Deauville Beach Club – St. Clair Beach – 1927

From the Border Cities Star, a grand unbuilt plan, dated April 30, 1927:

A MAGNIFICENT clubhouse will be built on the shores of Lake St. Clair by the Deauville Beach Club, Ltd. The club will be located nine miles east of Windsor, near the property of the Beach Grove Country Club. The building, a picture of which is shown above, will be 10 storeys high, with bathing beaches, gymnasiums, and a huge out-door swimming pool for those who prefer this to surf bathing. As indicated in the architect’s perspective, the architecture will bp of Old Normandy, with the building almost an exact reproduction of the famous club at Deauville, France. Several similar clubs have already been bnilt in the United States, two of them at Los Angeles, Cal.

Ah, the Windsor that could have been. This would have been an amazing building.

The club will be located nine miles east of Windsor, just east of the Beach Grove Club’s property. The site, which comprises a beach of 1,000 feet frontage with a depth of more than 350 feet, has been purchased by the men at the back of the project.

As indicated in the architect’s perspective the type of architecture to be used is that of old Normandy, which is seen at best in the old buildings on the northern coast of France. The proposed club on Lake St. Clair will be an exact replica of the famous resort at Deauville in France.

The mail club will be 10 storeys high, with from 200 to 300 guest rooms and suites for those who will require more than ordinary accommodation. The promenade is so designed as to allow members a magnificent view in every direction of Lake St. Clair.

The plans include provision for one of the best equipped gymnasiums ever built, in addition to a liberal supply of lockers, showers and well-equipped dressing rooms. Additional facilities are allowed for those who may favor (sic) surf bathing in preference to swimming in the great open air swimming pool in front of the club-house. Approach to the dressing rooms from the bathing beaches will be by subway under the promenade.

The outdoor swimming pool – the largest in Canada – will be constructed within a huge court, entirely surrounded by the club-house. The pool is especially designed for international swimming meets, skating and other sports the year round. A wading pool is also to be provided for children.

Plans of the Deauville Beach Club, Ltd., provided for every convenience and facility essential to the membership of a large modern club. There will be a nursery and children’s playground, billiard and poolroom, bowling alleys, special dining rooms, colorful (sic) barbecue grill rooms, magnificent ball room, reading rooms for men and women, beauty parlors (sic) and barber shops, auditorium for lectures and music, tennis courts, winter outdoor and indoor sports, gymnasium, spacious dressing rooms and lockers, and many other features not contained in the ordinary club.

A few Founder Life Memberships will be sold for $100.00. It is expected that the unusual conditions surrounding the undertaking will result in a rapid sale of life memberships, increasing in prices as each block is sold.

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The property was accquired for the club board by directors J.D. Clarke and A.P. St. Louis, acting for the Reaume Organization.

Approximately $35,000 will be spent in dredging and “shooting” sand into the beach, Mr. Clarke said today. He said work would be started as soon as plans are completed by the architect, Frederick D. Madison, of Detroit and Royal Oak, Mich.