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The End Of Bruce Baptist Church

From the Windsor Daily Star August 26, 1949:

    One of the city’s familiar landmarks has disappeared with the demolition of the tower of the former Bruce Avenue Baptist Church to make way for the new Bethel Pentecostal Church at London Street West and Bruce Avenue. On the new foundation a basement church already in use. The superstructure of the new building, when it is completed, will be another important adornment for the site which has been devoted to church work since the early 1880’s. Above is a view of the tower during the last days of its demolition this month (Star Staff Photo)


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Bruce Avenue Baptist Church moved to Victoria, and built the Temple Baptist Church in the mid 1920’s. That is today the Downtown Mission. The Bethel Pentecostal group rented the Bruce Avenue site for many years before buying it from the Baptists. They then demolished the old Church and built the new one in 1949. Along came arena expropriation, and the site is today a parking lot.

Andrew

View Comments

  • i wonder if that tree on the map is the tree in the picture.....
    look at that housing stock in the background! i always find it interesting that in just about any old photo, there is someone, somewhere completly unassociated with the photo, posing for that camera no matter how far they are from it. at least that's what i assume those two folks to the left are doing.

    thanks for the post Andrew!

    by the way......how is it that little patch of green at Caron and Chatham hasn't been included in the display at the City Center West Parkatorium? hmmmm....that little block kinda demonstrates the stages of housing in Windsor's core if you quarter it and go counter clockwise. first it's residential, then the house has a buisness move in, then it gets levelled and either left as a grssey patch or turned into a parking lot.

  • ....and parking lot and parking lot and parking lot and parking lot!
    They will still be parking lots for another 20 years and downtown will continue to lose it's neighbourhoods unless we focus on attracting residents/families downtown. In order to do that we need to have a reason for these people to move to the downtown area.

    If you can find any more shots of the area it would be greatly appreciated. Interesting to see so many houses there (and some nice ones too!).

    Aaron, unfortunately no. The trees were almost all removed save a few on Chatham.

  • "Along came arena expropriation, and the site is today a parking lot." A downtown arena?? What were they thinking???!!!! Actually attracting people to the downtown area??? Had they followed through with this we would not have the magnificent downtown we have today. And there would be no room for that visionary canal...
    And downtown infrastructure would have been in much better shape. Instead, heavy investment was made in extending infrastructure to the fringes.

  • Looking at your site and passing over the Google map reminded me that Windsor Street View is now Up. I moved over Ottawa St and Ouellete (downtown). There are no people! I don't know what time they took the pictures but the city looks almost deserted.

  • I seem to recall, as a kid, that the church had a Jesus Saves sign in the shape of a cross over the front entrance facing University . London Street is maybe in my memory banks?

  • Yes, it was neon possibly with red, blue letters. do a google search for images - "Jesus Saves" . You'll see some photos of similar signs.

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