The first home was built on Main Street where the Moorehouse Hotel later stood.

The first jail was erected where Memorial Park now stands but it was burned down by a prisoner attempting escape in 1959. The first policeman was W.J. Miller.

The first fraternal society was the United Templars of Temperance.

The first mill was built about 1873 by Nathaniel Dyment.

The first hotel was owned by Nathaniel Dyment (Thessalon House) built on the corner of Main Street and Algoma Street West.

The first store was built by James Miller (later site of Currie Brothers) on the corner of Main Street and Algoma Street West.

The first public school built was in 1877, on the west corner of Highway 129 and Highway 17.

The first Catholic Church and cemetery was St. Francis Xavier, built about 1865 on the west side of the river, Now on Water Street.

The first Anglican Church, called the Church of the Redeemer was built on Algoma Street East in 1888.

The first newspaper was the Algoma Advocate, first published in 1887, located on Main Street.

The first theatre in town was on the upper floor of Keetch's Hall on Algoma Street, just off Main Street.

The first moving picture shown in town was at the Empire Theatre and was Charlie Chaplin's "Tilley's Punctured Romance".It was a silent film, not "a talkie", as films with sound later came to be called.

The first sewer line was installed along Huron Street West between Main Street and the river in 1907. The price for the work was 95 cents per foot.

The first cars came to town in 1914.