In October 1924, The Baum & Brody Furniture company moved from their store on what is today Riverside Dr. E., just west of Goyeau to the corner of Chatham & Ferry.
Today this building that has had a long history as a downtown watering hole, remains nearly identical.
The building began life as the home of the Universal Car Agency in 1912. The Universal Car Agency sold “The Ford Automobile, The Russell & The Cadillac”. The building served as both a showroom, and a service garage.
The company took out a full page ad to celebrate their move to the new location in October, 1924.
Now coming up on its 97th birthday, it is staggering to think, just how many people have walked through those doors over the years, whether looking for a car, a washing machine, a seafood dinner or a beer.
The scary thing to think is that the next several years could decide if this building survives and thrives into the future or succumbs to the fate of the wrecking ball.
Talk about a building in need of a little TLC…
Unknown architect?
I noticed in the opening notice it says “Music Souvenirs Music” I wonder what kind of music a furniture store would hire to play back then? Barber quartet? It’s too blurry to read. So, the furniture started out it’s first day on the Chatham location playing live music and now it’s a licensed bar playing live music. This would sound better if the car dealership also started out it’s first day playing live music…
Can’t say much for the colour scheme though. The pink/red/blue/other salad mismash of colours clashes. If they want to see it sold, they should paint it one colour like all blue or all red. This just hurts my eyes like a florescent pink flamingo in Russell Woods…
You can still see the painted baum and brody sign on the rear wall.
I remember shopping for furniture with my parents at Baum and Brody and my ex husband and I bought a rug there in 1970. The last time I was in The Loop, upstairs, the wonderful tin ceiling was still in place.
A candidate for stucco??
Nice building overall. It’s size and shape lends it to multiple uses, office, retail, food service, and even a car dealer years ago. Hopefully the structure has been maintained sufficiently as well.
It’s not an architectural jewel, but an honest, hardworking building, and the city needs more of those, not less.
The building is reallly starting to look worse for the wear. It has been for sale for some time now and in my opinion would make a great place for small retail business, both on the first and second floors.
To me it is the last building that really needs to be fixed up on an otherwise fantastic looking street (barring the street lights).
I’ll join the chorus in saying this building needs some love, and soon.
It would be nice if all those former windows could be opened up again. The second floor could easily serve as office space.
Always wondered why they didn’t open the windows. Though keeping it a watering hole is good for windsor. It’s a little garish at times, but the Loop was — and still is — the clearing house for all of Windsor’s sub-cultures/musical niches. Nothing like it up here in Toronto (everybody has their own bar). It needs a lot of love, perhaps some better programming, but keep it a cultural venue. Without, and Phog, Windsor just has the kiddie bars.
Question for those who know: When did the coach open? I first went there in 93, and it seemed like it had been there forever.
An image of the first Ford dealership in the area is posted at;
http://www.walkervilletimes.com/23/gallery23-4.html
It includes the text, “one of the first Ford dealerships in the region was located on the site of The Old Fish Market.”
Ok, so I guess that’s where the “Old Fish Market” name came from. I keep hearing about bands playing at the old Fish Market. That must be connection. So, before this building and Ford dealership parking lot there must have been an older building called the Fish Market or was the old Fish Market just an outdoor market like Eastern Market where fish dealers pitched tents to sell their goods on the weekend?
In the 90’s there was a restaurant on the ground floor called the old fish market.
Shawn, I remember the Coach & Horses being open in the ’80s as well. It was a blues type bar at the time. There is a bar on the main floor which I don’t even know what it’s officially called – I think it’s an annex of the Loop?? Anyway, there’s a great funk/groove band that plays there on Thursday nights. I agree with you about that place’s uniqueness. Its closure/demo would leave a giant hole in downtown. It’s not just an ordinary watering hole.
Lots of memories in that old building.
In the late eighties the Tea Party was essentially the house band at the Coach (or the Roach, for the native species) they practiced upstairs in what would become The Loop.
Favourite band that I saw there – The Pariahs (out of Kingston, I think).
The question is, of course, how much work does the building need to be refurbished? It is likely that the owners, like most commercial property owners, bought the building as an opportunity, not a true investment. The commercial real estate market is likely in worse shape than the residential market since most commercial property purchases were leveraged on the “value” of the other holdings a company/individual had. So, I would expect this building to fall into worse repair until ultimately is has to be razed because the cost of repairing it will have exceeded any dollar value it may hold. (Unless of course it mysteriously burns to the ground.)
The bar on the first floor is called Pogo’s, I believe. Hopefully if the building ever gets sold, it stays open or is renovated properly to enhance that area of downtown. I could see some nice lawyer or business offices on the second floor with a bar/restaurant on the mainfloor & basement or even some small retail shops.
I’ve read that the era of Big-Box retail is rapidly coming to an end, thanks to tightening credit and lower spending on big-ticket items. It’s the old vicious cycle they say: more layoffs equals less discretionary income. What a perfect opportunity to re-invent downtown Windsor as a retail hub.
Don’t hold your breath. Big box is here to stay because of diversification large selection of products, convienence, better warranties, better prices from economies of scale, and FREE PARKING… Last time I checked, Walmart is now open 24 hours, has free parking, they didn’t give me a hard time over returning stuff, and they added a whole new grocery line… Why waste your time going somewhere else?
Nonetheless, it would be premature to envisage a useful purpose for this building without first having a vision for downtown development.
There is already an overpopulation of bars most of which the general population would not visit after dark.
As far as I know, the only long term plan for downtown involves building a canal. Unfortunate.
It would be nice to have a plan to include tourism the and promotion of the arts and history somewhat like Niagara on the Lake; link with Walkerville and Sandwich via a trolley system along the waterfront.
David, why waste you time? Because Wal-Mart is garbage. The fact that people like you shop there is why our manufacturing base in North America is in shambles. You couldn’t pay me to go into a wal-mart and buy their garbage products.
I’ll support a local business any time I can over Sprawl-Mart. There isn’t much you can buy there that you can’t get elsewhere. As for the free parking argument, that’s over rated. I would rather pay .25 at a meter on Ottawa St. and run into a shop there to get what I need. I can go to say Canada Salvage and pick what ever I need, pay a quarter to park, and be back home before I would even get to any of the big box crap stores.
You can have your Wal-Mart.
Sorry to say, but the idea of the big box has been around for over a century and it’ll be around for centuries after. Detroit pioneered the big box with Kresges and Hudson’s (the world’s tallest with 28 stories in downtown) over 80 years ago. The reason downtown Windsor doesn’t have it, which would bring people back to downtown, is that the mayor f’d it up with high taxes and pay parking. He should be replanning downtown, offering free parking, and marketing the urban village lands to a big box development to bring people back to downtown instead of sitting on his lazy butt with his overpriced salary with his useless and costly Development Commission staff… As long as we have this mayor, we’re gonna see many more downtown demos.
Ottawa street seems to be doing OK with pay parking, there are only a few small municipal lots & street parking yet there are plenty of businesses in the area. They have a nice diverse range of shoe stores, clothing stores, restaurants, bars, banks, travel agents, dentists etc. To top it all off, there’s not a single national “Big Box” retailer on the street.
I don’t think a big box retailer with free parking downtown would help revive stores on Ouellette, Pelissier, University, Park or Wyandotte Street. Downtown needs a diverse range of retail stores with a better mix of residential and office space. Currently we have empty office space (i.e. Chrysler Building), lots of bars/restaurants and empty apartment buildings. The city needs to lower taxes on commercial/retail spaces to entice business to open up. We need to attract tourists to the Casino and to visit local restaurants and shops downtown, but most of all we need residents of this city to once again want to go downtown.
David that is the most absurb thing I have heard in a long while. Buld a big-box store downtown? What would that solve? Now a big square building would be built and large swaths of land would be needed for their sea of parking. How is that conducive to downtown? How does that bring back retail?
What we need is savvy people in city hall working with the BIA to attract independant retailers and chain retailers (like they have at the mall) and give them some incentives to move downtown. Other cities have done it so why doesn’t Windsor?
Ottawa Street has a lot of vacancies. It’s not doing fine. And, if it wasn’t for the three major anchors there–Canada Salvage, Liquidation World, and Freeds–no one would go there.
Attracting small independent/chain retailers without a major anchor is ridiculous, ME. And, it’s already been tried and failed, e.g., American Apparel on Pelissier, Quiznos on Ouellette, etc. Devonshire Mall is successful because of its three major anchors (big box)–Zeller’s, Sears, and the Bay. If you take away those major anchors, you can kiss the small retailers at Devonshire Mall goodbye. The same thing happened with the London Galleria and Kitchener’s Downtown King Centre when they lost their major anchors. The small retailers follow the major anchors… Show me a successful mall without major anchors.
The big box could have underground parking like Toronto. Hudson’s Department Store in Detroit had a 4-6 storey underground parking garage, which is still there, minus the demo’d building, which was on top, the garage was built 80+ years ago… And, you still had a lot of small retailers in downtown. This worked in downtown Detroit many, many years ago. I think an Ikea would be the best candidate, but the our useless Mayor and commission are too lazy market it. We need a new mayor with the energy to promote this city’s downtown.
One last point — downtown windsor needs more retail, yes, but there is lots of other space for it. Keep this building a cultural hub (root for improvements and etc) because Windsor needs this building for all the Richard Florida creative class reasons.
I have played here and drank there and refuse to do so ever again. The entire building has been in a state of neglect for so long that a stentch of urine and feces pervades the whole place. I have known employees who have been sick for years whilst working there and miraculously had a turn around for the better when they quit or found work elsewhere. There are serious plumbing and mold issues throughout. It is sad that the corporation that owns the building have let it go. Sadly I think the reno would be too costly to make any fiscal sense whatsoever. I am not claiming to be a building engineer but I think it’s very probable that this building will meet it’s proverbial Dr. Kervorkian.
James, you have stated the case very well. Ken has added a personal touch to the same argument.
I am actually going to agree with David here. He and I are apparently thinking the exact same thing. For a while now, I’ve been trying to figure out what major retailer, that is a draw on its own merits, could be brought into downtown. And I settled on something like an IKEA. But, that is just a dream. IKEA would not come to Windsor since there is already a store across the border.
ME, a store like IKEA draws people by merely existing. If one stood downtown you would have at least a thousand new eyeballs walking past all the other attractions every single day. Why not put a camera store next to it? IKEA does not sell cameras, but a thousand people walking by would mean easy shopping for some of them. Restaurants would benefit the same way. Independent stores cannot do this on their own.
Our city bungled the arena project by not placing it downtown. We caved to the Casino, from what I am told. That was just stupid — even on the part of the Casino operators. More people downtown would have been good for the Casino, but they saw competition. That was short sighted stupidity.
David, last time I checked none of those stores on Ottawa are “big box” stores as we know them. They are locally owned businesses with no ties to the big box stores that have emerged since the 1990’s. You know, that decade where we had a jobless recovery after the recession? I wonder what helped to foster that?
Big box? Sorry but I believe those to be department stores. Hardly a “big box” with their acres of parking and no feel to their cold dead stores (sorry racking stacked to the roof of a shell of a building is not aesthetic in any way). My definition of big-box is much different then your I guess.
Now I will say an anchor tenant is a good idea which is why this city should be going after those types of tenants downtown while working with the building owners to do something with their disgusting buildings (I still believe that we should have a building criteria throughout our city. If you can’t afford to upkeep it you shouldnt be owning it). But then we can’t even have a properly functioning small business task force so what does that say about this region let alone a development commission.
As for those storews that failed, ask them what their TAXES were. Ask them what their RENT was? Both are so mind boggling is it any wonder we have any business downtown at all?!
As for an Ikea it will NEVER happen here because they place their stores in strategic places as to not interfere within each stores territory.
Why does everyone think Richard “the snake oil salesmen” Florida is so great? He is just re-hashing the same crap that has ben said many decades ago. “Get educated people (IE: the creative class) to live close to one another and great things will happen.” Well, no shit Sherlock! You can do that with most people who are educated. How do you get them to live close to one another? How do you get these people to locate if the jobs aren’t already there (they go to places where there is a resource)? He has easy solutions but he has no path or guide to get anyone there. In my opinion he spouts good stuff but gives no road map. I hardly think he is worth what he charges. Consider me not a fan.
do we not have enough? (bigboxes?) You want downtown back? Major revamping… looks too 1970’s. no style. In addition you need unique shops, both upper scale and mid range. How do you get them? who knows. Maybe offer incentives for stores to open a 2nd location downtown, or maybe attract new stores with incentives… but it must be more than 1 at a time… must be a good 5 to start. Nobody will go downtown just to go to 1 store, then leave. Besides, in this current market, i dont think even the best of downtown’s could attract business. looks like we gotta ride this one out, BUT, it doesn’t mean we cant prepare for the upswing!
Painted brick….sigh
The current bar owners no longer own the building. It was purchased years ago by the group that owns Cheetah’s etc. The bar owners lease the building from them and pay rent. Of course, this wasn’t the case years ago, when a corporation from Toronto owned the restaurant (Old Fish Market) and the respected bars (Coach, Pogo’s, Loop). Yes, there is definitely some run down building issues there, yet it continues to remain a hub of creative and artistic activity. So, do they spend the money? Does the landlord spend the money? Or do they continue to leave it as-is since the kids don’t care?
Why are you guys trying to turn one of the best bars in Windsor into an office building. Yes, the building needs some TLC, it is 101 years old this year, but like Shawn said, it is a unique environment. It’s the one building in the city where everybody can go at any time and mix and mingle with people from all sorts of sub-cultures. The Loop is the upstairs, The Coach and Horses is downstairs. Pogo’s is the area where you first walk in on the main floor, when you enter through the Ferry St. door (the same door to get to Loop & C&H) and then the FM Lounge (or Fish Market) is past the bar in Pogo’s, where there’s usually a band, or a jam session going on. Sure, it kinda smells like sewage in some section, and the floor is squishy, and the stairs up to the Loop feel like they’re falling apart (more-so recently, than usual) but it’s a fantastic place. I’d love to see it fixed up and cleaned up, but not if it changes anything else about the place, or the people.
And didn’t anybody notice the joke in the story about the furniture store? They set it up like a wake/funeral for the old store. Viewing from “2-5 p.m. 7-10 p.m.”