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…
Crescent Lanes first opened on Ottawa Street in 1944 at 1055 Ottawa Street, opposite Lanspeary…
Above is a photo of the home of Mr & Mrs Oswald Janisse, located at…
in 1917 two Greek brothers Gus & Harry Lukos purchased a one story building on…
Photo from Google Streetview A long time reader sent me an email the other week…
An unremarkable end to a part of Windsor's history. The large vacant house at 841…
One for the lost Windsor files, is this house that once belonged to Joseph Reaume…
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windsor raceway will be the future home to a walmart, with nowhere to build a big box on malden, itll be just down sprucewood at the old raceway location. I believe they have already been rezoning piece by piece.
Just found some slides of when this structure was still burning.
the Comber race track was not stalled by the land owners, the group that wanted to build already owned the land. he was trying to buy out a few opposing neighbors though. I was part of a group that got to ride our snowmobiles around the property for hours while they drove around and tested the db levels. a group of sleds is louder than cars. it was pretty clsoe to happening but what ultimately killed that was the martin government wanted him to pay to rebuild the interchange at 401 and highway 77 at an insane cost. The group eventually gave up and bought a drag strip in michigan which they are still operating.
Also ive heard a rumor that a new mega hospital may go where the raceway is. I doubt car racing would ever happen there though it could be a hit if done right. All of the housing south of the track is relatively new and theres just no way auto racing would happen there.
With the loss of the horse track there ought to be a new horse/car track built though. out in macgregor or something. doesnt matter where it is though it will always be opposed.
I was 7 when the grandstand burnt and we lived on the 2200 block of Howard. So much that Larry posted is true when he said the grandstand was a playground. Underneath the seats and facing west on the 2nd floor was a 20's era dance hall with a gorgeous poished wooden floor. In the middle of the stands was an iron gate and one could look in. It wass under the west overhang that the PW truck was parked that was supposed to start the fire. We had flaming chuncks land on our house.I stood on the curb on McDougal and the heat was intense. One second the bandshell was there and the next there was a "whump" and it was a pool of molten aluminum. This was before the Oullette overpass. When you travel north and just past the lawn bowling courts, to your right is 2/3 foot rise in the ground about 50 feet long. This is the resting place of the grandstand. It burnt for days until nothing was left. It was the worst fire I ever saw.
We attended many many dances there in the late forties,in the summer time. Sometimes the whole floor would shake when they played a fast Tune. I had moved from Windsor in 1951.