Another intersting old Windsor photo from the Virtual Motor City Collection:
This aerial view is dated July 1971.
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…
An unremarkable end to a part of Windsor's history. The large vacant house at 841…
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Well John, personally I loved the old plywood palace, plenty of good memories there. I'll never forget hizzoner Hurst on the front of the Star the next day grinning wildly as it burned--firefighters and tax dollars at risk in the meantime. As wonderful as the ribbon of parkland along the river is--the zealots who pursued that agenda so feverishly are another matter altogether. To think that heathens would same day want a liquor license for a bistro in that park--OH THE HUMANITY!
Remember the swanky 60s-style lobby for the Odeon? Survived pretty much unchanged right up until it closed--best view I've ever gotten from a cinema lobby for certain!
The Holiday Inn, for interest sake, had no foundation--it was built literally sitting on top of the old Government Dock. I'm guessing some of that same concrete still exists under where the hotel was--mind you it's been resurfaced.
Is the Steamboat Landing proposal still alive for that area--or has it been deemed "too commercial"?
It's also too bad that the very nice Essex Building at Riverside and McDougall didn't make it into that picture--remember who great that place was looking right before it was demolished?
There was actually another hotel on Ouelette which was demolished some time in the mid-80s or thereabouts. If memory serves, it was between Erie St. and Giles Blvd. and is now a large parking lot. It was several stories high, I'm guessing at least 10 or 15. I couldn't tell you the name, but I'd be curious to know. It's not visible in the photo due to being obscured by the large apartment building (Ouelette Manor?).
Anyway, very cool photo. It really makes me miss the Norwich block.
WFW The hotel you are referring to was the Viscount Hotel which ceased operations on January 3 1983. It was 19 stories with CKWW occupying the top floor. It was connected to the adjacent Macabee building (4 stories). It was quite the hotspot at one time, with it's 18th floor Dining Room and 17th floor Disco Lounge .
17th floor disco lounge. I wonder who went there. And if it was good -- or sort of lame.
Viscount is a fuzzy memory for me, but I remember thick carpets and wallpapers, sort of a baroque 1960s feel.
I agree about the Odeon Lobby....very nice, and great view of Detroit.
How can one see pictures of the former Viscount Hotel? That building sounds interesting. I wonder what the architecture was like.
i have an old photo of the viscount, but it's very poor quality taken from the roof of the royal windsor terrace in the early 80s.
IFor perspective, if I were standing on the Detroit side of the river, where would I be? The Norfolk & Western car float is throwing my ability to locate the shot a bit......
The Viscount Hotel eh? Thanks for the info. I was only a kid when it closed, but I remember having a great view of it from my Grandma's apartment on the 23rd floor of Ouellette Manor. If memory serves, it was a fairly typical 50s (I'm guessing) glass & steel construction. I recall dark-tinted windows and a large red neon sign on the roof which presumably read "Viscount Hotel".
Doug,
On the Detroit side you would be about where the RenCen is. If the photo wasn't from 1971, you could have been on the top floor.