Orillia Heritage Centre
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Porcelain and Metal Products, Ltd. (formerly Vilas Enamel Products) made porcelain signs, ash trays and what are now highly collectible push bars from the 1940s to 1973.

Read more: Porcelain and Metal Products

  • tudhope-automobiles

Our 1912 Tudhope is a working car

Read more: 1912 Tudhope On Parade

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A photo shoot captures our 1912 Tudhope from every angle

Read more: Our 1912 Tudhope - Photo Gallery

In August 2022, a genealogist got in touch with Orillia Heritage Centre and offered to share some interesting artifacts he discovered while researching his wife’s family history.

Read more: Working at Tudhope Carriage Co. 1912-1914

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Photos of our original Tudhope-McIntyre on display at Couchiching Park in Orillia

Read more: Our Tudhope-McIntyre at the park

On the evening of December 5, 2004, while it was undergoing extensive renovations, a portion of the Tudhope Building suddenly collapsed.

Read more: Tudhope Building Collapse

ad reprint from 1914

J.H. Ross started what was to become Orillia’s longest-surviving boat-building business in 1890 on the waterfront just north of Mississaga St.

Read more: J.H. Ross Boat and Canoe Company

Long before the cars, Tudhope was a carriage company

Read more: Tudhope Buggy Ad c1890

Pictured here is our extensive collection of minnitoys, including many branded gasoline tanker trucks, manufactured by Otaco in Orillia.

Read more: Otaco Minnitoys

A Brief History of Dorr-Oliver-Long

Read more: Dorr-Oliver-Long

A rare Beaver pleasure craft made in Orillia, on its own trailer made by Otaco.

Read more: The Beaver boat

The Rolland Boat Co. also manufactured baseball bats in the 1940s. This is our example.

Read more: The Rolland Bat

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This truck was not made in Orillia but it was in service here for many years - when we foud out it was about to be sold, we just had to make sure it stayed here.

Read more: The LaFrance before restoration

Hunter Boats built Fairmile class patrol boats in Orillia for the Royal Canadian Navy during WW2.

Read more: Fairmiles

Convert a car into a tractor...

Read more: The Autotrac

Subcategories

Postcard Memories

For years, Marcel Rousseau wrote a series called Postcard Memories for the Orillia Packet & Times newspaper. He now does a feature for Orillia Matters published every Saturday. Each story shows a vintage postcard along with Marcel's well-researched and detailed story about the scene it depicts. Browse through for some fascinating reading.

Marcel also hosts Facebook pages "Postcard Memories Orillia" and "Orillia Past and Present".