Image from the collection of Scott Hughes
Regular reader Scott Hughes, sent along a great old postcard to share with readers. The card was issued in 1959 by The Greater Windsor Industrial Commission. Above is a crop of the card showing the north side of Wyandotte St. between Ouellette and Goyeau. The building on the corner under construction, is today’s TD Bank, and the only building still standing.
Image from the collection of Scott Hughes
Here is a view of the whole card, a nice view of the central portion of Downtown Windsor. There have been so many changes to Windsor’s skyline in the last 50 years…
Image from the collection of Scott Hughes, red splotches by me 🙂
I thought I would take a stab at pointing them out. Everything in red is something that has been demolished since the photo was taken. I’m also willing to bet that I missed some, especially on the west side of the card.
Wow.
[EDIT] – Scott looked over my red splotches, and found a few I missed! So here’s the most up to date version.
Thanks again to Scott for sending it in!
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Nice RED HIGH-LIGHTING work Andrew – wow, amazing!!!
that’s…..disgusting. wow is right!
what’s sad is what took all that space? casino…alright, but what about the rest of it?! that’s insane. not one great or even decent replacement jumps into mind..sad, sad, sad.
is that the odd fellows building you posted about a long time back, next to the TD? that’s a great looking building.
that’s a great postcard for sure, thanks Scott!!
Detroit is lookin pretty good over there too… looking at old photos.. i much preferred the Detroit skyline without the Renaissance Center.. its more balanced.
Andrew – i was going to say that you blocked out something still there, but looking at “bing” maps with the areial…..at St. Alphonses church i think it’s the rectory that has me confused.
i was there for a funeral not long ago (beautiful inside btw), but i had came out that door on goyeau at the rectory after lunch and i noticed a cornerstone with 1909 or something old like that. and the brick seemed pretty old. did they knock it down and only re-use the cornerstone and maybe re-use the brick for the enterance?
funny how there’s still….somehow…..houses, nice houses on that part of goyeau.
Aaron, They did knock down and rebuilt the hall, maybe in the early 1990’s? The rectory was also demoed during the last big tunnel plaza expansion.
No wonder there is no vision or cohesion downtown. With so much missing and so much mish-mash of ugly replacements is it really any wonder why the downtown continues to look pathetic?
I do like the new lights on the waterfront for Christmas. Now hopefully they stretch it further along the drive.
Also note the block-long parking lot on Ouellette along the Tunnel property. It wasn’t demolished but it also is gone. Colour it pink?
Windsor’s Red-Light District.
wow i was not even looking at the detroit skyline, it does look balanced without the rencen. I have never seen a photo of detroit without it.
Wow. Thats about all I have to say after seeing that. Looking at Goyeau specifically, pretty much every building has been demolished.
At the very least the Ren Cen is Detroit’s signature building. See a pic of that and you think Detroit, like the TransAmerica building for SF or the Sears Tower for Chicago.
What is the building at the lower left under construction?
At least the riverfront is opened up, I can’t imagine it full of factories and rail road tracks. I do recall the plywood palace, glad that is gone.
Any word on the old riverside brewery buildings with the sand piles? Every time I go by I wonder why those are still standing. I don’t like the sand piles either, though.
Oops. I missed that the TD Bank building. What was there before it?
Amazing. All that demolition and they stil haven’t got it right!
This is just pure insanity. I wonder how Windsor’s demo rate compares to other cities?
Kari….not even close. We have destroyed so much of our history and yet most people don’t give a crap. Wonder why there isn’t any ambiance downtown or anywhere else in this cookie-cutter city? The above shows that the city itself cares only for building permits to pay today what they can’t pay for tomorow.
I recall, the downtown core was vibrant and very active in the late 1950’s. I clearly remember almost all the buildings and areas that are red hi-lighted in this photograph – although some are vague, especially around the old river front brewery near Bruce and Riverside and the Windsor Market area.
On another note: Windsor also had newly built shopping centers in our 1950’s/60’s South Windsor ‘hood’ when I was a kid – Yorktown Square on Grand Marais, Gateway Plaza and Dorwin Plaza, both on Dougall.
I ask this question… Was the design and building of the suburban shopping center with well lit and safe free parking, the first step toward the downfall of a city’s downtown core? Or was it something else?
very very cool
Yikes. All the more reason to get going on that canal going instead of restoring the armouries or the old bus depot. We should probably tear down the bridge company’s houses in Sandwich for good measure.
Scott, I think “suburban shopping” was the beginning of the end for the downtown, and Devonshire Mall was the “Coupe de Grace”… If that top photo extended a little more to the bottom left, there would be even more demolished buildings; The old Monarch Tavern on the corner of Pelissier % Wyandotte W… a giant four plex of houses behind Coulter’s Camera shop that stood at 560-566 Pelissier (in which I grew up in!) and another big four plex that stood next to the old Kilarney Tavern on Wyandotte …
wow…i knew we lost alot downtown but that photo really puts things into perspective
It looks as though Cobo Arena was under construction at the east end of Cobo Hall across the river. Nice to see the two twin-stacked paddlewheel railway ferries docked on the Windsor shore. Thank you Scott and Andrew for your efforts.
I’ve always been curious about what came first: Cobo Hall or the old Cleary Center. Also, was a hockey arena part of the original plans for the Cleary? I’ve heard that an arena was part of the original plan for the Cleary but the city cut it out of the plans at the last minute.
Kari> ME is wrong. Every city I’ve been to (often for various urban-related projects) from London to San Jose to Edinburgh to New York to London all say they are the worst at historical preservation. Windsor is not unique.
Further to my above point, check out what hamilton lost!
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k28/segaert/oddstuff/destruction.jpg
I remember Ouellette Avenue being quite lively in the 70’s and 80’s. I don’t know for certain, but I think it was the extension of E.C Rowe out to Lauzon Parkway in the early 80’s that killed downtown Windsor. Before E.C Rowe, the fastest way to get from Windsor to Belle River was Tecumseh Road, which made daily commuting a time-consuming headache in even the best weather. Now you can get to Belle River in 20 minutes thanks to the expressway.
When the expreeway was first prposed the cost was 12 million dollars, demmed by city council and the province as too high. When they reconsidered and started construction the cost had escalated out of sight. The first stage was between Walker Rd. and Dougal Rd.. Not affecting the drive time from Tecumseh or Bell River. By this time Dorwin Sentry, and Gateway Plaza were already open, Devonshire Mall wasin the planing stages, or construction.
Downtown declined due to lack of retail in the core area, Sears Simpson Sears only had a small catalouge office downtown. When Devonshire open all of a sudden we now had Simpson Sears and Robert Simpson stores.
Robert Simpson stores where boughtout by Sears Robuck, first the catalouge, then the stores
Wow, this is the saddest group of shots I have seen. When they pick off the buildings one or two a year you don’t notice it as much as when you look at the whole arial picture. I wonder if the red areas in the pictures were labelled how many we would remember and what has replaced them….parking lots, banks,casino, appartments and office buildings? Too bad we don’t have a similar shot of what is there today. What is so upsetting is that in some cases it is whole residential neighbourhoods that have been destroyed…..and they wonder why they have no one to shop downtown….oops I forgot there are no stores left to shop in. They even tore down two large downtown hotels…the Norton Palmer and Prince Edward. Both must have been good for foot traffic downtown. The new hotels and Casino are now on the fringe of the downtown or on the riverfront, not in the core. There is no starting point from the hotels to start shopping and keep on strolling. You would have to walk several blocks from the hotels to get to one store…if you could find one…lots of restaurants but little retail and little reason to even window shop. Very sad. Thanks for the postcard Scott.
last summer while they were rebuilding the block of ouellette between park nd wyandotte i happened tobe driving north on pellisher street at the corner of park and pellisher street there was a sign mounted on a pole that stated SHOPPING ON OUELLETTE then i thought what shopping ????
our core area reminds me of that road in grand bend that runs from the main drag out to the beach nothing but sovenire shopsand fast food joints …..very sad
of all the hair brain ideas city councilhas evercome up with the canal has to be the worst i saw some film footage of the river walk in San Antonio on tv the other night and windsorwill never aquire that eddie francis bettercome back down to gound level
May be some pie in the sky idea might work, When looking for a western anchor the plan from the Chicago group got tossed, no arena. The other plans offered then never happened even with arenas in them. The tallest office building west of Toronto shrunk before it was built.
Renovation of Cleary cost 31 million plus, then peddled to St. Clair College. Not bad when the Cleary only cost about 1 million.
The Chicago Navy Yard is a huge succses, may be it would have worked in Windsor, we will never know now. May be some attraction downtown will draw people and retail back, or we can wait till Tecumseh does somethig to scare Windsor again.
@acid ???