photo from the Bernie Drouillard & John Stefani Collection
A neat photo from May, 1922 of the first electric Trolley Bus in Canada. I met up with John and Bernie this weekend, and we took a walk along the area trying to determine exactly where the photo was taken. Following our invesitagtion, we determined it was the corner of Lincoln and Seneca, looking south on Lincoln Road towards Tecumseh.
Here’s a view of the same corner of Seneca and Lincoln, looking south on Lincoln today.
The big vacant space between the two house (both of which are still standing), is today occupied by the Emmanuel United Church
Back in October of 2005, I posted this photo also from Bernie’s collection:
photo from the Bernie Drouillard & John Stefani Collection
This one the location was already identified as the corner of Windermere and Cataraqui.
Here’s the same view today…
The Trolley Bus route ran along Lincoln Road as a connection between the streetcar lines on Wyandotte and Tecumseh. It ran north along Lincoln, turning right on Wyandotte, right on Windermere, right on Cataraqui and left on Lincoln to Tecumseh Road. At Tecumseh, the line turned left, left again on Windermere, left on Seneca and right on Lincoln. The trolley bus was short lived, only running from 1922 to 1923.
Another first in Windsor, that not many know about.
Big thanks to John and Bernie for sharing this great old photo.
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It’s amazing to see that there are way more trees in our neighborhoods today than there were at the time these old photos were taken. Given the amount that Windsor has grown since then, you’d think it’d be the other way around.
Brian
Most of this land was already cleared for farming before it was rezoned urban residential. Thus the lack of trees.
great photos!!
Thanks Andrew. I’d never heard of this before.
that was awesome!
Yes, I recall an old history book talking about “heavily forested” Essex county. Trees are starting to make a comeback, but it has been slow. Great pics!
great pictures!
I had heard the forests here were so thick that they burned them down instead of cutting it all. Apparently they could see the flames as far as Chicago.
Did they have methadone clinics on lincoln rd. back then? j/k
I wonder how many trolley bus systems still exsist in the U.S. and Canada. Seattle’s still got an extensive one, although its long term future is in doubt.
Just found this site, amazing collection. Thank you so much for doing this.
The bottom left of the first photo (Lincoln and Seneca) is my present front lawn… great photo.
Thnaks
The tree lined streets look much better than the electrical pole lined streets.
Nice piece of Canadian transportation history…
Windsor only beat Toronto by a month, in June 1922 the #TTC added a trolley bus route from Yonge and Merton, east to Mount Pleasant, then north to Eglinton. At the time Eglinton and Mount Pleasant was vacant of homes.
Toronto’s Trolley Buses were made by The Preston Car & Coach Co. of Preston Ontario (Now part of Cambridge ON) The Preston company was bought out by the JG Brill company of Philadelphia and therefore based on Brill’s custom coach design on a shaft drive Packard Chassis.
The TTC bought just a handful of buses, only one of which survives at the Ontario Electric Railway Historical Association at the Halton County Radial Railway near Milton, Ontario.