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A big day at the Empire Living Centre on Tuesday.

The North Bay Municipal Heritage Committee unveiled a plaque designating the building as a heritage site.

Committee member Peter Handley says it started as a hotel almost 9 decades ago and has been historical since its inception from Roy Thompson celebrating opening his first radio station in North Bay to the arrival of the then Princess Elizabeth and her husband Prince Phillip.

Handley says James Cagney was also here to shoot a movie and he stayed at the Empire.

Meantime, the library was dedicated to Leo Mascioli who built the hotel.

Several family members were on hand for the dedication and the plaque unveiling.

His grand daughter Sandie O’Grady donated a book outlining his time at a prisoner of war camp in Petawawa during World War II.

 

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