It’s not very often that a building nerd like myself can stumble across something new in this City, but a bike ride Saturday afternoon led to my discovery of this great architectural treasure.
Tucked in a back corner of Memorial park, and well vandalized, I spied this great restroom building.
I don’t really know anything about the building other than it appears to have some prairie style architectural influences in the brick work, but with a more traditional mid 1920’s roof.
Nearby this manhole cover is dated, 1926. Probably a safe guess for the date of construction of the restroom building.
Inside the walls are covered in a glazed tile.
Without a doubt a unique structure in the city, and a pleasant surprise to find. Even when you think you’ve seen it all a hundred times sometimes something can surprise you.
A brief history of Memorial Park:
Optimist-Memorial Park
Commonly known as: Memorial Park, Optimist Park, Optimist-Memorial Park
Former/other names: Senator Kennedy Park
Location: along Ypres Boulevard, between Elsmere and Gladstone Avenues
Property acquired: 1925; 1949
Acreage: 34.14 (Memorial); 17.44 (Optimist)
Official designation: Community parkOriginally named Senator Kennedy Park, Memorial Park was first established in 1925. The site was more like a nature reserve than a recreational park, boasting a magnificent stand of mature oak trees. Various other trees were also present and read like the appendix in a forestry manual: soft maple, white ash, walnut, red cedar, spruce, pine, basswood, wild cherry, witch hazel, thorn apple, elm, hickory, silver maple, and wild crab apple.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of them were seriously diseased and Windsor’s Board of Parks Management had to weed out these layers of blighted underbrush. Except for a few healthy, young elms, which were transplanted along City streets, and several uniquely shaped trees, the area was almost totally thinned out. As a result of this stewardship, there are approximately 2,000 oak trees presently growing in the park’s vicinity.
The City spent $82,000 to acquire the first 32 acres of Memorial Park, adding an additional 10 acres over the next few years. In 1927, an unobtrusive drainage system was completed, allowing the natural setting at the park to remain relatively undisturbed. That same year, the Essex Real Estate Board, which had lent the City a professional hand in the initial 1925 land transaction, donated $2,700 in order to construct a sweeping, brick and stone pillared entranceway to the park.
In 1939, the City acquired an additional 20 acres of land. Located east of Howard Avenue between Memorial Drive and the C.P.R. tracks, this property was the final piece in the Memorial Park puzzle. Baseball and softball diamonds were laid out and a multi-purpose (soccer/football/rugby) field was established. At the same time, a tree nursery on the west side of the park was already flourishing, containing over 6,000 trees.
Optimist Park was developed as an extension of Memorial Park in 1949. The Optimist Club, an organization that has for many years generously supported youth sports in Windsor, was the driving force behind the park’s creation. In 1954, The Frank L. Mallory Optimist Rink was built, thanks in part to a $35,000 donation by the Optimist Club. In 1974, the Optimist Community Centre was officially opened, and it quickly established itself as an integral part of both the South Walkerville community and the Memorial-Optimist Park complex.
In 1996, the Goodwin Family donated $12,000 for a picnic shelter in Memorial Park. The donation represented a memorial for John Goodwin’s late wife, Helen. The Goodwins lived in Windsor for a number of years and spent time with their children in Windsor Parks during the late 40’s and early 50’s. A memorial plate is in the park to acknowledge the donation to the park.
Today, Memorial and Optimist Parks provide more than 50 acres of diverse, community-scale parkland to the area. Available facilities normally include a variety of playground equipment, a picnic shelter, plus a softball diamond, cricket pitch, sand volleyball area, and a toboggan hill.
Sad to hear that the restrooms are being vandalized. I never liked the idea of this park going back to its natural environment. It used to be well maintained and manicured when I lived near it in the ’80s and early ’90s. The city decided to let it become natural sometime after that. Since then I have noticed people (usually teen-agers) having had fires and parties in the park and now the vandalism. Even the gates are falling apart. Too bad because the park used to be such a wonderful delight ot the area.
Quite a find. Vandalized by the tags, and also by add-on utility doodads near the door.
I have fuzzy late 1970s memories of my dad playing baseball in the park, and a pack of baseball dad offspring and I played in the rectangular 1920s(?) wading pool near this bathroom. Later it was filled in, but you could still see the edges. I believe the whole thing was ripped out at some point later.
Sad — in our current issue of Spacing, we have a lamentation for the wading ponds from a young mother, as they are slowly being replaced by “splash pads”.
On Saturday, I noticed that the gates are covered in junk ass graffitti tags. The gates were scheduled for restoration but I’m not sure if that plan was a victim of the Parks budget slash.
Shawn, “splash pads” are the new buzzword. Everyone in municipal politics seems to think they’re great.
Andrew, I don’t know why I’ve never noticed or paid attention to this restroom in the past. I’ve ridden thru this park frequently, have used the community center a lot in the past, and like Shawn have a fair share of childhood memories with the park and its baseball diamonds, which today is still packed in the evenings and weekends.
I do remember the wading pool though. There was also one in Jackson park exactly where the basketball court is now. It was in a state of disrepair but came in handy in the winter when it would freeze over and make for a great place to ice skate.
Anyway, the vandalism is very disappointing. There is a little park near my house as well with a small building that is constantly being tagged. Parks & Rec. just can’t keep up with it.
How can they with a budget cut from $10 million to $2.5 million?
Of course, Eddie now wants to improve the vistas of the boulevards and build more attractions. Don Sadler responded, and what a great response it was, that is doesn’t matter if you bulid it, you have to MAINTAIN it. Sounds like the WUC doesn’t it?
It’s all these little things that add up to a decent quality of life. There’s more to an enjoyable life than roads and sewers, however King Eddie can’t see that.
Truly remarkable brickwork styles. If the Cleary guest house was built like this or that pump station by the Bert Weeks Falls, we probably wouldn’t have needed to build that overpriced bunker. Anyone know who the architect was??
Do you think the bricks on the left are original — kind of looks like a window was filled in. Though I can’t imagine a window in a toilet — even in the swinging 20s.
Windsor had an abundance of these sorts of park buildings (maybe you mentioned that once here too, Andrew). These lovely midwestern/Chicago-ish out buildings.
Though I always was intrigued by the Optimist club house too — such a strange looking, mysterious building. The low roof, if i recall, is what did it.
If I had to move back to Windsor, South Walkerville would be one of the few places I might not be unhappy.
Cute little “eyebrow” window which you don’t see too often around here.
No way, I don’t think there was an actual window on the left side.. I suspect it used to be a very translucent glass block design to let more light in, but people kept breaking them like the front windows, so they bricked it in.
There was something filled in. The bricks on the side (there is the same thing on the other side too, Ladies bathroom is on the back side) are definatley replacements.
David might be right, about glass block.
You guys are right about the glass blocks; they bricked them up within the last ten years or so. I clearly remember as a kid in the ’80’s having to use this washroom while playing at the park. For a while this bathroom was actually closed and padlocked because a homeless man was always in there. Apparantly it’s open again. Funny, I walk past this building almost everyday in summer, and I’ve never seen a picture of what it looked like in its heyday, with the swimming pool and all. Maybe Heritage Planning at city hall would have something, or even the community museum.
I remember the old merry-go-round that stood next to the old picnic shelter and the wading pool that stood next to the bathrooms. It was closed in the 70’s, filled in and finally demolished. On hot summer nights parents used to take their kids to Memorial Park to play on the swings and monkey bars while they talkedt with the neighbors. In warm weather there were little league games every weekend and in the winter we went ice-skating on the old Optimist ice rink. Did I forget to mention that the Optimist Community Centre had free roller-skating every Friday?
Thanks Kevin.
The likelyhood of finding a photo is slim to none. If there was one the Museum would be the best bet.
The archives at the Windsor Library main branch might have a photo. They are Windsor’s great untapped resource.
I think I remember that merry-go-round, and for sure the picnic shelter. And just now the vaguest of memories of driving to the park from Walker Road, before it was block, by the tracks, where that house was torn down, that I think Andrew once posted a picture of.
Thank you for the excellent website Andrew.
I wanted to let you know that plans were discussed at last nights open house to tear down this building and replace it with a new one…
Tragic.
Hi Kris, thanks for the heads up. I actually just heard on AM800 about the “improvements”.
i recall when i was a young boy in the 50’s going to that park for our chuch picnic we would run to the fence on the south side of the park and watch the trains roll by
I can relate to running to the fence to watch steam-powered CPR trains rolling by. The passenger trains, coloured as they were in “Tuscan red” maroon with gold lettering, were pulled by the famous CPR Royal Hudson locomotives, usually numbered 2855, 2856, and 2857 assigned to the Windsor run by the John Street complex in Toronto. They were quite a sight!