Unbuilt Windsor – # 4

View Comments

• Why did these buildings never get off the drawing board? Did they instead decide upon an uninspired building to be erected on the outskirts of town.

• Blame it on the homegrown credit unions and money lenders like WFCU. They only offer easy, low risk mortgages to blue chip high paying union jobs. Forget about industry championing luxury buildings and architectural marvels. If you want to do something nice for this city, our homegrown money lenders will only slam the door in your face and insult you to keep this city as a colony of Toronto. Very much unlike Detroit across the river where the money lenders actually believed in their city and the public good instead of making an easy buck! All that upfront cash wasted on architectural drawings. All those dreams from inspired individuals crushed and shattered by our local money lenders. A city with so much potential, but greedy and mundane lenders.

• Of all the irrational ramblings you've posted to date, this one takes the cake, David.

• David If I had to choose between Detroit and Windsor I think I will stay here in Windsor.
  Now on another point just admit why you have such hatred to the union and WFCU wait I think I know you applied for a job and you were turned down? you applied for a loan and got turned down because you have now job and bad credit?

• I used to like it when this blog was about local history. These comment sections are bordering on youtube territory.

• (of course the blog is still great just not some of the commentators)

• Never applied to for a UAW job, but they are part of the problem.

  WFCU sucks. Yes, they turned me down and that's why they suck. They're useless when someone with experience and vision comes to them. I have good credit, experience, and am self-employed. But, hey why would they be any different from any other lender in Windsor. That's one of the big reasons why this city never grew like Hamilton and London even though they had similar populations 80 years ago. It's a long local banking tradition from all the way back to when developers tried to get these buildings built.. The 40 storey Guardian in Detroit was built in 1929 along with a bunch of other glorious downtown buldings around this time like the Penobscott. But, you don't think it had anything to do with the local money lenders. OK, so these guys with vision just wasted all this money in architects' plans for nothing. You sure make a hell of a lot of sense, John

  Blair had to ask, so I had to give him the skinny.

• There could be so many reasons why these buildings didn't get built - maybe the developers got a better deal elsewhere; maybe the site wasn't appropriate; maybe they didn't get approval from the local government; maybe someone realized that there were already many hotels in the area and their profit level would be too small; maybe there was something going on in 1920's Windsor that is long-forgotten that influenced the decision not to build. Even now not every proposal comes to reality in any city - Windsor or otherwise.

  However....maybe world events got in the way, I dunno....maybe something like THE GREAT DEPRESSION???!!!

  I think the credit unions probably had very little to do with these buildings being built and, I'm not sure, but didn't credit unions become more prevalent after the 1920's? - I don't know for sure - feel free to correct me (....well....most of you)

• David, I understand you are upset because the WFCU said "NO" to your application for a loan in the year 2007, but the WFCU had nothing to do with the Royal Windsor, which was proposed in 1928, not being built.

  However, if you are willing to entertain a LOGICAL reason why it wasn't built, you may want to look at events such as the Great Depression.

  The Penobscot was built much earlier than the time frame of architectural prosperity in Detroit you speak of, by the way.

• John

  Penobscott and Fisher were built in 1928. Guardian 1929. The David Stott Building 1929. The First National Bulding with the beautiful granite and marble lobby was built in 1930.

  The third building in Windsor was proposed in 1926 and never got off the ground. What does that have to do with the depression??

  Jane. Nope. 1) If they were looking for a better deal, they wouldn't have wasted all this time and money on architectural plans, proposals and advertising; 2) Again, if the site wasn't appropriate, they wouldn't have wasted this kind of money beforehand--come on, you think entrepreneurs are stupid or something??; 3) the local government would have gotten tax dollars and normally went out of their way to see these projects through--building #3 was already talking about getting the city leasing a couple of these floors, and architects aren't gonna start churning out stuff that would never meet local code--it would ruin their reputation; 4) profit? Come on, the market research would have already been done long before all these soft costs such as architectural drawings and advertising were invested and the area was booming--Detroit had 1.6million people by 1930. Building #3 was proposed in 1926, long before the depression. And the depression didn't hit the areas around Detroit as hard as the business leaders kept it moving with economic activity. By 1930, Detroit produced more cars than the rest of the world combined. Did we get some of that spinoff?? Even up to the 1970s, business leaders in Detroit got together once again to try to make the city great after the riots destroyed the city, e.g, new construction projects like the Renaissance Centre organized by Henry Ford II and 50 other business leaders as well as other local banks like Commerica. That kind of teamwork and vision for Detroit by business leaders never really happened here because the local lenders here only thought about themselves and not the public good and turning this city around. That's why downtown Windsor sucks right now!