Norton Palmer

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• I'm stumped. What is this?

• Even though I'm a Windsorite, I've gotta say that comparing this to the Book-Cadillac is like comparing apples to oranges. While I've never seen interior pics of the NP, I doubt it even came anywhere close to the interiors of the Statler, which was demolished a couple years ago. Nothing in Windsor came close to the calibre of buildings that are undergoing rehabs or condo conversions in Detroit.

• I've been told the guest rooms in the NP were very small, too small to appeal to someone expecting in a high end hotel downtown. Is this true, does anyone know? And if so, how difficult would it have been to knock down walls or otherwise combine 2 or more smaller guest rooms to make larger suites? From any exterior picture I've seen, it looks like an attractive building that would have been an asset to downtown Windsor today.

• David I think you have reading comprehension issues. Andrew did not say it was comparible to the Book-Cadillac. What he DID say was that is would be a prime candidate for rehab like the BC.

  John, anything is possible. I am sure those rooms could have been opened up for condos or larger hotel rooms. They did the same with the BC. Closer to home look what they did with the Walkerville Whisky warehouse.
  I would imagine that the rooms would have been smaller as that was the way it was back then. From an old-timer in Windsor I spoke to before the NP became sort of a run-down "cheap" hotel in it's latter days.

• John, I heard the same thing that the rooms were tiny and it ended up being a cheap transient hotel run by a slumlord.

  ME, if you're using an analogy, you're basically saying it's comparable. But, it's not. It's apples and oranges. Comparing Cadillacs to Ford Fiestas instead of Ford LIncolns. It's not in the same league. The BC is a much higher calibre building which allows for much higher price points. The condos in the Book Cadillac are selling for a $1million plus because it's such a glorious building. You wouldn't get that in downtown Windsor. I can get a condo for $50K in Le Goyeau, $80K in VPP. Where's the market? Also, the BC was never a cheap hotel; they just locked their doors and closed shop when the demand for luxury hotels dropped--they never sliced up the rooms and made a structural mess to accomodate cheap ass tenants.

  As for the whiskey warehouse, they gutted so much of it that it isn't even even worthy of a historical designation.

  Doesn't mean I don't cringe everytime I see a historical building slated for demolitiion in Windsor. But, there's no sense crying over spilt milk. Move on! Instead of focusing in on buildings slated for demolition to try to prevent it, we end up bit-ching about what we lost.

• i think he's just saying it would have been nice to do something like what they're doing to the BC. not it was on the same scale as the BC, we're all perfectly aware of that. it was just a beautiful old hotel that would have been a nice rehab. but as far as the club lofts are concerned.....crap. those things are hideous to me, i see nothing special about them. there's practically nothing there to tell me what it was from the outside.

• Well for eight years this site has been very much about remembering "lost" Windsor through photos, postcards, and other memorabilia. To that end, I don't think this post qualifies as crying over spilt milk, David. And I do agree with Aaron and ME, Andrew was talking about a rehab project along the lines of the BC, not saying this building was a dollar-for-dollar twin to the BC.

• Every one but David got my point... If this building was still standing, it COULD have been rehabbed today. Likely the rooms were very small by today's standars, but all hotels of that era were. The Book Cadillac was, as was the General Brock in Niagara Falls.

  Don't read too much into the post David, it's just another slice of "what used to be"...

• There used to be a cozy little bar in the southeast corner, entrance off of Pelissier. Swell meat pies and Molson's for lunch back in the late '60s. Anybody remmember what it was called?

• Besides the tiny rooms, there was no sizeable open space in the building. The structure involved a network of huge supporting pillars each about a metre square. Even the lobby was cut up by the pillars. They brought the structure down by using explosives on these supports. It was cheaper to demolish and build anew than attempt to up-date the services. TA similar fate befell the same-era Prince Edward Hotel at Park and Ouellette Streets. One classic building still remains, the Canada Building, which was next to the "Prince Eddy'" There was a note in The Star's business pages this past week the Canada Building has sold to a Vancouver group for $2.1 million. The story says the owners plan to restore the public elevator area on each floor to the original marble and brass fittings. Architect A.H. MacPhail designed the Arts and Crafts style building in 1930.