This vintage brochure dates to about 1935. This house was the residence of Vital Ouellette and his wife, and originally sat on the corner of Ouellette & Chatham. In the first few years of the 20th century, the Bank of Montreal bought the land on the corner of Chatham & Ouellette to build a bank branch (which is still there). The house was purchased and moved one lot to the east. It was the first brick building moved in the city of Windsor when it was moved in 1903.
Sadly the building was just shifted east and not rotated, so what was originally the front facade faced the alley, and the back of the bank. The building was the home of the Windsor Club, and opened in this building in March of 1904. During the depression in 1933, the Windsor Club was forced to leave the building, and it was around this time the building became the Windsor Castle Cafe.
The building amazingly still stands on Chatham Street, and is today home to Jason’s.
If you pop down the alley beside the building and look up, you can catch a glimpse of what once was… This was once the home of the man who lent his name to Windsor’s Main Street. More history tucked away out of sight.
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Above is a photo of the home of Mr & Mrs Oswald Janisse, located at…
in 1917 two Greek brothers Gus & Harry Lukos purchased a one story building on…
Photo from Google Streetview A long time reader sent me an email the other week…
An unremarkable end to a part of Windsor's history. The large vacant house at 841…
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Wow. Talk about a fall from grace.
Hey Andrew, do you have any info on Lee Dean?
Sorry Rich, I don't.
What do you know about him?
How in the world did they move a multi-storey brick house in 1903? I didn't even know they had the technology to do that back then. It's one thing to raise a brick house on a bunch of jacks, but how do you move it from point A to B. I wonder what such a vehicle looked it? It makes me wonder if it wasn't rotated because they didn't have the technology to do it.
I don't have much on him, just old stories from my Great Uncle and Grandma.
Gotcha. He must have been a long time fixture in the business then.
Yup, one of the more respected and influential member of the Chinese community. Among first to settle in the city.
I have photos of his wife but non of him.
long ago i had noticed the house that jasons had surrounded. i always wondered what it was and what the rest of the building looked like. thanks andrew!
i wonder what it would look like now if all the cynder blocks were removed?? do you think most of the first floor walls and exterior of the first floor have been demolished? or maybe the exterior anyways, still lies there waiting to be revealed again? imagine having the cash to buy that place, shut it down, and bring her back to her former glory?!?!
I seem to remember there was a restaurant in the building in the fifties, a sort of 'business class" place where you'd entertain clients? I may have been in it once but I'm damned if I can remember the name of it. It wasn't the Windsor Cafe then. After that place closed (maybe sixties) I believe it was vacant until Jason's came along but I may simply not have been paying attention.
BTW I was in Windsor yesterday and had cause to drive down Howard. Do you have anything on the old Purity Dairies building on the west side, 2 blocks south of Ottawa? I loved that building! Used to visit a client of my father's who was an exec. there. They've retained the tower and given it a new copper roof (Copper is supposed to develop verdigris, dammit!) but they've completely obscured the rest of the building in new, boring brick. (At least it isn't stucco.) Result is a bad missmatch. I gather it's old news but I guess I hadn't passed it in awhile. I assume the original was around "Kennedy Collegiate" vintage (and maybe architect?), reminiscent, anyway.