Photo from Google Streetview
Built in 1962 and designed by Johnson-McWhinne, the old Electa Hall at Patrica and University is soon to meet the wrecking ball. While, I’m more a fan of the 1960’s section to the south of the property the whole thing, both the southern 4 story building and the northern 6 story building are soon to be shipped off to the landfill.
With the amount of wrecking and building at the U over the last decade or so, it appears it is the richest University in North America.
Runs much the same way Windsor does… tear down decent buildings, and build new ones way over budget.
Tuition fees allow this, much like our city tax.
In my opinion, the University of Windsor has been a very good steward of its heritage buildings. Consider Dillon Hall, Memorial Hall and the Assumption College building. The original St. Denis hall was repurposed to a computer centre while I was there in the 1980’s and later on its gym was renovated to a training facility for the Faculty of Education. To criticize the U for building new of late is unfair. They made due with many substandard and repurposed buildings for decades, all because Windsor didn’t vote for the ‘right’ party during the Bill Davis years. The music building was a bowling alley, the now demolished school of dramatic arts was a Loblaw’s grocery store and the school of visual arts on Huron Line was a small factory (once owned by Kaiser Steel, I’m told, but that needs to be verified). The University also made due with a disconnected, offsite education faculty for decades (the former Ontario Teacher’s College and now E.J. Lajeunesse high school at E.C. Row and Dougall. They also repurposed an old elementary school near Union Street for classroom space for many years. The U was repurposing buildings and making do with existing real estate for decades, long before it was ‘fashionable’ and long before anyone envisioned a downtown campus. Back in the day, no other U in Ontario would have accepted such a collection of hand-me-down buildings. The recent building spree is well deserved, long overdue and makes up for decades when the province did everything they could to ignore Windsor.
Yeah – those were the days…….women and men in separate dorms….. chaperones…….gate-keepers. (“in loco parentis”……look it up.) You had to wait for your date to come down to the common area, whence you would proceed to Ambassador Park to watch the steamers on the river and build up your own head of steam. Alas, the steamers are gone and my own furnace is cold.
Gone too, that sense of expectancy, mystery and subterfuge that swirled around those furtive encounters between the sexes in those dark times before “anything goes”. (Also in those days, there were only two sexes that I was aware of. Now – I dunno, there seem to be more than I can count.)
Big cross up front, prominent feature of the facade, a sign of faith in another, higher power, out of fashion now, and politically incorrect in this secular age.
So, she must come down after half a century of sheltering a few generations of knowledge, wisdom, and fun seekers.
It would be interesting to know the projected lifespan of this building when it was designed and the reactions of the architects to the imminent demise of their creation but they’re probably not around any more.
I don’t agree Kevin.
They have bulldozed historic homes to build new buildings.
Maybe it was time to look for land elsewhere.
I went to the cornerstone laying of Electa Hall. It was pouring rain. My father taught Philosophy at the University of Windsor for most of his life. The building was named after Sr. Mary Electa, a Holy Names sister who was Dean of Holy Names College – part of the ecumenical makeup of the university at that time. She taught my mother at the old St. Mary’s Academy (on Ouelette) and was admired as a true leader which was difficult for a nun in those days. I suspect no one remembers who she was.
Dr Charles not everyone has forgotten Sr. Mary Electa. As a graduate in the early 1980’s I made a point of looking into the background of the building names on campus. I recommend the book “Pure Zeal ” which is a history of Assumption College from 1870 to 1946 by George McMahon Sr. for students and history buffs It provides a good background on the hard working individuals who provided the foundation for the present University of Windsor. I must admit though it is sad to see this building disappear. The structure to me appeared of Prairie School Design on a larger scale.(Frank Lloyd Wright).
Kevin. Thanks for your comments. George McMahon taught me History at Assumption College School. My mother, Margaret’s parents owned the old Essex House on Sandwich (about where the museum is now). She accompanied Sr. Electa to Florida for one year in the 1920’s at the school the sisters ran in Tampa. I remember when the “new” library was built. It was the iconic beginning of the university. Thanks for the book reference. I will look it up. Chas.