Archives

March 2010
S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
Categories: PostcardsWindsor

Ouellette Avenue – Early 1950’s

Car experts, I need your help again on this postcard. Maybe you can help me come up with a date, by ID’ing some of those old cars, parked curbside.

    OUELLETTE AVE., WINDSOR, CANADA
    Looking north on one of Windsor’s main throughfares,
    with Detroit skyline in centre background.

    Photo by Bob McDonald


A great shot of the Palace Marquee, something starring Marylin Monroe is playing… Look at the crowd of people out on the sidewalks…

A view up the west side of Ouellette, many storefronts with Neon signs out front.

These old post cards of Ouellette at the height of its dominance as a retail centre are sad too see. Decades of poor planing and lousy zoning have brought us to the point where we are today. Heck even the Freedom Festival is packin’ up and heading out to the edge of town. Construction or not… That’s lousy.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Andrew

View Comments

  • I'm pretty sure it's '53. The poster above the marquee looks like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, for sure. The SO guesses the car northbound is a `52 - `54 Mercury and it seems to be the newest vehicle on the road. (He actually knows cars pretty well and has a number of vintage autos himself. Apparently, in `49 to `51, Mercury was still using the James Dean model`, whatever that means but it ain`t the one in the picture.)

  • Clare, your husbands description of the northbound car jogged my memory. I'm sure a few people still remember the Ford Assembly plant (long since gone) that straddled Riverside Drive. They produced the Mercury Monarch amongst other vehicles and I came across this link

    http://monarchsource.com/wp/?page_id=3

    Note some of the pictures taken at the Ford Test Track.

    But getting back to Andrew's post, it lends some credence to the late 40's/(more likely) the early 50's time period.

  • Blue one on the front left looks to be a 46-48 Plymouth or Dodge.

    The two yellow/cream cars are the most modern ones in the shot, and look to have a 3-box design that came out around 49/50 (in general).

  • Lots of parking on the streets back then...one lane of traffic in either direction and slow moving traffic = tons of pedestrians....we must have been idiots back then to not see the potential more cars, less parking and dryvit..intead of those ugly brick and stone facades and outstanding (i mean ugly and dumb) signage!

  • Hi,
    The cream-coloured car on the right-hand side of Ouellette is either a 1952 Chevrolet or a 1952 Pontiac. The trim suggests an Oshawa-built Pontiac. The two makes shared body shells. The cream-coloured car on the left side of the street is a 1946-1948 Chryco product--probably a Dodge or Plymouth.

    My blog- http://oldcarscanada.blogspot.com/

  • Paul is correct. The film is Don't Bother To Knock from 1952. It was released in New York on 18 July 1952 and LA on 30 July 1952. The pic looks like that time of year as well.

Share
Published by
Andrew

Recent Posts

2177 Victoria Avenue

Built in 1929, the house at 2177 Victoria Avenue was originally numbered 1545 Victoria, pre…

1 week ago

Crescent Lanes – 871 Ottawa

Crescent Lanes first opened on Ottawa Street in 1944 at 1055 Ottawa Street, opposite Lanspeary…

2 months ago

1156 Ouellette – Oswald Janisse House

Above is a photo of the home of Mr & Mrs Oswald Janisse, located at…

4 months ago

White’s Restaurant & The Elbow Room – 33 Pitt Street East

in 1917 two Greek brothers Gus & Harry Lukos purchased a one story building on…

5 months ago

4219 Wyandotte Street East

Photo from Google Streetview A long time reader sent me an email the other week…

6 months ago

841 Ouellette – Final Days

An unremarkable end to a part of Windsor's history. The large vacant house at 841…

7 months ago