Here’s a recent addition to the IM collection, this photo postcard of the Ford City, City Hall.
Situated on the corner of Riverside and Drouillard, in a space last occupied by the parking lot to Our Lady of the Rosary.
Over the peak of the roof, you can see the two massive domes on the towers at Our Lady of The Rosary to the east.
A nice detail shot of the front door – note the “FORD CITY” over the front door.
A close up of the horse and buggy to the rear parked along Drouillard Rd.
Here’s the same view today.
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Great picture Andrew! Do you have any information on who designed this building, when it was erected and when (and why) it was demolished?
JBM – sadly I don’t. I’ll have to see what I can dig up. I have nothing in any of my files about it at all.
Was this the same structure that was later the “Ford Hospital”? I recall that about late 1951 we used to visit my brother-in-law (a Ford employee) who was a patient there with a serious fatal illness. Perhaps it was a chronic hospital for Ford employees.
Looks like a nice building to be torn down. Kind of reminds me of the town hall building that was moved from Riverside Drive to Devonshire Road.
Ken, I believe the former hospital that you are referring to was further east on Riverside Dr, closer to Strabane. The actual structure still exists, but it is now home to apartments. I don’t know the address off hand.
great post Andrew
Rob S and Ken, that was Riverview hospital where my Grandfather lived. It is right beside the power station. It used to go almost to Riverside dr but they demo’ed the front portion of the hospital leaving the rear intact.
I had thought that the hospital used to be a high school or something before it became the hospital but I could be wrong.
Dave, I had heard that it was originally a high school as well…..but i could be wrong too lol
They just don’t make parking lots like they used to.
Thanks for the post Andrew!
The old hosptial was originally a school. The back half still stands, the front part demolished in the early 1990’s or so…
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Windsor,+Essex+County,+Ontario,+Canada&ll=42.326172,-82.998506&spn=0,0.003484&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=42.326172,-82.998506&panoid=rmeE4d0e9Eamz1yTe03Mag&cbp=12,184.85,,0,-6.85
I don’t know what happened to Riverview hospital after 1995 but that was the year the patients were all moved over to the Prince Road site of Windsor Regional Hospital. The old I.O.D.E. They moved into Malden Park built on the back of the hospital property. And according to some old plans that were being shown about the hospital at the time, it was, indeed, a school before it became a hospital. Sorry, I don’t remember the name of it as a school.
Andrew:
Love this photo, thank-you for posting. I’m currently working to help revitalize the neighbourhood with the Ford City Neighbourhood Renewal and love finding little bits of history.
Cheers,
i remember living on Belleview for years the hospital was primarily used for chronic care patience’s also i remember a special school bus called the sunshine bus that was a specially built for handicapped access and would take the willing patience’s out on trips ,ironically in the nineties i worked for wayne canada (schoolbus manufacturer) we made a new bus for the hospital and about 2 years later the hospital closed down and now the $150,000 school bus sits at the corner of central and grand the bus can be seen on google earth still
Check the Star site, from the vault four shows Riverveiw hospital and name of school.
This was the site of the Ford City Public School erected in 1917, designed by architect James Pennington. It was acquired in 1942 and converted into a hospital called Riverview Chronic Care Hospital.
My father worked there for many years, starting as gardner and eventually retiring as Chief Engineer. He was a very prominent figure at Riverview until his retirement in 1979. The beginning of the end for Riverview started 2 years later due to a scalding incident. It was a huge court case and my dad was called out from retirement to testify. I have tons of memorabilia and service pins from Riverview. Wish there was an archive or somewhere to donate them to.
Riverview hospital was located at the corner of Riverside and Belleview My grandmother worked there as an nurse She retired from there.It was a hospital for the terminally ill patience.I remenber my grandmother talking about things such as the iron lung machine which helped keep some people alive.
Working with Checker Cab driving and owning several wheelchair cabs back in the 1970’s I remember having ot ogo into the lane off Wyandotte Street between the houses and the power plant and go towards the river and stop at the side door of Riverview Hospital to load wheelchair patients going home for the day or to go shopping. They were either old or MS patients. I also did this when I owned a wheelcahir cab with Riverside Taxi. all th eyears I wnet to Riverview I never once got to go in the front door!
does anyone remember the little lunch bar that used to be at the corner of cadillac and riverside drive?actually it was between cadillac and the west side of the ford power house property the hose was still there until they tore a few down to rebuilt the power house i remember going there one day for lunch with my dad who was a FORD employee wwwaaayyy back in the early 50’s the lunch bar looked like it was built onto the front of this house
I’m going to have to disagree with Anna Markiw’s idea of where this was located. All of what she said about Ford City Public School is correct however, on my own personal inspection, this could only be at Drouillard and Riverside. The church towers which are visible in the photo, are not visible from the site of the former Riverview Hospital. I’m thinking that Riverside Drive was much wider at the time this photo was taken because there is certainly no room where the present church parking lot is right now to house a building of that size. We must remember, this photo was taken probably 90 years ago and much has changed since then.
P.S. If it wasn’t at Drouillard then it could have been one block west at Montreuil Street.
My Grandfather Cleveland J Mousseau was the Mayor of Ford City in 1925
Very amazing photos! I never knew that building was there on the corner!!! thanks for relating this interesting piece of Windsor history!
Anna Markiw was commenting on he location and history of Riverveiw hospital, not the Ford City town hall.