From the Border Cities Star – December 31, 1926.
While the Windsor-Detroit ferries gave into the Bridge and Tunnel much quicker, the Walkerville Ferry ran until May 1946.
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you know you can hardly get a bus to run those times in this city?!
it’s neat that you would get off in windsor and pretty much walk thru hiram walker to get to wherever.
i know it’s off this boat, but can anyone recal the 2 (i beleive) ships
that used to sit at the foot of ouellette-ish, to the east? i think they might have been tug boats, but i was just young at the time. i seem to recall at least one of them had a bad habit of sinking all the time at her slip. just curious about what they were the more i get into the ferry services that were on the river.
thanks Andrew!
I forget the name of the sinking boat in question but it was Windsor’s first floating resaurant. In fact, due to financial difficulties it was mostly non-operational. As such things go, land based bars and restaurants have a curious habit of burning down in the wee hours of the night due to electrical problems. It would seem that riparian operations tend to suffer from bad plumbing.
If it’s the one I’m thinking of, it wasn’t at the foot of Ouellette… it was on the west end, on Brock street. Can’t remember the name either but do recall its notoriety for taking on water.
There was a restaurant on a tugboat that was moored near the foot of Ouellette (just to the east)- it was rather creatively named “The Tugboat”. I think it sank about 1990? It was a seafood restaurant. There was also another restaurant – on a much bigger ship – around the foot of Brock. It was during the late 1980’s, early 1990’s.
It was the self propelled barge the Landsdowne that became a floating restuarant I think and the Norfolk raliway tugs that push the train barges back and forth just east of Ouellette.
My Dad came to Windsor from Glasgow, Scotland via Hamilton, Ontario in 1920. I remember him speaking about getting dressed up and taking the ferry to Detroit to go to the movies. I believe he lived on Albert Road at the time.
My grandfather was an electrician and he worked on the Fox Theatre when it was being built or so the story goes. I cannot verify this but it seems to be common knowledge in the family.
John and UrbanRat – i’m not sure what your talking about on the west end….not the Aquarama you’re thinking of is it? UrbanRat, you’re right about the Landsdowne, but she was the floating resturant docked at Detroit with two streamlined passenger cars on her used as the resturant, and she did sink all the time. she was towed to Buffalo NY and sat tied to a grain elevator, later scrapped. funny thing is that’s where Aquarama was tied up before being towed to Turkey for scrap!
I remember these Tugs or whatever they were as having a white paint job, with navy and light blue highlights.
I think Jane and MOM are right on the money.
Thanks for your answers everyone!
Aaron, I had a feeling someone would come along and wonder if I am thinking of the Aquarama. I am not, though I do also remember Aquarama’s looming profile in a west end slip before it was moved again. There was also a restaurant-boat docked at the foot of Brock which Jane seems to remember as well. I just can’t recall the name of it.
Am not sure if this is relevant, but I recall the Wayward Princess, owned and operated by Jacques Beauchamps being in service some time back that we went on. I believe it was docked at the foot of Ouellette Ave, and also out in the west end too. It seems to me that he lived on it at one time while it was docked and there was some sort tax issue with the city, however, I can’t remember much more than this which is lacking details. (Must be old timers syndrome.) Maybe the above may spark some one else’s memory?