A shot of the south side of today’s Riverside Drive looking west from Ouellette. The front entrance of Merchants Bank building (later the Ritz Hotel) is visible on the right hand side of the photograph. The old Norwich Block is visible on the left hand side, along with the block now occupied by the former Cleary Auditorium (now the St. Clair Centre for the arts). Like Wednesday’s picture, this one also appears to have been taken from the old British American Hotel as well.
Hard to believe this is the view today of the same place, in the same city.
Have a great weekend everyone. See you back here Monday.
this city is only half of what it once was it’s a dam shame that it has become what it is today none of the building that’s done today has any of the old architecture just a bunch of boxes
Our downtown was larger then as well. Now look at it? The southside sidewalks in front of teh Hilton is a crying shame. It is impossible to even walk on the south side of the street towards the Art Gallery.
When I was a kid back in the 50’s I used to think Windsor was a pretty big and back then it probably was but now I’m realizing it isn’t so big after all
Just think of how gorgeous Riverside Dr. would be right now with all those buildings still standing.
Most of the buildings on the north side of Sandwich were removed in the mid 50s to create Dieppe Park, A result which I would consider very positive.
As much as these old buildings look fantastic, and I do remember the Norwich block from my youth. As mikek said: Dieppe Park is a very positive result. It is much nicer looking at the Detroit River (and open park land) and Detroit skyline as opposed to the old dirty railroad tracks, that were there. At the same time, yes it is unfortunate the city has lost a lot of historic buildings. However, progress isn’t always a bad thing.