Happy Friday, today’s old photo dates to November 1919, and takes us over to the Walkerville Federal Building on Devonshire, more commonly referred to as the Walkerville Post Office.
Surprisingly this view hasn’t changed much in the last 91 years…. Designed by David Ewart, the chief architect for the government, in 1914, the story has it that he designed the building to be built in buff brick because he thought there was too much red brick in the area. Ewart was no enemy of red brick… locally he also designed the Windsor Armouries, and the Sandwich Post Office.
A detail view of the sign on the building, part of some civic drive…. Possibly related to WWI?
A detail shot of the tree on the front lawn and some early bicycles… Maybe that’s someone’s “King of Scorchers“. 🙂
Have a great weekend. See you back here Monday.
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Thanks for posting this. The Post Office is one of my favourites – probably becuase it is so unchanged.
The capitals on the columns were severely mutilated by a cost conscious building manager in the 70’s.Perhaps some stucco artist could restore them to some semblance of their original design.
always loved this building. What is it used for now? Is it still a federal building or does it house other buisness’ now?
thanks as always Andrew!
Thanks for posting this….it’s been a little while again since you’ve posted pics of old buildings….love it!
I remember when I first came to Windsor going here to the post office. What a fine old building. Once they opened the post office at the Big V on Ottawa and other stores the government started closing this great building down to save money. Too bad.
Mike Brkovich bought the Walkerville federal building in 1991 according to the Walkerville Times http://www.walkervilletimes.com/biz-2001.htm
The former college basketball star turned property developer won a bidding war with lawyer Leon Paroian and has since rented space to a variety of commercial and retail operations.
Brkovich also redeveloped the Imperial Building nearby on Wyandotte Street East for RBC Dominion Securities. He has been involved with several of the vacant whisky warehouses, including the site of Walkerville Brewery, and other property in the vicinity.
While always called the Walkerville post office, the building was massive for a small municipality because it housed the customs bureacracy required by its neighbouring distillery.