As we head into the weekend, today’s post is made up of a few reader submissions…
First up from JT, is this shot taken behind the Bay at Devonshire Mall:
He notes that this corner of the store has been partially hidden over the years by various expansions, and that the old “Simpsons” logo is still visible.
Good eye JT, and thanks for sending it in…
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Reader Dennis Z. sent along some photos he took of the Norwich block prior to demolition.
For some reason, I never took any shots of the block before it was demoed. I think that may have been the impetus to me to start photographing the ever changing and ever vanishing city…
Looking east along Riverside Drive. Cheetah’s can been seen on the corner in the foreground, in the former location of Lee’s Imperial Tavern.
A full frontal shot, showing the TD Bank, Fast Eddie’s, 71 Riverside West and the Spotted Dog. My teenage years followed the natural progression from Fast Eddie’s down the block to the Spotted Dog. It was truly one of Windsor’s great little watering holes.
A shot looking north on Ouellette from Pitt Street. The Beans Cafe on the corner, and beyond that you can see the old sign for the Elias Deli, which moved across the street and is located in the main floor of the CIBC building.
One final shot from Dennis shows the long gone giant Canadian Club neon sign that was located on the silos at Hiram Walker’s. Anyone remember when the came down? Early to mid 90’s is my guess…
Thanks to Dennis and JT, and everyone else who sends along photos. Have a safe weekend, and I’ll see you back here on Monday.
Thanks for the old Norwich pics. I remember going to places like fast eddies, the beans, elias deli and the spotted dog, but I couldn’t remember what the whole block looked like…. and it looked great. A little TLC could have worked wonders on that block, thats all it needed.
Well, I can’t say that Im against progress, but I am against destruction of history and heritage. Too bad they couldnt build the office tower while preserving the facades of the buildings on that block. That would have been something to brag about. (see the JLC in London, ON which preserved the facade of the old Talbot Inn)
One other thing I noticed, why does Windsor NOT have any Canadian flags on the top of its towers? I see there once was one on the CIBC building (which they removed the CIBC symbol from the west face of the building, and didn’t replace it with the new symbol). The CIBC building currently looks naked without it.
I think that the Canadian Club neon sign was up a little later than the mid 90s. I believe it came down in the early 2000s. I don’t know exactly when, but I’m almost positive it came down while I was working at the Casino and parking at the “Red Lot” (corner of Drouillard and Riverside) and driving past it twice a day. I worked at the casino from 2000-2006.
LOOOOVED Fast Eddy’s. Don’t know how many dollars I spent there playing Joust and the like. The Beans cafe was nice. Weren’t they the one with the big Alphonse Mucha painting on the wall? I thought it was so beautiful I had to look for the artist.
RIP Norwich block. My God, it is the second worse thing to happen to downtown (#1 being the plywood palace formally known as the Holiday Innonthe waterfront). Compare Pitt St. back in the Norwich block days to the ghost-town, pedestrian-free zone that is it today. Hurst was a buffoon.
Since I’m on a sarcastic rant let’s thank Pernod for taking down the big CC sign, removing of all the flowers in the gardens at Hiram Walk…errr I mean Wiser’s and the removal of the flag at the top of the tallest building on the site. It seems our American friends over at Wyeth still have their flag flowing in the breeze. Maybe the French really do hate the anglais?
Anyway, thanks folks for some fine pictures a run down memory lane. Now I have to ask. How many memories are being made at the grey communist-era Canderal building we have now?
I have to add. The only reason that damn building was built was because of penis envy. Yeah, I said it! The building was going to be over 30 stories tall making it the tallest building southwest of T.O. But then reality set in like it always does in Windsor.
So no matter how many times you tug it, lie to it, and brag about it, reality dictates it will not get any bigger. Thanks for nothing Hurst.
I believe the Canadian Club sign was taken down sometime after 2001. I was working there at the time and I remember it was a sad day seeing the crane onsite to disassemble it. At the time the sign was in need of millions of dollars in repair, and the parent company (Allied Domecq at the time) didn’t see it as a viable expense.
Although I’m not there anymore, since ownership has changed to Pernod I’ve noticed the majority of the site doesn’t get the same attention it once did. The flowers, the holiday lights throughout the campus…it’s a shame. However you’ll notice that Dan Tullio and the folks at the CC Brand Heritage Centre still do their best to make their building shine.
Would it be possible to rebuild the norwich block someday or most of windsor for that matter to its original appearance on the outside of the building and the inside of the building made modern for cost reasons
I forgot how beautiful the Norwich block was, especially the TD bank. Damn Mike Hurst to hell for allowing such a beautiful piece of the city’s past to turn into rubble. We needed change at City Hall ten years ago and we need change today.
George, the TD bank was disassembled, brick by brick, and is in storage somewhere. It can be rebuilt should a developer choose to incorporate it in their design. (ie. wouldn’t that have been nice as part of the new glass tower bank on chatham and ouelette?
Just recalling Fast Eddies–which spread across a couple of buildings–you might recall the interior was “L” shaped and on the second floor there was a spot where you looked down through a skylight into what had been “Finnegan’s” which fronted onto Ouellette. Also along the Oullette frontage were a couple of cool little spots toward the end of the block’s life–namely “13 Below” and…though the name escapes me now–a great little pub-style place that opened up in the last couple of years before the demo–if memory serves me correctly it might have been in the old Finnegan’s spot.
Hey what ever happened to the old peabody bridge we use to have to go over every day on riverside.
Great to see a photo of what I always called the “new beans”, since it was the non-smoking version of their other location at the opposite end of the block. I liked going there to avoid the smoke from their other location, but not many people went there sadly.
Hey Hiram Walkers….
Would it kill you to hire a couple students part time in the summer to plant and care for some flowers around the buildings one again ? The pea stones are disgusting and give an atmosphere of cheapness to the block between Devonshire and Walker . There is enough crappy property in this metropolis. Why play catch up ?
Walkers used to have wonderful gardens where the peastone is now; they changed with the seasons, starting with an amazing display of daffodils and tulips in the Spring. Always looked beautiful; such a shame. I agree – what would it take for a huge multinational company like Pernod Ricard to do some planting?
Yes Jane it would…profits, profits, profits!
Nice! This is the first time I’ve seen Fast Eddie’s since I went there as a kid!
it does my heart good to see the old Norwich block photo’s the other day my son mentioned to me that he really liked to go to Fast Eddies when he was a kid, if I recall I think they were going to work the old bank façade into the front entrance of the Chrysler building the building was supposed to be 30stories but the small thinking council want a more uniform skyline what a crock!!I agree with the lack of flags on the buildings …Hey!! wait a minute wasn’t a private company supposed to put up a GIANT flag at the foot of Ouellette? what happened to that idea??
PS if you want to see a sign from Fast Eddies I had dinner with my wife at South Detroit and low and behold on the back wall there it is a sign from it