Another collection of vintage images I truly enjoyed, with a nice mix of vehicles of the 1970s and lovely architecture; all captured in one street in the City of Belleville, Ontario. As for the cars, they are mostly ’70s-correct Brougham, with some VWs and Japanese makes, plus a few ’60s leftovers; all displayed against “Main Street” architecture.
All images taken from the Community Archive of Belleville & Hastings.
Well that’s timely, my son just moved to Belleville. I haven’t been downtown yet but it looks quite intact on maps. I can see the columned CIBC bank is still there, as is the building with the Comet and VW in front of it.
Nice 55 Chevy there, that would have been a real relic by the mid 1970’s
Quite a tour of automobiles and, of course, Belleville. Thanks, Rich!
I wonder if there’s any place called “Mr. Zed” in the U.S…
Well “zed” is just the Canadian pronunciation of the letter Z, so yes according to Google there are at least a few US restaurants named Mr Z’s.
I was aware of this, which is why I wondered if there was a “Mr. Zed” in the States because it’s pronounced “zee” there. Likewise, I wonder if all the businesses in the US with names like “EZ-Cleaners” realize their name won’t make any sense if they ever expand into Canada (or UK, or Australia, or just about anywhere else).
Usually they just throw an “e” or two after the “Z” to clarify/enforce the pronunciation that leads to the pun.
Mr. Zed himself sure had staying power in Belleville. Here’s an article about him; he retired and sold the business in 2022 at age 87:
https://inquinte.ca/story/a-new-era-in-downtown-belleville-as-ownership-of-mr.-zeds-changes-hands
Looks like the business, Mr. Zed’s, is still operating out of the same location (322 Front St.).
Oh, and I never knew that zed is the Canadian pronunciation of Z. Learned something new today.
“I never knew that zed is the Canadian pronunciation of Z. Learned something new today.”
Just wait until you hear them talk about those freebie stickers with company logos for race-car parts. “Decal” rhymes with “speckle”.
Lunatics Anonymous, that’s where [they] belong…
As a Canadian who worked in the US a lot I thought I was very aware if the differences In pronunciation but I did notice “decal”.
The one that seems most odd to many is lieutenant which is pronounced “lef-ten-ant” in Canada (and Britain) but “loo-ten-ant” in the US. Another is “Iraq” and (similar words ) which is pronounced “eye-rak” in the US where we used to say “ear-rak” in Canada, although we seem to be losing out to the American pronunciation.
Whike the 71/72 Road Runner is the obvious pick of the bunch, I find myself drawn to the well loved orange Japanese sedan in front of the hardware store. I thought it was a Mistsu/Dodge Colt but 10 minutes of internet searching cant place it….
I think you are correct that it is a Colt, but I’m not sure that we got the 4dr version in the US which is probably why you aren’t finding any pictures of a similar car.
That looks like a ’73ish Toyota Corona or Corona Mk II to me.
It’s a Datsun 610, 1976 or thereabouts.
I think you’re right – that swoopy thing around the window on the rear door is pretty distinctive.
I knew someone would be able to come up with it, nice work. Neat little car, so ugly it’s pretty…
What caught my eye were the Dodge truck and Toyota car in front of Murray’s Foodmaster in a nearly identical shade of green and very similar hubcaps.
Over the years I have driven by Belleville many times on the way to Montreal. A few years ago some friends moved there when they retired. We have since visited several times, and one thing not mentioned in the article is that Belleville is the home of W. T. Hawkins Ltd., the sole manufacturer of “Cheezies”, a wonderful crunchy cheese snack. According to Wikipedia they are only sold in Canada. Sorry.
Oh yes, the US got the rwd Colt 4-door sedans AND wagons, from about 71 – 78; I think the rwd 2-dr hung on the longest, when the fwd models were phased in. I also remember a later non-Vista Colt wagon model too, that had diagonal pattern taillights. Not sure if fwd or rwd on that one; they’re pretty uncommon.
Per the CCCCC (Curbside Classic Complete Colt Chronicles) that generation went to ’76 as a 4 door, ’77 as a hardtop coupe and wagon all Mitsubishi Galant based with the smaller, still RWD Mitsubishi Lancer-based “Colt Mileage Maker” taking over 2- and 4-door sedan duties for ’77-79 joined by the next generation Galant coupes (as Dodge Challenger/Plymouth Sapporo) and Colt wagon (all RWD) in ’78 and the Mitsu Mirage based fwd hatchback in ’79.
The later diagonal-taillight wagons, on the pattern of the 1985-88 sedans and hatchbacks, ran from 1988-91 and had fwd and optional 4wd.
I’m not sure how Canadians thought about cars in the 1970s. Virtually all Canadian-built cars were just “American” cars built in Canada, although Volvo also built cars in Canada in this period.
My point is that since all cars were at least somewhat “foreign”, I want to believe that foreign cars had much faster adoption rates than they did in the US.
Except they weren’t all really American cars. The Canadians got their own versions of a lot of “American” cars at least into the early 70’s, many have been covered here. Frontenac, Plodges, Narrow track Cheviacs, Acadians, Beaumonts, Monarchs and Meteors, as brands, not models. Mercury and Fargo trucks. Many of those featured the Maple Leaf on the cars and/or in the brochures. Ford played it hard with the Maple Leaf and how Canadian it was with the Frontenac. https://oldcarbrochures.com/static/Canada/Frontenac/1960%20Frontenac%20Brochure/1960%20Frontenac-02-03.html There were also a lot of Canadian specific names for some of those US models.
There were even a few that made their way south. The Astre was originally conceived by CPC, Chevrolet-Pontiac Canada, before US Pontiac dealers got wind of it. Same with the Bobcat. When Pontiac realized their mistake of dropping the full size RWDs the cheap and easy fix was to start selling the Canadian Parisienne which was pretty much a modern Cheviac.
Here is GM leaning into that Canadian pride noting all the places the pictures were taken https://oldcarbrochures.com/static/Canada/Pontiac/1973%20Pontiac%20Astre%20Brochure/1973%20Pontiac%20Astre-01.html
My sister moved from the US to Canada in 1974 and married a Canadian guy. As a young car nut I asked her husband what people in Canada called Fords, Chevies etc. “American cars” was his reply, regardless of where they were built. Before they split up and my sister moved back to the States, they lived near the Honda plant in Alliston, Ontario. That plant did a lot for the local economy but the cats they built were still called “Japanese cars”.
As noted above, we did have “Canadian” cars, before 1967 it was an expensive proposition to bring in an American built car. Import adoption was partially driven by ties to the UK, but most of thier products sold because they were cheap. The standard of living here was not quite as high as the US so that mattered more here.
At the time these photos were taken, credit was nowhere near as easy to obtain as it is now and I would venture to say that our tolerence for household debt was not as high as in the US either. That was then, today is a very different story!
As an aside, in the ’90s I used to say I had one import and one domestic in our driveway. The domestic was an Ontario built Honda, the import a US built F-150!
Canadian heavy metal queen Lee Aaron, is from Belleville. As well as Avril Lavigne, and country family group, The Wilkinsons. The former Belleville Bulls, of the Ontario Hockey League, produced numerous star NHLers. Like Bobby Hull. My parents drove through Belleville often, during 1970s road trips. On one of Ontario’s earliest Highways. Scenic Highway 2, which follows along Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River. Headed to the Trenton, Ontario air show, several times, via this route.
I hate to be “that guy”, but Avril Lavigne is actually from nearby Napanee, and Bobby Hull entered the NHL in 1957, 24 years before the Belleville Bulls were founded. He played his junior hockey in St. Catharines, which was affiliated with Chicago.
Bata Shoes. A very good shoe store. Reasonably priced, good selection.
There used to be a Bata Shoes shoe museum in Toronto. Looks like it’s still around in downtown T.O.
Bata had a factory in Ontario until about 25 years ago and developed a company town, called Batawa.
Batawa is quite close to Belleville (about 25 km). The Bata Shoe Museum was primarily the work of Sonja Bata. She passed away several years ago at age 91. I had the good fortune to sit beside her once on the short Montreal to Toronto flight. She was a charming and elegant woman.
Whalens Music advertising organs is very much of the time. It was a status symbol to have one in your living room. Usually nobody in the house could play it but it was a status symbol. Wurlitzer even had their own stores selling just organs.
The Red 1971 stripe delete Road Runner with the vinyl top is the same as the car featured in the movie The Friends of Eddie Coyle except that one is Yellow. Same rims and whitewall tires. Don’t think vinyl tops and stripe delete was a very popular option on 71’s.
So many great photos that bring back fond memories .
Followed by history lessons in the comments ! .
I don’t know how to insert a heart emoticon here but this is why I love this site so much .
-Nate
Love that Bank of Montreal shot.
And the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce….new to me but where can I sign up?
That’s a very fancy Bank of Commerce for Belleville.
Not what I would have expected for a small city. I wonder if they had similar sized buildings in other Canadian cities? Their bank in downtown Edmonton has a similar style but much larger in size.