Saturday, March 18, 2006

Railways & Main Streets Tour, Part Two

Next stop on tour was Wroxeter. We were impressed by the "spirit" shown by the local residents. Ron Brown, in his book Downtown Ontario: Unusual main streets to explore writes - "Around 1980, I visited the village of Wroxeter, and was astounded by the view. While some 18 stores and shops lined the two-block main street, built in the usual two-storey brick style, 15 were boarded up. The sidewalks were cracked and weedy, and nobody was anywhere on the silent roadway. Not too surprisingly, Wroxeter appeared in my ensuing volume of Ghost Towns of Ontario, not as a ghost town, but as one of Ontario's most completely ghosted main streets". pp 204.
Since then, the community has rallied to change the village's image with some success: "Today, the sign on the highway proudly announces Wroxeter as a "former ghost town."

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