This entry comes at the suggestion of regular reader Gabe. He asked about this building located on Caron Avenue just south of Wyandotte St.
For many years this building was home to Canadian Linen. But for the last few years, it appears to have been vacant and is currently up for sale. It is listed at $379k.
According to the City of Windsor heritage inventory, the date of construction is listed as c. 1904. With the brick construction, it appears to be similar in age and construction to the recently lost Seagrave Building.
Here is a photo of the building from 1913, when it was home to its original tenant the Lufkin Rule Company of Canada.
Lufkin Rule, made tape measures and other various rulers. According to the company history at Cooper Industries, they entered the Hand Tool Market with the acquisition of Lufkin Rule in 1967. The Lufkin name lives on today as a division of Cooper Industries.
Does anyone out there have anything to add about Lufkin? Any relatives work there? Anyone remember when it closed?
A friend of mine had her art studio in this building, but was evicted for some reason, as was other artists.
Wow… who would have thought such a familiar name had a base in Windsor? These were the days when manufacturing was booming and not solely based on automotive.
Indirectly, some additional information on Lufkin Rule may be found at http://www.skowheganwoodenrule.com/history.htm; was the Windsor plant the Canadian base for operations until the sale to Cooper? It’s too bad Windsor lost such industries… Lufkin, Seagrave and likely many more to be featured here in the future. 🙂 I bet the list is long.
I had heard that the tenants were evicted because the Fire Department ruled the building in violation of many safety rules and the space could no longer be rented out until the place was brought to code. Apparently the owner was a cheap skate. Maybe it’s been updated since he was forced to give up his income for a period. Does this sound familiar to anyone? It’s probbaly not 100% accurate.
wow…i’d love to get a hold of that building!! what a great spot to hold a whole network of people working on similar projects. unfortunately i don’t have 397k to spend at the moment.
Would be a fine place for Windsor’s Centre for Social Innovation. socialinnovation.ca
Imagine how nice this building was with original bottom windows and no paint on the brick !!
i had a band that used a room here as a rehearsal space briefly. i liked it quite a bit and it. as i recall i took a big mastercard sticker from the room on the last day we were there
Apparently some of Windsor’s finest creatives came and went through this building. Artists and musicians alike practised and held studio space here. Last year’s “Freak Show” lobrow/surrealist art show was held here to much acclaim. It’s still in relatively good shape for relatively cheap $$$. Someone should definitely buy this and open it back up to Windsor’s floundering creative class.
lufkin, seem to rember them on prince road in the old bendix plant, before bendix moved in.
ron
I knew a guy living there just over a year ago. Some of the floors were sectioned off into apartments, (if you could call them that) with people living there and sharing one small bathroom for the whole floor. I thought it was kind of romantic until I found out how much he was paying for it. Six hundred bucks is WAY too much for sharing a bathroom with 4 other apartments!
I remember being invited to a party after a night’s worth of drinking and dancing at Changez in 2002, I believe. The host was actually living there at the time…so Scotty’s confirmed what I thought, that it’s somewhat converted into lofts. $600/month for Windsor’s a bit much, considering the space, though I’m living in TO and that’d certainly be a bargain here…
PC> I really like your idea. I’d love to see a space like this filled with people with different skill sets, but collaborating on larger projects and contracts. Contact me if you want to talk about this possibility, because I really like it and have been thinking about the same thing for quite a while now.
Anyone know what the reason was that everyone got kicked out of this one?