This two-storey concrete block building was constructed for Fort William Hydro in 1958. Acquired by the City of Thunder Bay in 1970, it housed a variety of departments until 1988 when the Office of the City Clerk took sole possession of the building. Harry Kirk – the City Clerk at the time – believed that the identification and protection of permanent archival records should be seamlessly integrated with the management of all municipal records. This vision has made the Thunder Bay’s Archives and Records program a model of civic transparency and corporate memory preservation. Through extensive renovations completed in 1991, the facility provides secure storage for historical artifacts and archival records, as well as a warehouse for active records, staff offices and a public reference room. The collections include the corporate municipal records of Port Arthur, Fort William and Thunder Bay, housing more than 2 kilometers of records, 17,000 photographs, 4,000 maps and plans, and 1,000 artifacts – with more to come. A sampling of the collection can be viewed through the Thunder Bay Archives Flickr page and a variety of web exhibits. The newest exhibit features items from the City of Thunder Bay’s 50th Anniversary time capsule, which was opened on January 1, 2020 by the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.