aerial photos

Downtown Aultsville, Aultsville, Ontario, Canada

Downtown Aultsville | N 44.57.15 W 75.01.42 | Aultsville, Ontario, Canada




The ‘downtown’ of Aultsville, Ontario flooded by the St Lawrence Seaway in the 1958. At the intersection of King’s Hwy No. 2 and Aultsville Road the outlines of businesses and homes can clearly be seen along both roads under the shallow water.

Originally established in 1787 by five disbanded soldiers from the King’s Royal Regiment Loyalist the village was named after Samuel Ault, himself a descendant of one of the original five, who sat in Canada’s first parliament in 1867. It was also the home of Sir James Pliney Whitney, Ontario’s Premier between 1904 and 1914. Aultsville was one of the older, and, with over 400 residents, one of the larger communities displaced by the the Seaway.

The St Lawrence River once tied people more with those either side than up or downstream. Aultsville was a port town connected until the 1930s to Louisville Landing, New York via a ferry service. Before the construction of the Seaway in the 1950s, the US-Canadian border was of little or no relevance to residents who travelled freely, conducted business, socialized, and intermarried across the river.


Downtown Aultsville, Aultsville, Ontario, Canada

Downtown Aultsville | N 44.57.15 W 75.01.42 | Aultsville, Ontario, Canada




The ‘downtown’ of Aultsville, Ontario flooded by the St Lawrence Seaway in the 1958. At the intersection of King’s Hwy No. 2 and Aultsville Road the outlines of businesses and homes can clearly be seen along both roads under the shallow water.

Originally established in 1787 by five disbanded soldiers from the King’s Royal Regiment Loyalist the village was named after Samuel Ault, himself a descendant of one of the original five, who sat in Canada’s first parliament in 1867. It was also the home of Sir James Pliney Whitney, Ontario’s Premier between 1904 and 1914. Aultsville was one of the older, and, with over 400 residents, one of the larger communities displaced by the the Seaway.

The St Lawrence River once tied people more with those either side than up or downstream. Aultsville was a port town connected until the 1930s to Louisville Landing, New York via a ferry service. Before the construction of the Seaway in the 1950s, the US-Canadian border was of little or no relevance to residents who travelled freely, conducted business, socialized, and intermarried across the river.