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Proposed Ford City Park – 1929

From the Border Cities Star – March 16, 1929:

    This is an architect’s conception of a proposed park development in Ford City, in the area bounded by Alice street, Tourangeau Road, Reginald street and Bernard Road. At the Ford City Parks Board’s meeting on Monday night, a petition will be presented, asking that this park property be acquired by closing Rossini Boulevard from Alice to Reginald streets, and by closing the alley between Tourangeau Road and Rossini Boulevard, and that the ground be developed into a park and children’s playground this year. This additional land would increase the acreage of the present park site at Rossini Boulevard and Bernard Road, to about nine acres.


View Larger Map

Above is that land today, the north park of AKO park.

From the City of Windsor Park History:

    AKO Park
    Commonly known as: AKO Park
    Former/other names: Rossini Park
    Location: between Reginald and Milloy Streets off Bernard and Tourangeau
    Roads
    Property acquired: 1951
    Acreage: 15.91
    Official designation: Community park

    Originally established as Rossini Park in 1951, the Alpha Kai Omega fraternity began exploring the
    possibility of becoming involved in the future development of the park in 1952, when the City was
    constructing an athletic building on the site. Dedicated to the sponsorship of junior sports since
    World War II, AKO teams used the park and facility frequently for training. In 1954, additional
    property was purchased and the AKO group was approached to seriously discuss the official
    sponsorship of the next stage of the park’s development.

    In 1961, the fraternity donated $30,000 of the estimated $80,000 needed to construct the AKO
    Neighbourhood Centre, the first facility in Windsor to be designed specifically for use as a
    community centre. Needs of user groups were carefully considered, space allotments and layout
    concepts were developed. It was a design that would become a fundamental component of
    subsequent centre in the area. Located within 16-acre AKO Park, the centre offers east side
    residents high quality, all-season recreational facilities.

    Outdoors, AKO Park provides such diverse facilities as a football and soccer field, hardball and
    softball diamonds, a wade pool, plus a wide assortment of playground equipment. During the
    winter months, area children enjoy the park’s small sledding hill.

The 1935 Fire map doesn’t show any park there, and it shows the streets running through, so this proposal was not successful, although decades later the same result was achieved.

Have a good weekend everyone, see you back here Monday!

________________________________________________________________________________________

Andrew

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  • In the early 70's I attended the nursery school and spent a lot of time playing at the community centre and the park. The sledding hill, equipped with extremely dangerous wooden ramp was a big draw for all the kids in the neighbourhood. That is now torn down but the hill remains. The community centre was a typical mid-century design but the outside was redesigned within the last decade with a modern look. On Saturdays the centre would be full of kids playing billiards, ping pong, floor hockey, crafts. Hot dogs, chips and pop. Those were good times. This link shows a photo of the outside of the building before the remodel: http://www.citywindsor.ca/residents/facilities-for-rent/pages/constable-john-atkinson-memorial-community-centre.aspx

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