Regular reader Darren was kind enough to send along this crop of an image that he took in the early 1980’s.
In it you can see the former Viscount Hotel (marked with a red dot). He apologized for the lousy quality, but any photo is better than none at all. So a big thanks to Darren for sending the photo.
Below find a scan from a mid 1960’s ad in the Windsor Star…
As you can see in the ad, the Viscount was located at 1150 Ouellette Ave. Today, 1150 is the site of a parking lot.
Located directly to the west of the Bell Building on Goyeau. Hands down the tallest building demolished in Windsor’s history.
The Viscount had a brunch on Sundays. Our family would go occasionally, and it was a real treat. The view was great.
Shortly after it was torn down, a future condo project started there, but I don’t know if they even got a shovel in the ground. All I remember was the big sign on the perimeter fence around the old Viscount property. There was the usual pre-selling hype. It was called “The Pheonix” and the gimmick was that this great condo building was to “rise from the ashes” of the Viscount. For whatever reason, that went bust and as Andrew noted, we have a parking lot for HDH hospital instead.
How’s that song go- “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot”….
Wow, a nightclub on the 17th floor. It’s very unique. It must have been pretty popular, especially with no cover. I’d pay a huge cover to get into a place with a 17th floor view like that.
It’s too bad they couldn’t do something like that with the RenCentre–turn the top floor restaurant into a nightclub.
As for the demolition, the title of tallest demolished building in Windsor will be beat as friend of mine said that the casino already handed out notices to the residents that they’ll be demolishing the Raymond Demarais highrise on Riverside, which is 20 stories for another parking lot, in a year and a half. So, unnecessary and backwards. Demolishing high rises for parking lots in downtown. Maybe we should bring back cobblestone roads and horse drawn carriages to downtown.
I.m not sure it was the tallest building ever raised here. Does anyone have any info. on the Norton Palmer Hotel or the The Prince Edward?
In the seventies free cover was a given just about everywhere. The Viscount was one of many cool dancing joints. As far as the demolition goes there were serious problems with that building. As new as it was, it started to lean. You could see it against the skyline from east to west. Probably the footings were made from reinforced oatmeal.
“Continuous Dancing” — that’s funny. In the early days of discotheques, there there was no language — or assumed knowledge — about what these nights were like.
Some deep googling didn’t reveal any photos of the Viscount, but somebody must have some in their collections somewhere. It was an interesting building because it was so square and narrow — and the interesting top floors that were dark glass. Mysterious looking and curious.
M.O.M.> Indeed yes, I’ve heard people talk about the elevator shafts squeezing the elevators over time, or something to that effect.
The Viscount was the first place in which my wife and I stayed before we came to Windsor. Early 1974, we walked over from the train station, checked in at the Viscount, and had dinner at The Green Man restaurant (which, if I remember correctly, was on the southeast corner of Elliott & Ouellette).
Sometime in the early/mid-eighties, one of the news guys at CKWW (which used to occupy the top floor of the building), told me that the roof was in such bad condition, that they were concerned that the air-conditioning unit (a somewhat substantial size) was in danger of coming through the ceiling. He had heard that there was so much water damage to the structure underneath that the cost of repair was higher than the owner was willing to bear. And of course, a few years later, the building was taken down.
thanks for posting this. i sent you a better quality wider shot also today. or last night. can’t remember. i seem to remember going there for breakfast at a restaurant inside somewhere. i think on the street level, but hard to remember now.
i wonder why it was torn down. such a large building. i’ve used that parking lot quite a bit to see a doctor. makes me sad that’s all there is now.
I highly doubt a leaky roof had any bearing on demolishing an 18 storey highrise built in the 1960s. Roofs are replaced all the time on highrises, the floors and framing is steel and concrete and water stained ceiling tiles are easily and cheaply replaced. If there was any concern with regards to an air conditioning unit falling through the roof (which I doubt because the roof and everything added to it like an air conditioner has to follow building code and be reviewed by city building inspectors and engineers). The roof could be easily reinforced with steel “I” beams to prevent that. The cost is such a small amount as a percentange in comparison to the total value of the building. They’ve got 80 year old highrises in downtown Detroit that have been vacant for 30 years and are still structurally sound even though the roofs are gone because they are steel and concrete structures. And, I doubt it’d cost that much to reinforce the footings if you’re looking at percentages of the building’s total value. I suspect it had more to do with high hotel vacancies, high commercial property taxes and piss poor planning or initiative on the owner to consider an alternate use for the hotel section.
I didn’t mean to imply that the building was beyond saving, but instead that the owners probably felt that the cost of repairs was too high to keep the venture profitable (especially since they didn’t seem to be willing to fund repairs when the problems first began to appear). With a new hotel being built beside the Cleary (and the speculation about the future of the hole in the ground that eventually became the Compri, then the Radisson) it’s certainly possible to see demolition as the least-costly alternative. I have no doubt that, even if the roof had completely collapsed, the building itself could have continued to stand, but not as a functioning hotel (or at least, not without costly repair work).
And when I said that “they” were concerned about the air-conditioning unit coming through the roof, I should have specified that I wasn’t talking about engineers or building inspectors. Instead I was referring to the people who were working in the top couple of floors, and who saw evidence of the bad building maintenance on a near-daily basis. I knew a couple of them who expected to hear that it would be declared unsafe. At the time I thought that they were being a little alarmist, but when it was decided to demolish the building, I had to wonder if they weren’t correct.
But whatever the reason behind the decision to bring it down, it was sad to see it go…
I had heard that the owners of the Viscount never put any money into maintenance and that’s why the hotel quickly deteriorated.It was only about twenty years old when it finally bit the dust back in the 80’s. I remember being told by someone who’s dad inspected the building prior to being condemned that he’d never seen a building in worse shape than the old Viscount.
Hmmm A parking lot. This seems to be something that Windsor does very well.
IF and I mean a BIG IF, the casino was to raze the Desmarais building on Riverside Dr. E and put in a parking garage I am sure the city residents and especially the downtown merchants would have a shit fit. Aren’t we supposed to be trying to bring MORE people downtown to live? But then again, this is Windsor afterall and things that make sense here don’t usually happen.
As for the Viscount, I remember it had to be torn down due to the shape and the fact that it was leaning. Someone alluded to a new condo going up there as well. I too remember the fanfare but it was shortly lived as the recession of the early ’90s nixed any and all plans for it.
Does anyone remember the Kon-Tiki (sp?) Restaurant on the Viscount’s main floor? It featured a Polynesian motif with flaming lanterns outside that looked neat at night.
The Viscount was owned by the Corchis family and my mom & dad
were some of the initial investors.
My mom was in charge of housekeeping for many years and when
I was married in 1963 our wedding reception was held there and
spent ourwedding night there also.
Radio station CKWW was at the top and the adjoining building had
doctors,financial and other offices.
Thanks Wes, you wouldn’t happen to have any photos of it would you?
my mom was a desk clerk at the Viscount…. I remember going to the lounge when I was a kid and drinking cokes at the bar…. also spent an evening at the CKWW studios that were at the top of the building
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2010/06/10/viscount-hotel/
I never was in the Viscount but I do remember it was vacant for years before it was razed and I thought it was a shame. Also the Sheriton Chain operated the hotel before they closed the building.
Does anyone remember the “underground” radio station that was in Viscount Building? I think was it CJCS radio or something like that? I remember hearing David Bowies first song on that station. Would love to hear from anyone who remembers that station.
Nancy, I worked in the Viscount Smoke and Gift Shop from 1975 to 1981, and the only radio stations were CKWW on the 19th floor and CJOM in the Macabees building. My cousin George Corchis was one of the original owners.
Would anyone have a picture of the Viscount bar? My brother got the bar top when it was torn down and now my son has it and is having it refinished for the bar he is building. I have searched the internet for a pic so he can put it behind the bar but can’t find any pics.