Another of the great projects from unbuilt Windsor. This one was to be located in South Windsor, the original planned Villa Maria home for the aged and orphaned.
Here is a more refined rendering to go with the sketch above. News of the project appeared in the paper February 1, 1929, but was announced the night before, 82 years ago to the day.
- “Here is the architect’s drawing of the Villa Maria, new Roman Catholic institution which will be erected on a 21-acre plot in South Windsor this spring, and which will provide accommodation for aged and orphans of Essex and Kent counties. Plan for the structure which will be 50 percent larger than the new $1,000,000 St. Mary’s Academy, were announced to the Border Cities Star last night by Rt. Rev. M.F. Fallon, D.D., Bishop of London. The building will contain resident accomodation for 400 people and a large chapel, his Lordship stated. The sisters of St. Joseph will operate the institution.”
Plans for the unbuilt project were drawn up by Pennignton & Boyde.
A subdivision advertisement shows where the planned building was to have been located.
According to the article, the structure would have been situated on 21 acres, and was designed to serve the needs of Essex and Kent counties for the next 25 years. Even though it was never built there is still a Villa Maria Boulevard in South Windsor, which I suspect marked the southern end of the property.
Ground was broken on the main building, but why it was never built I don’t know. There were many ad’s for the fundraising drive for Villa Maria, but an article from April 1929 about the awarding of the contract for the excavation, had this to say:
- “GOING RIGHT AHEAD”
“We’re going right ahead” (John Boyde) stated. The contract let to National Pavers, Limited, he said, is for the excavation for the main building. Mr. Boyde states that construction work will be in progress by the middle of May.
This week a drive for $500,000 is being carried on throughout Essex County to raise funds to defray the expenditure which will be entailed by by the construction of Villa Maria.
“Regardless of the results of the drive,” Mr. Boyde said, “we are going to get started. The financing has already been arranged.”
Interestingly enough, Villa Maria eventually came to be, albeit much differently and in a different location. The Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph’s (who ran Hotel Dieu) website tells this story:
- The care of the elderly was a concern and in 1944 the R.H.S.J. purchased the Murphy Dwelling on Riverside Drive to accommodate 15 senior residents. The three Sisters who left Hotel Dieu to take charge of the home, then known as Saint John the Evangelist Home, and now called Villa Maria Residence were Sisters Maria Guévin, Catherine Renaud and Stella Tremblay. As the needs increased the Sisters purchased an adjacent residence that could provide care for an additional 27 people. In 1950, supported by a Diocesan Campaign, the Sisters bought a neighbouring house and provided care to an additional 15 residents.
The three separate homes presented disadvantages and the decision was made to begin construction of a new seniors’s residence. The official opening of the Villa Maria residence was held September 23, 1956. The attractive two-story building on the shores of the Detroit River has a capacity of 120 beds. In 2003, the Ontario government decided to close Villa-Maria Residence.
This building, now a student residence was the Villa Maria nursing home. It was also designed by J.C. Pennington. The history above also answers questions about this house, we looked at in July.
There are some amazing buildings that never came to be in the boom years of the late 1920’s.
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Very interesting post Andrew – I had no idea of this history. Thank you!
Mr. Boyle sounds like the contractor for the Grace Hospital building…
And the student residence is now closed.
Although it’s hard to see on this map, I wonder if the street (to the right of St. Mary’s that crosses Cabana near this proposed site) is Richardie. I’ve often wondered about this street – an odd street that seems to meander across south Windsor. Could it have been a county road that perhaps followed a creek prior to any development?
I notice in the background of the Kinsey Doyle Windsor manor ad, Huron Line is again refered to as the “Huron Super Highway”, we saw that in another ad here from around the same time a couple of weeks ago.
Jane, it is marked as Richardie.
I don’t know if it was following anything, I just think it was a meandering road created by the developers.
If you look on Google maps you can follow Richardie, the northern end of Maisonneuve Ave at Norfolk it has the first 100 yards named as Richardie, it then sporadiacally continues past a Central and Curry parks through to the southern end just south of Cabana west of Askin.
Looking at the conceptual map it shows the facility to be south of Cabana Rd. Today, travelling south on Mt. Royal, the first two crossroads are Villa Maria N., and Villa Maria S.
That’s very true Bruce, interesting little piece of info!
No one probably had any clue, I sure didn’t.
That would have been one spectacular project.
It looks like it would have covered the current Mt. Royal Street, with most of it covering where the residential streets of Eden and Churchill are now located(these are the streets running west behind Mt. Royal between Villa Maria North and South). Based on its size, the grounds likely would have extended westward onto what is now the St. Clair College property.
I wonder if they even broke ground before the stock market crash hit in the fall.
What a great project idea here. It sucks that the economy has to put a halt to good causes like this. Would have been an amazing building. Thanks for sharing this part of history.
Maybe it’s best they skipped the building part as we’d only be pissed off by yet another local landmark biting the dust.
Seeking a fulltime position as Pharmacy Assistant and want to work for aged persons.
Looks like the Ontario government could have kept Villa Maria and prevented Matty Moroun from putting a second span there. They could have at least given the waterfront to the city to continue the waterfront trail.
The GREEDY NUNS decided to sell it. Hotel Dieu said LTC is NOT a money making project. CLOSE IT DOWN. They kicked out all those Seniors with a 4 week notice. A lot of those Residents DIED because of the STRESS of HDGH putting on them to find new places to live. I worked there while this was going on. Sad they closed that place. All that FUND raising and PEOPLE LEAVING THEIR ENTIRE ESTATE to the REBUILD of VILLA MARIA..