Even I can still be dumbfounded to discover the great lengths people in this town will undertake to make their buildings as bland and ugly as possible.
When I came across the ad above, from 1947, I couldn’t believe that the building above was still standing.
Then I realized… The building in the photo in the ad is today’s Goodfellows Building. Amazingly it is unrecognisable.
Uh oh, better get Stucco.
Wow! Can this city please put a stop to this madness? Goodfellows is a great organization so I am dumbfounded on the decision to do such stupidity. It sure doesn’t help out the appearance of that area.
I’m speechless.
I’m sure it was a lot cheaper to stucco than repoint and restore all that brick work. Sometimes difficult decisions have to be made in the absence of practical alternatives.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen stucco ridiculed on I.M. Nice to see you aren’t getting soft on them, Andrew! 😉
The whole of Windsor’s downtown is a disgrace, a mirror of Detroit. The city has been abandoned to those disgusting suburbs and DA MALL.
The heart and soul of a city is its public, non-commerical, readily accessible space. It is where culture and civility live, and not the wasteland of suburbia!
As downtown Windsor dies, so does does everything that once had redeeming cultural and social value!
Wow that’s a nice picture of downtown Albuquerque. 🙂
Is downtown Windsor dead blame the people that DID NOT support the merchants that did not flee to the Mall and suberbs. If people have a reason they would suport the area, no people, no stores, no downtown very simple. Major retailers such as Sears, Eatons (long gone) would only have catalouge offices in Windsor, no faith in owntown even in the 50s.
I don’t remember if windows were bricked up back in 1970 but other than that this is the building that was there when I started delivering mail back then. The neighbourhood was much different in those days. There were more buisiness’s. e.g. Krazy Kelly’s & Arnet’s Groceries and a Variety Store down the street and much more residential on University W. Many of the buildings and homes are now gone (many to vandalism and Arson) but it WAS pretty slummy back then. I miss what was there in the past mostly because it was a part of my life back then and is now gone forever. There were a Chinese couple who used to do their morning Tai Chi exercises as I passed by (I was so facinated by them!). For all it’s tawdriness back then, it was a vibrant and productive area. The thing is , the biggest changes in the character of this neighbourhood and others are the type and class of people who come to live there. A dignified working class neighbourhood in 1970 became an area largely known to-day for those dependant for income from drugs, prostitution, other criminal activities, social assistannce (no judgement), the working poor. I am not denigrating those decent souls who live in that area to-day, but I am pointing out that , in my experience, the neighbourhood has changed and not for the better. I iused to live on Crawford , just east of Grace Hosptal, back then. I know whereof I speak!
I said , just east of Grace Hospital. I meant to say, south. Where I lived is now part of the far south parking lot.
i worked for the city of windsor wayback in the 70’s as a garbage man i remember the next block east of the good fellows had a row of stores where that parking lot os now it sems to me that a couple of the stores were chinese shop keepers Terry6 i agree with you the city just took this neighbourhood and stripped it of all the buildings and what do we have now parking lots parking lots PARKING LOTS!!!keep your eye on the hole in the wall where that fire on ouellette ave i’m betting that does’t amount to much either
The downtown is slowly coming back though. I see more businesses there than there has been in the last 10 years. New ideas, etc…
And this stucco is ugly, but it may just protect what’s inside for a special time one day that counts.
Restored bricks = $$$$$$
stucco = $
Stucco = California
Aluminum/Vinyl Siding = Windsor
Any thoughts ???