The City
Some two kilometres long and three blocks wide, Soo's downtown runs parallel to the waterfront to either side of the main drag, Queen Street East. All the principal sights are here, beginning with the enjoyable Ermantinger Old Stone House , right at the east end of the town centre at 831 Queen St E and Pim (mid-April to May Mon-Fri 10am-5pm; June-Sept daily 10am-5pm; Oct & Nov Mon-Fri 1-5pm; $2). Built in 1814, the house was originally home to the fur trader Charles Ermantinger and his Ojibwa wife Manonowe - also known as Charlotte - and their thirteen children. Since then the house has served as an hotel, the sheriff's house, a meeting hall for the YWCA and a social club. Restoration has returned its early nineteenth-century appearance and the period-costumed staff bake tasty cakes in the summer. Across the street, and entirely different, is the special-interest Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre (daily: mid-May to Oct 10am-7pm; Nov to mid-May 10am-4pm; $7.50), whose collection of antique bushplanes is stored within a giant hangar. Bushplanes are of particular use in locating forest fires and there are several sections dealing with this aspect of their work. Models on display include a de Havilland Beaver, a Republic Seabee and a Beech 18 - and there's even a replica fire tower to climb. The spruced-up section of the Soo's elongated waterfront begins just five-minutes' walk away to the west of the Heritage Centre, at the foot of East Street, a block or two from Queen Street East. First up is the Art Gallery of Algoma , 10 East St (Mon-Sat 9am-5pm; donation), whose temporary exhibitions usually feature local artists. Moving on, it's a couple of minutes more to the MS Norgona (guided tours daily from mid-May to mid-Oct; $2.50), an old Great Lakes' passenger ferry that has ended up moored here, and the Roberta Bondar Pavilion , a prominent tent-like permanent structure named after Canada's first astronaut, who came from the Soo. The pavilion is used for concerts and exhibitions and locals are proud of the murals running round its exterior, which show aspects of the area painted inside wigwam shapes; subjects range from shipping and lake scenes to autumn colours and winter landscapes. From May to October on Wednesdays and Saturdays, a Farmers' Market, selling fruit and vegetables, is held here, and cruises of the Soo lock system begin from the adjacent jetty. Strolling on, you'll soon come to the Station Mall , a sprawling shopping centre that has sucked the commercial heart out of downtown Soo, and in front of this is the Algoma Central Railway station .
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