This century old Riverside mansion is the next one due for a date with the wrecking ball. In the 1990 the property was purchased by the current owner for redevelopment. Until such a plan was finalized, the owner leased the property out for use as a Bed & Breakfast. The owner has finally decided that the time for redevelopment is now, and a demolition permit has been applied for. Under the Ontario Heritage act, there is a 60 day waiting period for demolition of heritage listed buildings. The 60 days on this one is up at the end of September.
The house was built c. 1890 by the original owner Robert Barr who according to the city directories was at one time the Editor of the Detroit Free Press. Although a bit of research was done, and the Free Press has no records of Mr. Barr. The house remained in the Barr family until 1942.
This house, and the Joyce House at the end of the of the block are the only remnants of what was once known as Millionaire’s Row. The house was originally scheduled for demolition in 1997.
Also of interest is the iron fence along the front of the property. It dates to about 1879, and was originally from the downtown Windsor Post Office that was demolished in the early 1930’s for the current Paul Martin Building.
Always good times in a city where a shitty ass highrise holds more interest than a 117 year old mansion.
Who’s the current owner? Chuck Mady? Any ideas on which architect this building closely resembles? Are these houses too big to move that they would rather demolish it?
David, it’s not Mady, although if you drive down Riverside you’ll see his sign up where he’s going to tear down two houses for the next “project”.
No idea who the architect on that would be.
No they’re not too big to move, the owners just feel the land is too valuable to contiune in its current use.
I went to a wedding here on june 30th of this year! Have you been inside this house?
it is stunning!!! wow i am horribly in shock that it is gonna be torn down!
I really cannot believe Windsor would not want to keep it ! That is really to bad!!
I knew it was very old i know my old homes! I love living in one and wow i would hate to see my historic house being torn down in 17 yrs! what a shame!
What a terrible loss.
Why doesn’t the city get Heritage preservation like they did for the Joyce house?
I believe that is what they are seeking to do, JT. Something was mentioned about it this a.m. on the CKLW news.
saw them cutting down that tree the other day. lots of dead trees around the property. they just had a huge wedding reception or some sort of reception there the other day too. i live very close to it. would suck if they start building another high rise on riverside.
If the city can get heritage designation for a bunch of boarded up homes on Indian street, then why not this one ? Sure would be a shame to see this house meet it’s fate.
Rich,
That is easy. Because the councillors have an agenda in Sandwich Towne.
It sure would be a shame if they are allowed to tear it down but it woudn’t suprise me either if they did.
I find it interesting that condos can be bulit along Riversdide Dr. E & West but nothing can be built downtown to bring more people there.
The houses on Indian road have not received designation for heritage status. They were initially part of an overall Heritage Study – but have since been excluded from further consideration.
John – the house discussed this AM on the radio is not this one.
The action that will or will not be taken is as of yet undetermined. Maybe if Windsorites in general (certainly not the reader here) seemed to care a little bit more about things like this, they wouldn’t happen so often.
Too many people in this city could care less about our built heritage, and that’s why developpers like Mady know they can pretty much demolish what they want with little repercussions. ie Glengarda.
My point is … how can you designate the Joyce house and not this one? The City can’t pick and chose which developments they want to stop and which they let proceed. This seems like an identical situation so can’t we get the same heritage protection by using the same arguments?
JT, it’s not that simple to use the same arguments as the Joyce House. That’s like comparing apples to oranges. While it looks like it’s in good shape on the outside, it’s hard to tell what confition it is on the inside as it’s over 100 years old. Suppose the foundaton is no longer sound or the support beams were infested with termites. Those would be legitimate grounds for demolition. The Joyce House, on the other hand, is a solid building and was retrofitted over the years for the expansion. It would be interesting to know what his arguments are for demolition, whether it’s just for redevelopment or whether it’s based on safety reasons. I’m not sure what the arguments were for the Glengarda, or whether it was just based on market demands for redevelopment.
Andrew, with all this talk of demolition I had sent you some pictures the other day to your e-mail, and I don’t think they actually went through. If they didn’t let me know and I will try to resend, I am sure they will be of interest.
Heritage is no excuse for progress.
Donald, what is progress? Other cities realize that their heritage helps them to be progressive…
Blair, I didn’t get them, I’ve sent you an email.
Thanks.
Donald> I’m the first person to defend condos — too many times people have kneejerk reactions to them as “bad” or whatever. But condos help prevent sprawl.
But in a place like windsor…with vast tracks of underdeveloped wasteland (parking lots, crappy clapboard housing, etc) there is no reason to tear down structures that are important to the community — either because of their history or their built form.
So, I think you’re being a troll, unless you can explain how saving one of windsor’s FEW extant heritage buildings is blocking progress…….
sigh…another loss of a beautiful house…and a beautiful piece of land if you ask me…if a condo goes in the property won’t remain as is either…there goes the fence….the lot….the building….. it’s funny how they teardown whatever so quickly…put in a hole…sit on the hole for a while….start to build…sit on that for a while…or forever in some cases….and then once it’s up…it sits half vacant with no buyers for how long?
but the move to demolish is a quick and hasty decision…. it’s understrood that not ALL historical properties can be saved ALL the time…but our riverfront was once a beautiful ride through statley old homes and historic ocnnections….seems every day we loose more and more of that…..
I believe this home situated between the Joinville and Palazo apartments once belonged to the late Dr. Albert Wilson a Windsor Dental Surgeon
I live on Riverside Drive East.
The house should be a hertiage building. I suggest the city should give the hole in the ground on Riverside Drive West next to the art gallery to the developer because for more than 20 years that hole makes that area look like crap. So what if the build is 117 years old it has history which Windsor needs to save.
For the record another highrise condo on Riverside Drive East will just make taxes go up, add more traffic which makes it unsafe for cyclist, more rolling blackouts, lessen water pressure, make it more crowding and property value of houses along the river lower.
The developers should look at buiding around downtown or the vacant land near The Drive magazine building.
3 years later …has this one been razed???
Still here.
Back in the 1920’s John Barr leased this house to Ford City and my Grandfather William Girard was the Fire Chief of Ford City at the time. He needed a home for his large family and they let him live there for a modest rent. He had 7 children when he moved in and 5 more were born in the hou my father was born in 1921 and his 4 younger brothers too. My grandfather was a practical man and he saw that the manicured front lawn was just a waste so he plowed it up and put in a crop of corn and tomatoes. My 5 aunts that were older than my dad told me that they were mortified because their house stood out among all the other mansons that lined that part of Riverside. So when they went to their school dances the chaufer of the Joinville family would let them out at their house next door instead. The back yard stretched to Wyndotte and had several fruit trees including a Jesuit pare tree or two among others. I had the privelage of staying there for a weekend in 2000 and the people running the bed and breakfast told me that the reasons that this house was never torn down were for one it sits on top of a gas main and secondly that the Bridge co. under Matty Maroun owns the property. Otherwise it too would have been razed to make way for another condo complex. The house was actually built in 1884 and in the front foyer there was a huge framed list of all the people that lived in this house. In the 1960’s it was owned by Dr. Wilson. When I was there I made sure I took plenty of pictures of all the rooms. My dad often spoke of his childhood in this house and how they thought it was haunted even back then. On the front porch was a model of the home that was found in the basement when it was turned into a bed and breakfast I have a picture of that too.
I was told by the proprieters of the Bed and Breakfast told me that Matty Maroun owns
the property along with other properties up and down the drive. He owns the propety at the foot of Lauzon and the Drive too. He scooped it all up when the Canadian government first announced that they were thinking of putting in a second border crossing. He wanted to make sure that he owned as much of the vacant land that was available. I guess he over looked the Brighten Beach area..
So far all that’s come down is that gazebo out front.
This house will not be torn down. It is on the heritage list, but it dates from the early 1900s (according to the schedule) I don’t know why, if it was supposedly built in the late 1800s?
Does the city just guess?