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Windsor Jockey Club Grandstand – 1912

    The new Windsor race track grandstand is shown herewith. It is said to be the largest and finest equipped grandstand in Canada. It is of steel construction on a cement and brick foundation, the brickwork being carried up to form the first story. The stand is 340 feet in length and 70 feet in depth, being more than twice the size of the old one. The seating capacity will be about 5,000. There are two galleries running the full length of the stand. The general contractors were Vintor & Co., of Detroit. The track owners, the Windsor Fair Grounds & Driving Park association, are contemplating an invitation to H. R. H. the Duke of Connaught to open the new stand at the first meeting in July.

The grandstand stood until 1957, when it burned down in a spectacular fire:

A parks and recreation pick up truck parked in the garage bays under the grandstand caught fire due to faulty wiring in the truck. Within an hour the entire grandstand and bandshell were engulfed…

Andrew

View Comments

  • agreed bill, between horse racing and f1 theres really nothing of appeal that we could make here. Nascar caters only to rednecks and we have enough of those in Windsor. Now if we got some real high class racing down at the Raceway, that would not be bad.

  • A bit off-topic, but I'm curious - what would be considered the last single-family house still standing in downtown Windsor? If I remember correctly, there are a few very old homes still on Goyeau after exiting the tunnel. Does anyone know the history of the very old homes that would have been in downtown?

  • Windsor used to have drag racing strips. Don't know why they got rid of them. Now, the nearest one is in St. Thomas. You should raise it with your councilor if you think it's a good idea to convert Windsor raceway into one. Windsor still has a lot of car shows and car clubs and I'm sure it would get a lot of use. It would also make the city safer as people could go to a designated area to drag race. But, not enough people are contacting their councilors about it.

  • The city of Windsor does not own or control the Windsor Raceway, so the people to contact are the track owners about its future. I do not think the city would want to get involved with race tracks or dragstrips, this is something for private developers to do.
    The talk of any type of racing or noise would upset Lasalle they would complain about to much noise or traffic, like they did a couple years ago about retail developement near them.

  • Could always re-open the Fairplay drag strip. That plot of land is owned by Tecumseh, and they're doing NOTHING with it.
    Keep the woodlot to the East of it, turn it into trails, and re-open the drag strip.
    It's ridiculous Essex County doesn't have one. Windsor Raceway could be another option as some of you have previously stated. We gotta start re-using!!

  • I have some nice text on Hendrie and Parmer bringing the steelwork and other basics from the Grosse Point Track to accomodate the crowds of bettors-mostly from the States.Hope to use this pic in "the book."

  • Jonathan, there are still a lot of single family homes in downtown. I live in one as do a few others who visit this site.

    I would love for a thoroughbred horse track to be made here. But it will never happen. Heck even a new checker flag at Windsor Raceway would be nice but that isn't going to happen either.

    The Comber track didn't get built because of two reasons. 1) a landowner kept stalling and upping the price. 2) the municipality kept giving them (the developers) the run around (or so I have been told by insiders).

  • Bill i assume you have a better use for the racetrack than us rednecks do thats the trouble with windsor ....nothing to do!!

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