One of the buildings in Windsor I haven’t featured before, but recieve many questions about is the Windsor Court Apartments located on Ouelltte Avenue at Hanna.
Designed in 1926 by the Toronto Architectural Firm of Craig & Madill. Craig & Madill were active from about 1912 through the 1950’s and this is the only example of their work in the area. Most of the work was done in the Toronto area. Among their works in Toronto was the late Varsity Stadium on Bloor Street, not far from the Royal Ontario Museum. They also designed the York Regional Hospital in Newmarket, Ontario where yours truly was brought into the world.
It is truly a grand building, and when it opened in 1927, it was a very exclusive address.
The crest with “1927” is located high above the main entrance.
The building is still in pretty good shape overall, and was the first apartment building built in Windsor with a parking garage in the basement.
The brick walls are broken up by decorative elements, and feature different brick patterns.
There is an urban legend about the building that is once house Queen Elizabeth on the 1939 tour. I have never come across any proof of this fact, and I suspect it to be a good story, but nothing more… If anyone out there has any proof of it, I would love to see it, but I won’t hold my breath…. 😉
One of the features I like is that it is shaped like a #, this was done to maximize the amount of windows in each apartment, and to allow for better airflow.
From the October 1, 1927 issue of the Border Cities Star:
This view of the Windsor Court Apartments, the Border Cities’ new 118-family residential building, show that section of the structure which fronts Ouellette Avenue. The main entrance is shown here, but there are also four side entrances, two leading from Hanna avenue, one from Dufferin place at the rear, and the other from Ouellette. The main entrance leads to a well finished foyer, close to which are a tea room – to be known as the “Windsor Room” – a cake shop, a ladies’ rest room, and the two elevators which run from the sub-basement to the top floor.
The building, equipment and grounds are valued at approximatley $750,000. The suites in the building have from two to six rooms, and the five and six room apartments are equipped with electric fireplaces.
Windsor Court Apartments were ready for occupancy today.
$750,000 in 1927 dollars is equivalent to about $4.3 million 2009 dollars.
This ad appeared in the newspaper in 1927, as the owners were selling bonds to help finance the construction. I wonder if these bonds ever matured, or if they crashed with the depression in 1929?
Again from the October 1, 1927 issue of the Border Cities Star, and ad announcing the opening of the building.
The steel work was done by the previously featured Canadian Bridge Company. This long gone local company played a huge part in the building of Windsor in the boom years.
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Andrew, the story about the Queen has been verified to be false. About a year ago The Star ran a story about and Buckingham Palace was contacted. They came back with a reply that the Quenn never did stay there (they must have extensive records).
This building is a great addition to Windsor architecture.
I lived in this building for 4 years back in the late 90's, and still think about it often. I shared a two bedroom unit with a friend, and it was quite roomy. There was an electric fireplace in the living room that never worked for us, but looked awesome - no idea if it was original to the place or not. We even had a parking spot in the underground garage, but it sure didn't fit 40 cars, probably 10 or so (I'm sure that laundry rooms and storage spaces took the original parking spots away). The elevator was pretty scary - it had the gate that you had to pull closed before it would operate - many of my friends and my own mother refused to use it.
That's interesting about the rumour. I also heard Queen Elizabeth stayed there for a day while it was called the Windsor Court Hotel and she planted a tree in Jackson Park the following day. And, later on, the building was converted into an apartment building and that's why the bachelors I saw on the right side of the building were so tiny and why the building used to have a large cafeteria in the basement (I've never actually seen pictures of the size of this dining room/hall/cafeteria). It made sense to me at the time when the super of Windsor Court told me that a couple years ago. But, the original bond advertisement made no mention of the building ever being a hotel. And, if it was never a hotel, why would Queen Elizabeth have stayed there for a day?
I don't know if every apartment had a dumbwaiter - mine did. The manager told me that, at one time you could order your meals and have them delivered to your apartment via this system.
Terry - interesting... Early room service. :)
David - Back in the 20's these types of building were known as apartment hotels. All it meant was that it had services like laundry, dining rooms, etc... that were commonly found in hotels. So even though some people referred to them as "hotels" they actually weren't.
Andrew.. i always thought this building was designed by the great Albert Kahn !! guess i was wrong. interesting.
So where did Queen Elizabeth stay then when she planted the tree in Jackson Park? The Prince Edward Hotel?
David, no idea?
I think when they came in 1939 they arrived by private train, and in 1957(maybe 58?) they arrived by private yacht. I doubt they slept anywhere that wasn't private and free of common folk ;)
i remember as a young boy delivering the Globe & Mail to this building as well as the viscount .the things i remember the most is the manual elevator that i had to hold the button to get it to move and also had to draw shut a heavy steel expanding door shut before it would move .
i also recall the the most different types of people it would house.the front door was heavy hardwood with large glass with brass finishing .
I had a bachelor's apt. in Windsor Court in the early 80s. When I moved in, rent was $189/month and increased $10/yr thereafer. It had red carpet in the common areas, big, beautiful dark wood doors and great windows that caught breezes. I was in the building a few years ago and dismayed to see the wood replaced by ugly steel doors. It wasn't maintained very well at either time, unfortunately.