Closing out the week, we might as well do another postcard…
Today is a card I have never seen before running across a copy on eBay recently.. It is a colour photo of the old City Hall. Although you can’t see it in the image above, the cars in the lot beside city hall look to be of the late 1940’s variety, so this shot is probably from the early years of the 1950’s. An interesting colour look at old City Hall, demolished in 1956.
Have a good weekend everyone. Don’t forget the Bottle Drive this weekend too… I’ll post a reminder shortly.
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I remember this building. It unfortunately suffered the same fate as many others did along the river front. Andrew, do you have an aerial shot indicating where this building once stood (just to put things into perspective)?
JBM -
Here is the area in 1949, Old City Hall circled in yellow
The area in 2008
And an overlay of the two. As you can see the new City Hall is built on the site of the previous one.
Nice find Andrew. In colour it brings to life the old city hall. I really like the overlay as well.
I wonder when the city is going to replace the current city hall with yet another one? Interesting that the population hasn't chnaged much in forty years but we need a bigger building yet. Ya gotta love red tape!
Andrew, do you have a record as to when this city hall was built? Was there a previous city hall and if so where was it located?
This is a beautiful Italianate style building, This appears to be a rare style of architecture in Windsor. I have seen only a few building left in Windsor that still retain this style. I was wondering if the old city hall was build of stone or brick that had been painted over time? It’s hard to tell looking at the postcard
It almost looks like stucco!! It is odd to replace the building on exactly the same site. City offices must have moved temporarily, right? I think in the 50s and 60s there was a movement to have "modern" buildings and not "old looking" buildings any longer. The Jet Age and all that. So I doubt there was much public pressure to save the old city hall.
The one in today's post was the second City Hall. The first one, was located On Riverside Dr., & Goyeau (?). This one was built as the central school in the 1870's. Around the turn of the last century it was condemned for use as a school, as it was falling apart. The city refurbished it and used it as the city hall until the 1950's.
City hall was temporarily relocated from 1956-1958 and was housed in the building that is the Chatham Street Grill or C.H. Streets as it is now known. If you look on the wall behind the building that is the beer market today, you can see painted signs on the wall in the parking lot like "Reserved for City Tax Collector".
Didn't the current Pour House Pub (Ye Old Steak house) once served as the temporary city hall, as well, while City Hall No.2 was being renovated?
It may have been. I though I heard that too, but the only reference I found was in one of Michael Gladstone White's books. It warrants further investigation for sure.
As many people had said many times, what a shame about the disappearance of all those buildings. Cities never learn.