Windsor

A Mystery – 1936 Style

From the Windsor Star – July 31, 1936:

Windsor police today were searching for the driver of a car, which shortly before noon crashed into the guard rail of the C.P.R. Bridge on London Street West.

Police hurried to the scene, found the car, registered in the name of Alice O’Gorman of La Salle, but there was no sign of its occupants. Witnesses told police that the driver had been taken away in a car, apparently injured.

The car jumped the curb, demolished an iron railing around the front lawn of the Canada Packers office and ended up against the bridge guard, as shown above.

An empty liquor bottle, baskets of tomatoes and other produce were found in the car.

I love the description, produce and liquor… 🙂

Canada Packers was located on the south east corner of University Avenue (then known as London Street) and Salter. As seen in this fire insurance map from 1937.

The building still stands, and the scene of the mystery is marked by the yellow arrow.

The photo above is from 1949, and it looks like the bridge has either been replaced or widened as it looks much wider today. The fire insurance map above greatly exaggerates the narrowing of the bridge, although as you can see in the photo from 1949 it was a bit narrower than the road.

Maybe some of the rail fans out there will know if and when the CPR bridge at University was widened or replaced?

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