Years ago, while out shooting photos with John Stefani, we stumbled across a old cinder block building in an alley. It always seemed strange that the building was located in an alley and not on a road, but a recent discovery of an ad for the company, revealed that the alley was in fact once a road.
Parent Place, appears to have been little more than a glorified alley. Stretching two blocks north from Wyandotte, the old chimney (now demolished – but visible in the aerial photo) must have belonged to a Parent Place Business.
The 1923 directory lists three residential properties as being located on Parent Place.
Parent Place is marked on the photo, while the orange outline marks the location of the Windsor Bedding Company.
These photographs of the Windsor Bedding Company Building were shot in the fall of 2003.
The building was for sale at the time.
And it was demolished shortly after in early 2004.
Windsor Bedding moved from this location to a small operation on Tecumseh Road East which still stands today. It was active until well into the 1980s.
what are the parallel streets?
Rich – Parent is the closest street, while Langlois would be the one beyond it.
Rich, for reference the taller brick building on the right is Champs at Wyandotte and Parent.
I wish they were still around. This city could use a little “Assured Prosperity” right about now…
At least we still have Monarch Mattress. 🙂
This “street” has a least 1 piece of notoriety attached to it. A murder occured in 1991(or 92)near the brown area(east side of street) at the right center of the map. I was lucky enough to be on the jury.
Also many late night wanders down Parent Place in the middle 90s to get to Changez, the bar on Wyndotte…
What does this “notoriety” mean? What kind of murder was this? Man or woman? Hooker or drug dealer? Was this person beaten, stabbed or shot to death? Was this a failed mugging attempt gone bad? Was this from a fight that started at Changez? Did the killer know the victim for a long time or was this random? People walk down streets late at night all the time. Are you saying this is the worst area in Windsor to walk down late at night now? Murders happen all over the city. Good and bad areas. More facts PLEASE!
OK David, here’s the facts in a nutshell: This was the outcome of a dispute over car bodyworking tools between 2 men who knew each other–(insert your favorite ‘life sure is cheap’ thought here).
The killer parked his car in the brown area on the map,placed a loaded twin barrelled shotgun under the car(within handy reach) and sat on the trunk of the car waiting for the victim to emerge from a nearby garage.
The victim emerged,verbal(NOT physical) exchange ensued, killer pulled out loaded shotgun, victim yelled “Whattya gonna do? Shoot me??” ….KABLAAM with both barrels. The shot entered the victim in the armpit area(he’d raised his arm as an instinctive protection move) and the blast obliterated his aorta, coroner/pathologist says he was dead in seconds.
At the trial, the accused admitted to the shooting, offered no real defense and the Crown had a number of witnesses testify to the fact that the victim, while no choirboy, was never known to use physical violence or to have ever owned/used a weapon. The victim was also much smaller in stature than the killer,so no physical threat.
The killer got 12 yrs. without chance of parole(so he’s probably out now)
The whole process was fascinating study in human nature….
that’s the short version…
It’s nice to see that the graffiti on the wall (City Centre Crips) was spelled correctly, AND it was spelled in the British/Canadian way.
Gangsters who paid attention in English class? Only in Windsor.
yup, that is totally an alley! that chimney was right out the back door to changez and i always thought it would fall over while playin gigs at changes. this explains why the alley looked so street like and the homes that were for some reason in the alley!
That’s really interesting. I can think of a few other structures like that which are only accessible by alley. One that sticks out in my mind is an mechanic’s shop near Howard and Erie … northwest of the intersection .. it’s plainly visible from the pay and display parking lot there. I’ve always wondered how these businesses end up being located in structures that are only accessible by alley.
Wow….the house that my Grandmother lived in was on Langlois backing on to this building….there was a swimming pool in the backyard right up against it, we could throw a rubber ball against it and it would bounce back in the pool….the walls were always wet from us splashing around it wa so close…as i akid i never knew what this building was because it was the back side of it. i knew instantly from the pic what this was. Cool!
Rob, the west side of that mechanic shop is all a fenced in yard. i’m sure back in the day when service was key, that whole west wall was more then likely service bays and could be accessed either by Erie or the alley that runs behind it….can’t think of what the wall looks like right now but i know exactly where you speak of.
hell that 100ft long E-W alley was probly one of these “place” streets
I have found all your infos/story to be really fascinating, keep it up!!!