33-45 Pitt Street East – Windsor Recreation Building – 1926

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• Used to transfer buses at the downtown station on the way home from (high)school, mid sixties. Would often take a detour to Pitt St. with a few buddies, shoot pool down in the basement,...a very noir scene...the only lights in the place were over the billiard tables...brass spittoons on the floor....attendant in the corner with a stogie butt clamped between yellow teeth...ghosts of rum runners and two bit hustlers watching from the shadows....was always very quiet, we seemed to be the only customers...maybe it was the time of day, maybe it was the end of an era....upstairs was a bit more wholesome, family style, five pin alleys with real live humans setting the pins....maybe ten pin too, can't remember.....sometimes would throw 'em a quarter after a few games...I am interested to know what became of the place. Pitt St.was a happening street. If you lived downtown, you could get just about anything you wanted within a few blocks, without having to infernally combust clear out to the airport. Pretty pathetic, what it is now....a whole lotta nothing.

• Don't know about "Exile" but my parents forbid me to go near the Rec. Too many bad influences (betting, swearing, hoodlums etc). Which made it all the more important to go there! Remember the lights hanging over the tables. It was wonderfully seedy and dirty and forbidden, like sneaking into the "girlie" tent at the carnival sideshow. Do you think the brightly lit, broadloomed co-ed pool places closed places like the Rec? Also bowled five-pin upstairs. Do you remember how angry a pin-setter would get if you threw your ball before he'd got up on his perch and got his legs out of the way?

• i was there i think twice the kind of place that made you look over your shoulder didn't Gilly's Cue operate out of here i know that had a pool room downtown

• You are right Windsor-in-exile. It is pretty pathetic that living downtown etnails getting on ones car and driving to suburbia to shop for the most basic of needs.

• Wow, although I don't remember this place (I am only 34) I do agree that Pitt street is a lame excuse for a downtown street these days. Oh poor downtown.

• I have no memory of this place, it must predate me. What stands now where this was located?

• Nothing stands in it's place RobS it's now the parking lot for the Toronto Dominion Bank!Ken what you said about Pitt street being a poor excuse for a downtown street what i find a poor excuse for a downtown street is the block of Ouellette Ave between Wyandotte and Elliot street it;s really starting to look like a slum area all those empty buildings and the poor old Vanity theater what a shame

• I agree, south of wyandotte between elliot is really looking like a slum. Happy that north of Wyandotte is starting to look up somewhat though, but we're not even 5% there yet. What we need to do is move the outlets downtown and off the new parkway. A very wise decision but nobody will have the vision to ever make that move.

• I wish the picture was better. Windsor Rec was the coolest pool hall in Windsor. It hadn't been altered since the 20's when I went there in the 60's and it had great atmosphere. It wasn't really female friendly but no poolhalls were in those days. The tables were awesome...large and true. When Windsor Rec closed the tables went to gilley's which was over Coles (where Oishi is now) next to Kresges and finally to the Rose Furniture building at Ouellette and Elliott. I imagine someone still has those tables. There were photos of the inside of the poolhall when it was new and they might still be floating around.

• Joe, Gilly's must be where "The Room" is now. Before they went all night club, it was called "Room With A Cue." It was a pool hall, with a nice view ;)

  I have no idea what happened to the pool tables when they did that, but I know some people that might. If I can find out, I'll post it here.