Smith’s Department Store – 1954

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• Yeah I remember my folks talking about the old Smith's department store. They used to tell me how much they missed the place, the friendly service and the high quality merchandise they carried. Told me when you bought a shirt or pants from Smith's you knew it was the best. Too bad folks in Windsor were too dumb and ignorant to see the value of an institution like Smith's.

• The second photo which shows the location on Pitt is that where the EPPS store was located later or was EPPS in a different building and do you have any photo's of it?
  I remember going there when I was a kid,
  Thanks

• Guido - EPPS was on Chatham... Where Cheetahs is located today. I'm not sure if it had a home before that locatation downtown. That's the only one I'm familiar with.

  This would be on Pitt, just east of Ouellette. Today the entire area on Pitt is a parking lot.

• May I make a suggestion for a new motto for the city core... "Come for the ample surface lot parking....stay for our vacant office space!"
  Everyday you post I see how much the loss of the Norwich block did to the downtown. Without a cultural core in our downtown, all of our other bright spots don't get a chance to shine. Imagine the art gallery being housed right on the main strip in a building with some character.

• I'm not sure what Windsorites could have done to prevent a sale to Marks & Spencer. It happens in the business world. Big buys smaller, though these days, small can buy big - look at Kmart & Sears. It's hard to imagine that Kmart doesn't exist and its huge Troy HQ will be gone, if not already.

  Not sure what the situation was for Marks to buy Smith's, maybe the owners wanted out at that time. Keeping a business going decade after decade is grueling, and competition only gets fiercer (more fierce?) every year.

  Cool post though. I forget the intertwining of Canada and the Empire that used to exist. I think for most Canadians, they have little if any connection to Britain these days.

• Oh yeah that's correct Andrew now I recall. Sorry it's been awhile.

• I remember shopping in Smiths. More importantly, my parents, who both worked downtown, and thousands of others were regulars there and shopped during their lunch hours and after work. People working downtown had many shopping opportunities back then. Smiths, Bartlett's, Birk's, the Metropolitan, Kresges, Adelmans and a host of smaller clothing and dry goods boutiques. Sometimes I would take the bus downtown to meet up with my parents after school. We'd have a bite to eat at one of the many fine eateries, do some shopping and then hop on a bus and go shopping on Ottawa street. All while the snow was flying. Some of the Smith family still lives in the county today. The original Bartlett House/Home is located on the 800 block of Argyle. By the way, many of these very unique and high end retail anchors were locally grown. Fewer people lived downtown in the 50's and sixties than do today. South Windsor and East Windsor were still the hot suburbs back then and people commuted by foot, bus and car to this wonderful downtown destination. Any taIt amazes me that given our growing inclination towards all which is urban that some of our well healed citizens today aren't embarking on retail ventures like these. It's not far fetched and no more difficult than opening up a factory. Any Takers? Keep this in mind. If Windsor is to become a unique destination (like no other) it has to have unique attractions. Found nowhere but here. The Likes of all of the establishments mentioned earlier were like that. I, for one, am a firm believer that we can do it again, only better.

• Businesses will always come and go, but these buildings are part of OUR public realm. The buildings belong to the streetscapes and thats public territory!. It belongs to you and me. We always have the final say on what's built and what's destroyed. It will never cease to amaze me that somwhere along the line we began to tear down brick and stone to put up particle board and vinyl. These old pictures definitely show what we lost and what we need to get back.

• I would have only been 5 when Smith's closed so maybe I'm remembering wrong....was Smith's the store with the old fashioned iron gate elevator and hardwood floors?? We use to take the bus from LaSalle to Downtown and go to Smiths then Kresge's for lunch.

• It's too bad Shanfields couldn't have moved their business into one of these buildings. The appearance of the building they have now is a disgrace to downtown.