Here’s another old postcard shot. This is from the late 1950’s early 1960’s (thanks Don!) and is taken at the intersection of Ouellette and University looking north.
Look at all the shops and on street parking… Back when downtown was vibrant, and you really could get everything you needed.
Sigh…
Not only the shops but look at the buildings. Great shape and no stucco!
The postcard must be from 1962 as there is a 1962 Mercury Comet waiting at the light. Regardless of the year, I remember many a shoping trip with my mother and sister downtown to Bartlets, Smiths Adelmans untill the early 70’s. Oh, I must not forget those glazed donuts from the lunch counter at Kresges! Yes the downtown is dead and we can’t count on Edgar and his council to revive it.
Isn’t that the Bata shoe store on the left, if so, I remember shopping there in the mid 70’s and when they went out of business! The lunch counter at Kresges was a city institution, I remember it, my mother and grandmother remember it as thee place to have lunch! And their deli counter always provided a fresh to go selection.
Don – you’re probably right, I was just guessing at the year as the card isn’t postmarked.
Urbanrat – That is the Bata Shoe store. When I was in Europe last fall, I was surpirsed to see what a strong retail presence the Bata shoe brand still has.
I would say this photo is taken in 1964 – 66. look at the building infront of the guardian building downtown Detroit (white building) on the right.. that building was completed in 1963 .
This is the downtown I remember as a young child.
And yes, Kresge’s! I remember the donuts at the front counter and those squeaky wooden floors. I remember my mother taking me shopping at a store that had an elevator operator who pulled the door shut by hand. I seem to recall that it was just off of Ouellette, perhaps on Pitt or Chatham.
Is there a resource available that would list all the retail businesses that were open in the retail area of Downtown Windsor in, say, 1963?
One of the problems that downtowns had in the mid-late ’60’s through the mid 70’s or so was the decline of national chain small store dry goods (well, major goods for that matter) retailers.
To climb back over to my side of the river for an example, staple companies like Wolhl Shoes, Edison Brothers, National Shoe, Good Houskeeping, S.S. Kresge, F.W. Woolworth and other staples of downtown retail not only pulled up and moved to the mall, they pulled up and went out of business completely, or changed their focus so much tratditional downtown retail was not their focus anymore.
This is by no means an implication that it doesn’t bother me to see a downtown go to rack and ruin. In my 40 year retail career, I much prefered to work a downtown store than a mall shop, BUT when people start wishing downtown was as vibrant and alive in the same way it was in 1963, it’s not gonna happen. It’s 2008 and times, people and the shopping environment are different.
There is great hope for downtowns. Ferndale, Royal Oak and Birmingham are excellent examples of recovered shopping districts. But out here where I live, when the regional department store shuttered it’s downtown location, the DBA was 10 years fighting the “There’s no reason to go downtown anymore since (fill in name of business here) shut down” syndrome even though (fill in name of business here) shut down because they didn’t go downtown to begin with…..
City directories contain list of all business. The Central Library on Ouellette has them available for research. The Museum on Pitt Street (Baby House) also has them dating back to the late 1800s.
This is the downtown Windsor my folks talk about nostalgically, where you could get anything you wanted. I know a lot of people from Windsor used to shop over in Detroit back then, but my parents were new to the city and lived not far from downtown. To this day my dad will insist that Smith’s department store carried the finest men’s clothes money could buy. Too bad our current municipal leaders can’t see how much of an asset our downtown could be if only they would take action. They are doing to downtown Windsor what George Bush did to the American economy.
This picture brings back memories… I recall controversy and apprehension when the Sentry Mall, Dorwin Plaza…. were announced and what consequently would happen to the downtown.
Does anyone remember the streetside underground washrooms which were located downtown?
Does anyone remember Lyttles Bakery at the corner of Maiden Lane and Ouellette. It was across the liane, south of Lazares.
They had the best choclate eclairs.
Does anyone remember Lyttles Bakery at the corner of Maiden Lane and Ouellette. It was across the liane, south of Lazares.
They had the best choclate eclairs.
And, yes, I do recall the old underground washrooms. One was at Riverside and Ouellette.
Does anyone remember Lyttles Bakery at the corner of Maiden Lane and Ouellette. It was across the liane, south of Lazares.
They had the best choclate eclairs.
And, yes, I do recall the old underground washrooms. One was at Riverside and Ouellette.
Gabe–the building you mention is the beautiful Michigan Consolidated Gas Building at One Woodward Avenue (for the Detroit-challenged among you it’s the one with the blue cube on top–representing a natural gas flame). The building is notable because it’s the work of Minoru Yamasaki, who went on to design the twin towers of the World Trade Center in NYC. If you go over and have a look you see the influences–the long narrow windows, the use of marble and the forecourt fountain. The building also has what was a contraversial sculpture infront–a nude dancer standing on point called Passo Di Danza–contraversial because it was a nude in the 1960s, and also because it’s sculptor–the famed Italian artist Giacome Manzu–was a known Communist. Anyway…sorry for the off-topic post–love the shot of the Avenue in it’s heyday.
Ruth – Check tomorrow’s entry, I’ll post a little thing on Lyttle’s.
Further to JT’s appreciated details regarding the Gas Building, I remember having dinner on special occasions with my Grandparents atop that building in the Top Of The Flame restaurant. Given that it was well before the RenCen, it had the best view of the river and its never ending parade of ships.
thanks JT for that great info. the building is ok, but it blocks our view of that awesome Art Deco Guardian building behind it. !! must have been a great scene back in the day from downtown Windsor to have such a clear view of both the Penobscot and Guardian building.
I like it all Gabe–I think I’m one of the few people who truly loves the HQ building that was built for NBD between the Pen and the Guardian–the one that is ‘lovingly’ referred to as the “cheese grater” the main NBD branch (now occupied by Chase) is a fantastic trip back to the late 50s/early 60s–the Guardian is a breathtaking building–unmatched really–but I love modernism and internationalism also–and One Woodward, The Cheesegrater, 1001 Woodward and 211 West Fort are all great modernist buildings. Yamasaki had a great eye for purity of form–and he was a Metro Detroiter–downtown D has a lot of gems and a lot of fantastic architectural history–it’s really a story that needs to be told. Great public art too–as evidenced by Passo Di Danza, among others.