Ad from the Border Cities Star – December 31, 1926.
This version of the Walker Farms were established around 1904, taking over from the earlier farm that was located at Walker & Tecumseh. As you may recall the manager’s house was demolished few years back.
This farm was located around today’s EC Row and Central area. Part of the farm was severed in 1920 to create the Walker Airport (today’s underused Windsor Airport). The dairy farm closed in 1946.
There is good history of the farm here at the Walkerville Times archives.
As pointed out in the Walkerville Times article, the only remain trace, can be found behind some industrial buildings on Deziel Drive.
A trace of the road that once connected some dairy buildings is still visible.
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My first house was one of the townhouses in the twelve hundred block on Argyle Road. They were built for the employees of the Walker Dairy, a real "company town".
I remember "Walker Farms" in its declining years. Most of the houses in the semi-circle street were in various states of disrepair and most of the barns were in disuse. At the time, I believe they still had some hog operations there but not accessible to the public due to sanitation requirements (in the 50s?). I believe "Walker Orchards" was still in operation in the 60s and it was run by a Remark fellow. Also as I recall that EC Row was a pretty good road in this area compared to sections east of Pillette Road. Does anyone recall when a section of Pillette Road was closed for airport expansion? I remember going to the southern edge of the then closed Pillette Road to watch the Golden Hawks perform in an air show. This was probably in the late 50s or so.
Although Hiram Walker never became a Canadian citizen, he did made considerable contributions to this area.
I think Pilette was closed sometime in the early to mid 80's because I remember going down Pilette to get to county rd. 42 as a kid.
Pilette didn't make it all the way to 42 I believe (at least "in my time") but Jefferson used to connect to it and in the early 80s was cut for airport land expansion.
Yes, it wasn't that long ago that Jefferson was closed across the airport property. At that time the airport property was increased for a planned runway extension. Prior to that however, Pillette did cross the airport property to Highway 2 (now County Road 42) and connected with Concession 8 of Sandwich South. Jefferson connected to County Road 42 near the Concession 9 intersection with 42; one could travel down Jefferson to County Road 42, make a slight jog and continue down Concession 9.
If you look closely as you pass the airport on County Road 20 you can still see remnants of these roads on airport property.
It appears to have made it to 42 before our time though, Shawn. I believe the airport was the same reason Pilette's path to 42 was interrupted?
Interesting map resource here from 1880:
http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/CountyAtlas/images/maps/townshipmaps/ess-m-Sandwich-E&W.jpg (takes a while to load - 4158px × 3210 image)
very cool! i love seeing stuff like that.
it's interesting to me that on Google maps, if you don't go into the satallite veiw, this area is still labled as walker farms! i never noticed it before and then all of a sudden it was there. maybe i just wasn't paying attention lol
pillette and jefferson are also both clearly visible on google maps.
JOHN! i have been looking for ever to find a map like this! thank you so much :)
fisrt of all, it's super cool to see the names of the people for which our streets are named!
second - this amp is telling me the corner of pillette and techumseh was it's own damn town!?!?! how cool is that?! i wonder if Charlies was around back then lol. just south of that bar are a couple of old, standard looking homes, i wonder if they were build during a time when this area was still it's own town?
Aaron - That Mero's Corners has always stood out to me too... Also note the Toll Gates on the county roads :)
Not only that, this map indicates that the town hall was situated at Mero's Corners. I wonder when it was moved to near Lauzon (on tecumseh near where McDonalds now stands)? From what I remember of the construction style of the near Lauzon location, I would think it was built around 1920.