People are obsessing over this utterly retro Dairy Queen location in an Ontario town that was the second-ever in Canada.

Founded more than 80 years ago in Jolliet, Illinois by Sherb Noble, Dairy Queen has solidified itself as North America's quintessential ice cream chain — and one location in a small Ontario town provides a window into the early days of DQ's expansion north of the border.

Located just off Highway 3 in Port Colborne, the DQ location on Main Street East is not just a perfect spot to grab a cold, sweet treat on a summer road trip — it was also the second-ever location to open in Canada, and has maintained the same retro aesthetic ever since it opened its doors in the early 1950's.

Where did the first Canadian Dairy Queen location open? Dave Bennison of Historical Niagara tells blogTO that it's a loaded question.

"So, there's a bit of controversy on this," he says. "If you go to [...] Dairy Queen's official site [...], they list it as a place called Melville, Saskatchewan, but there's been a bit of a debate because there's a place called Estevan, Saskatchewan, and they've debated which came first."

Frozen in Time
Dairy Queen in Port Colborne.
Circa 1954
Photo taken Sept 2017
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— chrisdelaatphotography (@delaatchrisfoto) October 2, 2017

The prairie-based rivalry notwithstanding, though, there's no question that the Port Colborne location was the second to open in Canada, rooting itself just off the Welland Canal in 1954.

The location, at the time, was an optimal one for the chain's first Ontario exploit, Dave tells blogTO.

"That's when Crystal Beach was booming," he says, "so it opened up because of the amount of traffic coming down [...], and it's just off Highway 3 which was a main thoroughfare at the time."

Just under 300 metres away from the town's Main Street Lift Bridge, the ice cream shop drew hoardes of visitors who were stuck waiting for the bridge to lower as boats passed through the canal. Seems like a win-win!

Ownership of the location has passed hands twice in the location's 70 year history, Dave tells blogTO, having been founded by Emedio Sergnese after he and his wife, on a visit the the U.S., tried Dairy Queen and decided to bring it to Ontario.

"The Sergnese family owned it for many, many years and it boomed and boomed," Dave says, before the family ultimately decided to sell the store.

A little over a decade ago, the shop was bought by its current owner, Rick Wilser, who set to work restoring the shop in all of its retrofuturist glory.

According to Dave, the location's iconic sign (which has made it something of a tourist destination for amateur photographers and canal boat cruisers alike in recent years,) is one of the only remaining original 1950's signs still existing in Canada, thanks entirely to a corporate loophole.

Summer dreams of a treat from the Dairy Queen! The Dairy Queen in Port Colborne, Ontario is the company’s last remaining location with its original 50’s design! ❤️🍦 #dairyqueen #dairyqueencanada #dairyqueenontario #portcolborne #ontario #smalltownontario #portcolbornebusiness pic.twitter.com/SuOKH5WVYE

— Reflections of Niagara (@MaryBurke2006) March 18, 2020

"There's a stipulation with Dairy Queen that if you remove a Dairy Queen sign off the building, you have to replace it with the new Dairy Queen logo," he tells blogTO, so the sign has never come down in spite the neon not having been operational in decades.

Instead, Dave says, owner Rick Wilser plans to have a much more costly and difficult restoration done in order to keep the original signage in place while, ideally, getting it to light up once more.

It's not just signs of cheerful signs of history that can be found at the Port Colborne location, Dave adds; there's still a segregation window intact at the location (which now holds their AC unit), reminding us of the country's darker history many have forgotten.

"It's one of the few buildings that you can still see remenants of that old, pre-60's history," Dave says, "you know, we don't think about that, because in Canada slavery was abolished in the early 1800's, but segregation still went on into the 1950's and 1960's."

"They didn't erase it," he adds, "it becomes part of the story, so it is part of the story to tell that."

70 years and three different owners later, and the location is going strong — still drawing summertime crowds headed to Crystal Beach or waiting to be let over Lock 8, on top of a new era of clientele who have discovered the ice cream shop online.

Dave himself recently experienced the shop's hype first-hand, posting about the location on Historical Niagara's Facebook page, where he regularly shares fascinating historical tidbits about Niagara and the surrounding area, and receiving thousands of likes and hundreds of shares in under 24 hours.

If you want to get a taste of history yourself (and of soft-serve ice cream, of course,) you can visit Dairy Queen's Port Colborne location at 73 Main Street East.