Another great old shot of downtown Windsor. This one dates from the early 1920’s. It shows the old Windsor Gas Company office building on Chatham Street West. Long gone of course.
Here the 1937 fire insurance map showing the layout of the block (the Gas building is marked in yellow). The Terrace houses covered here previously can be seen immediately west of the Gas building. I bet you’ll never guess what’s there today?
It’s the Easter long weekend. Good Friday and Easter Monday there will be no post. See you back here a week from now! Have a safe weekend.
Check out that sign!!! Where did we go wrong? Old signs were spectacular… now a days the back light plastic box is all you see… so uninspired, so boring. Well the parking lot that currently occupies the site is almost as nice….
as a kid growing up in the 50″s i remember the gas company offices on chatham vaguely my mother bought a gas stove and had to make payments there,it’s a dam shame we don’t have these cool old buildings around anymore… now there’s the vibrancy Eddie Francis talks about not what Downtown Windsor is today
If i read the map correctly the Chatham Street Building ( formerly Le Bastille) was the Windsor Utilities Commision buildinga that time, interesting I had no idea
Freeman, I think if you look more closely, the gas company building was located across the alley and west from what is now the Chatham Street Grill.
JBM is right. The former Chatham Street Grill and the apartments above, along with the attached/adjacent building to the east are seen on the edge of this photo and are still there.
Vernon’s 1919-1920 directory lists the following for addresses on the south side of Chatham Street… starting at Pelissier and progressing to Victoria Ave.:
Studebaker Corporation (SW corner of Pelissier and Chatham), 31 Windsor Hydro Electric System, 31 Cleveland Tractor Company of Canada Ltd., 31 C.M.B.A. Hall, 33 Windsor Gas Company Ltd., 33 McColl, C.R. civil engineer, 33 Windsor Dredging Co. Ltd., Askin, Katherine, public stenog, King, Chs S. office, Kennedy, Wm C., M P, Office, 33 Dominion Traction & Lighting Co. Ltd., Peninsular Security Co. Ltd.
I will guess without looking…a parking lot?
We can add another one too because Fulvio Valentinis is going to approve demo of another heritage house. Gee Halberstadt doesn’t even live in the ward and he knows the value of these properties.
BTW: That parking lot is a disgrace! Why doesn’t the city clamp down on these lots and make the owners keep them up and landscaped?
Good thing the rest of the old buildings on that block are still there. If they demo that house on Ouelette I will boycot this time period and buy a Delorean time machine and go live with the dinosaurs.
Previously, I had posted a listing of the businesses and occupants of buildings along Chatham Street West between Pelissier St. and Victoria Ave. Included in the list was something called C.M.B.A. Hall. I wondered as to what this may be and so in doing a search I discovered the following site which contained information on the Windsor location.
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/jerome/contextes/protagonistes/4241en.html
JBM, Your list of businesses and occupants appears to also include William Costello Kennedy,
a local member of parliament. He was a remarkable minister of railways and canals, known for his leadership in the amalgamation of railways into the Canadian National Railway.
http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=42355
rws, you are correct; I was wondering if anyone would notice!
rws, this is where W.C. Kennedy is laid to rest:
http://geneofun.on.ca/names/photo/620607
The inscriptions reads as follows:
http://geneofun.on.ca/names/photo/620608
This building was around still in the early 70’s, because I remember going with my mother down there to pay a bill.Then it moved to across the library on Ouelette.
Wish the city was still awash in neon and signs like this. Does this city not have signage bylaws because most of what is out there is absoulutely atrocious. But then again you need tenants before you worry about signage I guess.