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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I live in a building in Toronto by the same architects, opened on Sept. 26, 1925. It was rental until the mid-80's, when all the tenants got together and bought the building as a corporation. So we are a business, and each shareholder gets an apartment for exclusive use. Sort of co-op, but not under that statute. Anyway, the building, and a sister building down the road (both in the St. Clair/Avenue Rd. area) are very much like Windsor's in style and layout. The announcement in the Globe on Sept 30/25 calls ours "the most modern apartments in Toronto" -- there was central refrigeration in the basement to chill freezers/fridges in the kitchens! We still have the elevators, well-maintained and perfectly safe. The elevator repair guy says there's two just like ours in the Smithsonian in D.C. It's a special, beautiful building. Such a shame to see the great work of these architects allowed to deteriorate so badly in Windsor.
What horror stories I've read here about what once was an elegant place to live.........my grandmother lived there fom 1036 'til 1955 and , even then, it was considered a desireable residence...many of my teachers from Kennedy Collegiate resided there when I was in high school....I have many pleasant memories of spending nights there with Grandma, playing dominos or listening to her regale me about her childhood in Hyde Park (suburb of London, Ont then)....she lived in two different corner apartments...first one on Hanna nearest Ouellette on the ground floor....the second on Hanna and Duffrin, the corner apartment on the first floor...each time I drive by, I can replay these memories in a flash!!!....time has not been kind to this grand old building....my understanding, it was built partly with Windsor Racetrack (Jackson Park) money as were St. Clair Church and Kennedy Collegiate....exquisite architecture on all three sites but secondary quality of building materials....always under repair.....let's hope the repairs continue and we don't lose these "gems"!!!
"If you want to conjur Satan then this is your place to do it."
I love it! The hallways have a bright red carpet and white walls which would be perfect for some kind of psycho-thriller film. My friend lives there. He has a bachelor and his matress fits nicely in what would be called the (walk-in)closet. He also gets away with rocking out playing guitar and recording songs on his computer. Haven't met the other tenants yet so I can't say. His place looks freshly painted and has nice wood floors. I'll say this, it's way cleaner than the Paramount up the street! I lived there. Now there's pure evil!
My mother was the superintendent of Windsor Court Apts in the 80s, while I was a student at Kennedy C.I. I am so sorry to hear this beautiful building has been left to deteriorate. In my mother's care, it was regularly maintained inside and out. My job was to vacuum those red-carpeted hallways every Saturday (try dragging an industrial vacuum cleaner into the elevator before the gate slams on you!).
We had a gorgeous 4-bedroom apt on the third floor facing Ouellette, it was two apartments made into one. Many of the tenants were grand elderly ladies, many others were hairdressers, designers, etc. At the time the building was affectionately nicknamed "Homo Haven", very nice, decent tenants. Of course, there were always some who caused trouble but my mother was tough and got rid of them, something most landlords can't do easily today.
Thank you, Andrew Foot, for posting the pictures and documents, and stirring some good memories for a lot of us.
In the news today (Nov 22, 2022). From reading the comments posted in 2009 when IM featured this building, it appears that nothing has changed! It is such a shame as this building was a gem when built.
Hopefully a developer will come forward and to the rescue if that's even possible at this point.
I understand in the 1960s and before it was also considered a gay area. It was called "homo Heights" back in its day. I would love to hear stories about that.