Brights Grove
Brights Grove is a small community on the Eastern side of Southern Lake Huron. Being on the shore of the mighty Lake Huron has always made Brights Grove Ontario a tourist destination for fun on it's large beaches. From the early 1900s Brights Grove was a seasonal cottage town and through the ca.1960s & 70s this started to change. Today Brights Grove is a bustling town year round and is growing and is now a part of Sarnia, a new community called Huron Shores. The Brights, Corrinians,Turners and Chongs some of the few original year round families would have never imagined Brights Grove as it has grown today. The shoreline has been recovered and Brights Grove has once again become a beautiful seaside town.
There was a great dance hall called Kennwick on the Lake that rocked with the Big Band sound throughout the 30s & 40s. Coupled with the resort tourist attractions and the night life of a large dance hall , Brights Grove was a wild and happening place. However some time in the late ca.1960s there came a huge storm that wiped out the entire coast of Brights Grove and demolished Kennwick On The Lake, ending a great era. Your editor's family were original settlers and pioneers in what was called the "Thicket" prior to being named Brights Grove. A more detailed Bright's Grove history will be written here soon.
Below you will find numerous pics showing Brights Grove as it once was.
Laughing basket vendors at Walpole Island ca.1896 editor's collection |
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This is an interesting pic with rare names attatched.You will notice that the text says 'Sarnia Township' however your editors great aunts are all in the pic and they lived in Brights Grove at the time.I don't know where S.S. #2 was but I do know that they walked to school from Brights Grove. Hopefully someone will let me know exactly. Firstly Jean Turner became Jean Gaunt of Petrolia. Secondly Isabel Turner became Isabel Webster of Sarnia. Thirdly Laura Turner became Laura Archer of Sarnia. Fourthly Doris Turner became Doris Webster of Sarnia.Also there was Marie Turner (not pictured) who became Marie Webster. Yes 3 sisters married 3 brothers.Also there was yet another sister Margaret Turner who became Margaret Deacon and later famous local musician Marg Chevalier of Sarnia. |
Hi Marty. My family spent our summers in Brights Grove throughout the 1960’s. My mom was a Fairbank, and we’d go there to visit my aunt, Margaret Farrar. She lived on Beachwood Ave, just a couple doors up from the Websters. We’d stay there the entire summer. I remember the McGraths, the Rampleys, the Beltons, the Tilsons. If you lived there, maybe you knew some of them too. I decided to take the time to scan some of my dad’s old slides of the place, and I put them in this video. I don’t know that they’d be considered “vintage”, like the other pics you’ve got in the website, but anyone who spent their summers there during the 1960’s might be able to relate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_bu6RNIAg4 Thanks Marty. Take care. Jim Schoneman P.S. – The only picture I’m not sure about is the one of me pushing my brother on the little train cart. Maybe that was at Grand Bend or something. It was in the box with all of the Brights Grove pictures. |
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editor's collection From a Brights Grove garage sale but no house near it looked like this one. I am assuming that it is a ca.1920s Brights Grove family on holiday at the cottage. |
editors collection This would be Aunt Marie Webster at her cottage in Brights Grove. This home was the Turner homestead from sometime after WW1. Bill and Marie lived here for many years and that is your editor in the background ca.1973. |
We are always looking for vintage Petrolia & area pics of anything to buy or borrow for copying. If you have pictures that I can borrow I only need a few minutes to scan them.
Email martyd@ebtech.net