New Frontier Motel

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• Years ago I remember seeing the demolition of a building that looked motel-ish (and rather decrepit) in this area and wondering what it was, as I hadn't really noticed it before. Looks like I've found the answer.

• looks like a retierment home in this picture lol were nurses uniforms common place in the hopspitality buiz back in the day? lol

  at least they look happy :)

• Can't believe how quickly things fade and vanish through the years. Little changed physically from its days as a haven for travellers, Huron Hall was downright luxurious and afforded a higher degree of freedom and privacy than the standard university dorm of those days. Each room had its own bathroom and sliding glass doors to the outside, unlike the shared facilities and grimly stacked decks and cubbyholes of Macdonald or Tecumseh Hall. There were some pretty wild times there back in the late 60's and early 70's, when the first wave of college bound baby boomers hit the place.....out of body experiences, speaking in tongues, that sort of thing. The Moody Blues were popular. Huron became a haven to a new kind of traveler. I think there may actually have been a few serious students there but I don't remember meeting any.

• As a former U of W employee who was once (briefly) responsible for the management of the building (both before and after it closed)--I can confirm that the building was not condemned. The decision to close was based on a handful of factors--most notably a decline in enrollment, a decline in demand for residence space and the pending sale of the property (and adjacent Tecumseh Hall) to the CTC for their future expansion plans. There was past concern with the safety of the balconies in the building--and they were closed sometime in the early 1990s. Nonetheless, prior to it's closure the building remained in generally good repair.

  In the year following it's closure I had to attend the building on a few occasions (while the sale was pending and the U of W was still responsible for the property)--the building did suffer from damage inflicted by vandals, etc--what I recall was a significant amount of broken glass. Those visits nonetheless afforded me the opportunity to see the building top-to-bottom--there was a basement located under the "service" area (front desk, restaurant/lounge area) which still had full-on food service equipment, meat lockers, walk in coolers, etc. Even the front desk of the building retained some of the hotel front office features/cubby holes, etc. The restaurant space pictured in the postcard became known as the "wagon wheel lounge" so named after the light fixtures visible in the postcard--which remained. The space looked nearly identical to the appearance in the postcard--very few cosmetic changes. Hope this sheds some light on the history of the building.

  As a side note, when the CTC took possession of the buildings and demolished them, Huron Hall had been cleared of furniture, etc--however, the U of W elected not to remove the furnishings, appliances, etc from Tecumseh--so that building was demolished with it's contents--fridges, stoves, furnishings, curtains, etc--completely intact--a strange sight.

• The New Frontier was owned and operated by the Wonsch Family for many years at which time it was sold and converted into the U of Windsor residences. It has been torn down . Many great memories !!!!