A final look back at the now closed Greyhound station.
An architectural rendering of the station. From the Bernie Drouillard collection.
The station was designed in 1939, by Greyhound architects Bonfield & Cummings along with longtime Windsor Architects Sheppard & Masson. It was a common practice that when out of town architects did work in a city that they would take a local firm on as “associate architects”. This is the first time I have seen the main architects listed as “associates”. Perhaps as a US firm they weren’t eligible to practice in Ontario?
A view of the elevation plans of the station. Note in the lower right hand side, how close the tunnel ventilation shaft runs to the ground. The proximity of the tunnel to the existing structure will make the redevelopment of the site very difficult. I can sense a surface lot….
A view of the station and the bus sheds from above.
Now vacant, the station looks bare and decrepit. Years of dirt have accumulated behind the sign leaving the outline still plainly visible from University Ave.
A few shots of the bus loading area.
From the Border Cities Star - December 6, 1924, almost a century ago to the…
Built in 1929, the house at 2177 Victoria Avenue was originally numbered 1545 Victoria, pre…
Crescent Lanes first opened on Ottawa Street in 1944 at 1055 Ottawa Street, opposite Lanspeary…
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…
View Comments
They should turn both the bus terminal and the armouries into a combined farmer's market. Eastern Market in downtown Detroit is 5 blocks wide by 10 blocks long. They have 5 big sheds there filled with food dealers, etc., with each shed being bigger than St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. But, what am I thinking, this is Windsor. The city doesn't care about keeping historical buildings in service or promoting downtown with any other anchors than the bar crowd.
You people have to stop. You all have some kind of vision and Windsor doesn't like that!
Don't you think it would be easier to demolish it and let the land stay vacant for 20 years than to actually do something? Ego's and agendas need to be pumped up before anyone can add their two cents.
Chris Holt brought up the BK site (formerly the great Top Hat Restaurant). We wouldn't have to worry about it going across from the Armouries if Eddie didn't want to have a large tunnel plaza for HIS corporation. Can anyone tell me again why we are building this when vehicular traffic is at an all-time low?
It's called foresight ME, something that has been lacking for years in this region--building for tomorrow you know, instead of building for yesterday? The 401 wasn't built to connect to the border because traffic in the 1960s didn't warrant it--where did that get us? And exactly what corporation of Francis' will benefit the plaza expansion? Last I knew his family sold Royal Pita, if that's what you mean.
JT. He is head of the Tunnel Corporation . Eddies grand vision (or illusions. Possibly delusions) for the tunnel is to buy the Detroit half for $75 million with OUR tax dollars. I am sure we will hear something about his wisdom since he is now in control of the airport as well.
Eddie acts like these are HIS corporations and buys and wheels and deals with OUR money. He could care less whether his business ventures succeed or not.
Are there any exsisting "unmodernized" examples of what I would call streamliner modern artecture in the Windsor/Detroit area? There was a design school around that time that thought that buildings should have smooth sides with curved and/or round windows and/or stainless cladding like around the base of the Greyhound tower. A shoe store in downtown Ypsilanti I worked in during the late '60's had that type of cladding under the display windows that looked like it could have been stripped off something built by Canadian Car and Foundry for the CPR's Canadian.
http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=445
Thank you, John. Anybody got any others in the metro area?
Wow, some people here had some foresight! This building IS beautiful, and could be a lot more beautiful if the 70s siding was ripped off and the building restored.