In my collection I have a book full of photographs of the Border Cities and their industries from 1913. This photo below is captioned “Soper & Dupis Real Estate Office” but there was never any other information about it, and I always wondered about this little house…
I figured it was destined to remain a mystery until I stumbled across this little blurb in the Microfilm of the Evening Record, May 23, 1913:
This is the fancy real estate office that Dr. Soper erected on his property at the corner of Ouellette Avenue and Chatham Street. It has been much admired and well patronized since the Riverview Subdivision was placed on the market. R. M. Morton the selling agent is standing on the verandah. This sub-division lies between Sandwich and Windsor. It is already recognized as the new (illegible) residential district for this community. Many lots have been sold to outside buyers, who are figuring on spending $5,000 and upwards on the houses they put up.
The location today is home to the Bank of Montreal on Ouellette. To the rear of the office you can see the former home of Vital Ouellette. The Ouellette house, used to sit on this corner of Chatham & Ouellette and was move east one lot in 1903. It was the first brick building moved in Windsor. At the time of this photo, it was home to the Windsor Club. I featured the building when it was home to the Windsor Castle Cafe in the 1930’s. It was most recently home to Jason’s.
The Riverview subdivision was located in West Windsor, along Vista Place and Patricia Road. Most of it was never developed.
“riverview sub-division” lol what do we got there…..600ft of river and 3 km’s of feilds!
now, maybe my bearings are off, or i’m tired. but, if this picture is after the 1903 move, shouldn’t that be a bank and not a house? i’m pretty sure that’s the north west corner of Ouellette house, and you can see the railing for the “front” door poking out, and that should be the alley between them. unless maybe that low building to the right is the bank and they just started out on that corner with a tiny sliver of a building. but then why buy the whole lot and move a whole building?
i mean it all obviously happened but, isn’t there something weird here or is it just me?
also….in the top picture, shouldn’t we be able to see Ouellette house looming behind it? it’s essensially the same shot from the other side of the house. we should at least see something!
this must all be me 🙂
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. They moved the Ouellette house to build that smaller one??! And if that spot went on to be the site of a bank, I’m pretty sure they (the bank) would’ve torn that house down, so that means the house wouldn’t have been on that spot very long! Hope someone can solve this apparent mystery. Anyway, cool to find out that Jason’s front door is actually on the west side. I’ll have to do a walk-by and check it out. I didn’t even know it was the “Ouellette House”. Given its historical significance, I would love to see the house put on the “save” list. We’ve lost too much downtown to let this one go. Like the other poster said, wouldn’t it be neat to return it to its former glory?
I don’t know either. I assumed the house was moved for the Bank to build on the site. The only thing I can think of is that this house was a very temporary structure on the site…
I wonder if M. Morton is the same name as that of Morton Terminal (or family) or even Morton dr. at the border of Windsor and LaSalle?
I would like to add if you look at the top picture you can just make out a basement window of the Ouellette house and of course there are trees hiding the rest of it.
Also, in that picture across the steret (north side of Chatham)is a one story buildng that I believe was The Windsor Club (previously Tusons Roses) greenhouse according to postcards at that time. (Thanks to Walkerville Publishing for their great Postcards from the Past book). Can be found on pages 40 & 41. Both show no house on that site only an empty but well kept lot.
The postcards only show horse drawn carriages so it has to be around the turn of the 20th century.
I would agree with Andrew that the house didn’t last very long.