Sticking to the county again, this time we’re out to Leamington in the late 1940’s/early 1950’s.
A neat view of the main shopping district. It’s easy to see upon closer inspection how these were just hand tinted versions of black & white photographs… The Kelvinator sign, street lamp and old car were all left in b&w.
As best I can tell, I think this is the same view today… BOO to Leamington, this is nearly as bad as a Windsor scene…
Given that the original picture is 50+ years old and we now live in a shopping center-centric world, it doesn’t look like downtown Leamington has faired too badly.
The challenges facing both large and small downtowns nowadays is defining themselves. The high pedestrian count days are over yet it seems that many people won’t accept that fact. For example, in the “downtown” district closest to me, the best mens and womans clothing stores, shoe stores, decor shops, jewelry store, book store, etc. are downtown, where their product line is such that people come to them, not the “shopping center mentality” which is exactly the reverse.
Not like Windsor, only found one empty store, on street parking, and people on the street walking. Still a few names from fifty years ago, lots of new ones. The Kelvinater sign on Lendon Hardware had changed had changed owners in mid fifties. The red Ford on the right could be a 48 or 49, the green and white Ford on the left could be a 1950. It is parked in front of another hardware store.
Leamington has faired pretty well. For Essex County’s second most important town, it emerged late, fast, and kept much of its downtown intact. For the size of the town when most of the buildings in the downtown area were built, it’s quite large.
I don’t see too much that’s wrong with the modern pics. Expecting things to be exactly as they were 60 years ago is a bit unreasonable.
rob i understand what your saying but keeping things kind of the same is comforting it lets you know your home ,your in familiar surrondings like in windsor’s case it would have been nice to keep things the same like the on street parking in the core area instead of the pathetic way it is now
Maybe the people and merchants in Leamington supported each other, all the major store owners stayed in the down town and did not move to Erie St. south like the beer store and A&P and Canadian Tire.
Most of it is there, but stucco and siding covers a lot of it.