of Thames Street, about opposite the present day offices of the LTVCA. The former hotel site is now an empty lot.
The Crow Apartments featured street-level retail outlets and small apartments on the upper floor. It was a down and outer residence not inclined to accommodate persons of an upgrading category.
I have a vague memory of driving across the Fifth Street Bridge and seeing this building (dating from the 1860s ) and wondering about its past. I know that it was removed in the early 1950s and its former position is above the easterly end of a municipal parking lot.
Is that a railway truss along the river bank? What is the conglomeration of large buildings on the north river bank? More to come.
This photo has several more good stories and I will be delighted to tell them to you in future issues of The Chatham Voice.
