A Glimpse of Commanda, Ontario in Parry Sound

Commanda, in the Parry Sound District of Ontario, is located about equidistant between Trout Creek and Golden Valley. It served as a way station on the Old Nipissing Road, also known as the Rousseau-Nipissing Colonization Road, which was one of the last routes built to encourage immigration to the Near North. James Arthurs (1866–1937), who would later go on to establish the 162nd Infantry Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in 1914 — about which you can learn more here — opened a general store at Commanda in 1885. From 1908 until 1935, Arthurs represented the Parry Sound district in the House of Commons, and was a Canadian senator for the Conservative Party from 1935 until his death.

Interestingly, the handsome portrait of Arthurs seen above was made by William James Topley (1845–1930), a prolific Canadian photographer. The Ottawa-based Topley was known for his portraits of Canadian politicians and was a business partner of legendary Canadian photographer William Notman. In 1872, he took over Notman’s studio in Ottawa. A large number of photographs by Topley, including this one, are now in the collection of Library and Archives Canada.

The general store served the community for 92 years, moving to a new location in the early 1930s, where it remained until its 1977 closure. It was the hub of the community, and is a notable example of High Victorian commercial architecture. The store most recently has housed a museum highlighting the history of this once-thriving community, seen in the postcard above.

The first post office opened in 1877, when the area was known as Commanda Creek, with Thomas Carr serving as postmaster. The post office name was changed to Commanda in 1881. At some point after this, as best we can piece the dates together, the post office was in the Commanda general store. After postmaster Carr’s death in 1900, his wife, Adeline Carr, was postmistress until April 1905. Mr. and Mrs. David Watt ran the post office at the time this scarce Commanda postcard, postmarked at Commanda in August 1908, was mailed to Miss Ella Moore of Golden Valley. The sender wrote of a bountiful supply of berries, most likely blueberries.

The antique postcard is made scarcer by the fact that the cancel is from a DPO (dead post office) and the name on the front of the vintage postcard is misspelled as “Commando.” The image appears to be in a picture frame, which is a trompe l’oiel (“fool the eye”) artistic technique not commonly seen in vintage postcards. The technique is employed here in the suggestion of a three-dimensional wooden picture frame surrounding the image.

Other Commanda postmasters included H. Schwarze, Benjamin E. Schwarze, Mrs. Florence Edith Smith, Charles James Hoffman, George Otto Hanselman and Lynda J. Verhage.

Read more about the 162nd Battalion in Sundridge.

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