Smith’s Department Store – 1954

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• When the downtown department stores began closing in the late 70's and early 80's, most of the locals chalked it up to progress. Places like Smith's and Birk's were viewed as relics of a bygone era and an impediment to future economic progress. With the domestic auto industry fighting for its' life against the combined forces of the Japanese automakers and Windsor's unemployment rate in the double digits, Windsor's attention was focuses completely on the future of the auto industry locally to the detriment of everything else.

• I like the language of some of these ads. "Imposing array of British and Canadian merchandise."

  Which parking lot on Pitt is it?

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  George, is there anybody in Windsor you respect that isn't "dumb and ignorant"? How are windsorites dumb and ignorant when this phenomenon of downtown stores closing happened in most North American cities?

• Shawn, that whole block of Pitt St. is a parking lot :)

  It would be approx. behind the Travelodge today. There is a mural on the parking lot showing a vibrant street scene of the "good old days".

• Ah yes, OK (there are a few parking lots on Pitt to chose from). Murals often depict vibrant old times, thus they are a depressing phenomenon.

  Such a nice building.

• Smith's is where my sister and I ( and every other kid in Windsor ) went to sit on Santa's knee at Christmas time. It had to be Smith's because we all knew that was where the " real " Santa Claus was! The last time for me was in the same year as this ad appeared. And I still have the picture.

• To Shell...
  You are probably right. Smiths did have such an elevator and hardwood floors but so too did kresges, Bartlett's and Adelmans. Your experience is very similar to my own and probably many others. do you remember the lunch counter in Kresges? What did you eat there?

• The ad said that there's no federal tax on goods purchased from Smith's. I'm curious. Was there some kind of federal sales tax at Ontario stores outside of Windsor or was it like a duty free store catered to Americans or was it that people from Windsor generally bought their furniture and household items at Hudson's in Detroit and paid an import duty when shipping it to Windsor??

• Just tonight during dinner we were talking about all the finer stores that peppered the downtown area.....Bartlett, McDonald & Gow, Baum and Brody, Teehan's, Meretsky & Gitlin. Yes, the downtown has changed and maybe it will once again be a place that attracts locals and not just the drinking crowd.

• Gerry> Walkabout multi-use downtowns will come back to smaller cities as gas prices and etc go up. Suburban sprawl will be an 80 year blip. Or something like that.

• Only a city with as many dumb and ignorant people as Windsor would have allowed their entire architectural history to fall prey to the wrecker's ball with hardly a peep. A healthy downtown is the most visible sign of a healthy, vibrant community. Everyone knows that Windsor leads the nation in heart disease, cancer and diabetes and that our downtown is an empty wasteland of vacant lots and empty buildings. Do you get my point Shawn?