There was a big discussion on an old post the other day about the fate of the remains of the Manning House. The Heritage Committee (of which I am a part) voted to not take any action in moving to designate the remaining section when faced with a request for demolition. The plans for redevelopment call for the demolition of the The former Royal Bank Building on the corner of Pitt and Ouellette (built in 1964), the remains of the former Manning House that was built in 1887, and the building around the corner at 25 Pitt St. E. which is home to Patrick O’Ryan’s.
The Border Cities Star ran an article on the history of the site in the Aug. 2, 1924 edition.
According to the story, the site originally contained the Beeman House hotel that was built in 1855 by Mrs. Elam Beeman. The Beeman House burned down in 1887, and the owner at the time, who had purchased it some years earlier from Mrs. Beeman, was a man called Thomas Manning.
The old Beeman house was a two story frame building, and Mr. Manning, immediately went to work on a replacement. The brick Manning House was built and opened in the same year as the Beeman House fire – 1887.
In 1904, Thomas Manning sold the Manning house to Ambrose Appleton for $38,000. Appelton kept the building until 1913, when he sold it for $115,000 (about $2.2 million in 2008 dollars) to the Royal Bank.
When the Royal Bank took over the building ceased to be called the Manning House, and was known as the Royal Bank Building.
In 1960, the Royal Bank demolished the front portion of the building (everything left of the lamp post in the postcard above) including the entire Pitt St. frontage, and the “new” Royal Bank building opened around 1963. They remained in that location until the newest Royal Bank was opened across the street. For life of me I can’t remember when that was? Must have been around 1999-2000?
Here’s an original photo I have of the bank that was taken in September, 1920.
According to the 1919-20 City Directory, these were the following tenants of the Royal Bank Building when the photo above was taken:
- Royal Bank
- American Consulate
- Dr. A.N. Laidlaw, dentist
- Miss M. Lyons, stenographer
- Hugh A. Beaton, architect (I am assuming that this is the same Hugh Beaton whom the school is named after)
- Redeker-Hyland Reality Co.
- L. Scisorek, architect
- A. Malkin, construction engineer
- John Sutton, Sr., real estate
- N. H. Williams, real estate
- Harold Browning, ticket agent
- Chas. Holden, insurance
- McRae Sales Co.
- John Sale, barrister
- F. A. Eakins, dentist
- Essex County Realty Co.
and on the ground floor in the two store fronts:
- Paul Eberwein, souvenirs, etc…
- W. W. Walton, jeweller
You can see in the detail shot, that the Manning House name is one from the facade, replaced with the Royal Bank Building.
A detail shot of the remaining section. The two store fronts contain Paul Eberwein’s on the left, and Walton’s Jewellers on the right. You can see “Souvenirs” & “Post Cards” on the windows on the left hand side.
Here’s the remaining section today.
A view of the corner in question. As you can see the best part of the Manning House is long gone. However the fact that anything survived is very interesting to me. I also suspect that the “Canada Gift Shop” is the last section the Manning House that had the bay windows at one time.
So is anyone interested in going inside? 🙂
First stop is down to the basement. A pile of old doors with the Royal Bank Logo, and check out that beast of a boiler!
Turning to head back up the stairs, I spied this sign for Eberwein’s. Amazingly they were in business for quite a long time.
This photo from the early 1970’s shows Eberwein’s still in business. Note the “Ultimate Topless Body Rub” sign. You’ll see that in a bit…
Now, the building is so badly chopped up that, the section that allows access to the basement, doesn’t have access to the upper floors. So we had to leave the building, go back out to the street, and in another door to gain access to the upper floors.
Reaching the floor above the retail space, a few traces of the past are revealed. A nice old staircase, which is badly water damaged, and borderline rotted… It’s not as nice as it looks in the photos 🙂
The one original doorway with the transom and trim was a nice surprise. This was the only door like this, and the layout of the building was rather strange. Lots of nooks and crannies, and remodelling and alterations haven’t been kind to this place.
The inside of the room with the transom. Apparently it was office #4? Many rooms were filled knee deep with boxes and garbage.
The bathroom to office #4. No toilet, but a very old wash basin.
Looking back at the second floor from the landing.
A view of the top floor offices. Much of the top floor is covered in graffiti, and has sections where the plaster in coming down from the ceiling. The building exhibited common signs of water damage. The street level retail spaces had ceiling tiles that had fallen down and were still soaked with water, a floors so buckled that you couldn’t open closet doors.
More vandalism.
Judging from the decor of this space, I can only assume that this was the space occupied by the “Ultimate Topless Body Rub”. 🙂
The area had its own staircase and there was a lounge type space on the floor below… You’ll see that in a minute.
Wow. This was/is located in the boudoir type space. It appeared to be a stone kind of fountain and maybe a hot tub. 🙂 Must have been to help you relax before you got your rub down…
A shot of the “lounge”. Note the swanky sectional and cool 1970’s wallpaper.
The front portion of the lounge was filled with garbage and all type of papers. It looks like someone once tried to torch the place.
A view down another corridor. There was no power in the building, and the flashlight we had wasn’t very good. As a result, we didn’t venture down this one.
A view down the alley to the rear shows the poor condition of the structure.
While it looks not bad from the front, the sections of bricks that are falling out shows there is certainly some structural issues with the building. Being of the vintage that it is, the building was built with masonry bearing walls, and the integrity of the building is no doubt compromised due to the poor upkeep over the years.
Demolition is hoped to be underway by October 1st.
While there is likely no bigger preservationist in this city, sometimes buildings have to come down in order to move forward. This is not a case like the Frank Joyce house where, demolition was wanted because the site would be great for high rise seniors towers, the building was sound and architecturally important. Or even the Bank of Montreal at Walker & Ottawa where the building became a parking lot so people can have a better view of the shitty ass strip mall behind it.
This is a situation where the best part of the building was demolished nearly a half century ago, and the part that remains is in poor repair, and after visiting the inside, next to impossible to adapt to modern use. What remains, while a glimpse into the past of Ouellette Ave., is very much out of context with the rest of the block. There is a solid redevelopment plan in place that will remove an eyesore from one of the main corners in the downtown core, and bring in some much needed investment.
If it was going to fall for a parking lot, or just being demolished with no redevelopment plan, then the Heritage Committee would like look upon the demolition much differently.
It’s a shame Ryan’s is going – because that is an old building that has been beautifully adapted to a current use. I even have some affection for the 1964 Royal Bank building – which is typical of it’s age. In the last few years of operation they’d stopped using the high-ceilinged main floor for branch operations and built this craptastic little hovel down in the basement to house the tellers.
Nonetheless, the vacany on Ouellette will not be missed – nor will the former Royal ATM lobby which has become downtown’s largest urinal over the years.
Great coverage Andrew, I really enjoyed reading this article. Lot’s of information, and history in this one.
I am looking forward to seeing how this new development transforms.
have you seen the plans for the new structure andrew? any talk of maybe designing the building to what the original royal bank builiding once looked like? i heard there was talk of using the old td bank facade. i know i’m talking crazy talk here and it’s probably impossible to build something like that 🙂 but it’s just a thought
It’s so awesome that I finally got to see the inside of this building. I’ve always been curious about it when looking up at the second and third floor windows. I’m too chicken to explore any sort of old building (for both the legality for me, as well as the spookiness). We used to joke around when my friend was looking for a place to live that he could just squat in this building and he’d be all set. I mean look, he’d even have some swanky 70’s furniture.
Great post Andrew I always to always wondered what the other floors looked inside, the body rub place must have been a pretty swanky place back in the day. How did you get inside or is that a secret?
As for getting inside, so big secret.
As a member of the Heritage Committe, when someone comes in to request a demolition permit on a heritage building, I always ask if I can set up an appointment to go and decument the building prior to demolition. Some say no, some say yes… This one was a yes 🙂
I shoot it, and drop a copy in the heritage files at City Hall, that way there is always a copy for the future…
Why can’t they build around and on top of the Patrick O’Ryan’s builing? I understand the reasonings behind the rest of the buildings coming down as being unpractical to put back into use, but the Patrick O’Ryan’s building is still functional and still in use. Harry Stinson took the old Dominion bank building built in 1914 in downtown Toronto and built a 51 storey glass office tower on top of it several years back. Why can’t they incorporate the Patrick O’Ryan’s building into the new structure–build around and on top of it. It’s only a four storey glass building. This is bullsh-it. They shouldn’t have been so quick to let that building go because it’s still functional and could have been incorporated into the new structure. They do it in Toronto all the the time.
Greetings Andrew
Thanks for the insight as well as the photos and story behind the “Manning House” and the Heritage committee.
The Wednesday Sept. 29, 1999 edition of the Windsor Star contained a supplement, section F entitled “Riverwalk 99, Celebrating our Waterfront”. On page F3 there is an aerial photo of the river front at Ouellette and Riverside Dr. And surrounding area. The caption states that the photo was taken in the early 1950’s and that it was a ‘Star’ photo. If you can get a copy of this photo and post it your readership will be amazed that there are only 6 buildings that still stand. The Paul Martin Federal building, the Baby House, the Windsor Star building, the Old Fish Market, Papa Chaney’s, and Patrick O’Ryans. The north side of the “Manning House” building is clearly visible. This photo would be a great piece for those wishing to exercise their memory by trying to name buildings and businesses. Have a look and enjoy.
paul m
The hallway that you didn’t go down because of flashlight concerns simply has a room with boxes of china, a room with a sink and some cleaning supplies, a room with 2 separate showers & a ton of large spiders.
No Royal Bank interiors? That’s one I’ve always wondered about and wanted to see. Although my friend does have a nice picture of the exterior with a random girl bracing one leg on the wall and urinating on the front.
Does this mean that the “Canada Gift Shop” will be gone too?
Or should I say, the “C na a G ft hop”? 🙂
Thanks for the invite inside that building with your pictures Andrew. I too have always wnated to see inside that building…but what a mess!
However, since I need some doors for my own home I was wondering if you can get me in touch with someone who owns the building? I would gladly buy them as they are the exact one’s I have in my house. Yet I am having trouble finding some to replace the door’s that the previous owner butchered.
Thanks.
paul m – thanks, I’ll have to see if I can dig the photo up next time I’m going though the microfilm…
Scooter – Canada Gift Shop is staying.
Me, there aren’t too many doors in there. There is one that you see, and I’m not sure that it would fit. I will pass along your message however.
Navi – Figures that you’ve been in there 🙂 Glad I didn’t miss anything.
Awesome Andrew…
I spent some time trying to get into this building a few years ago, from the back fire escape. About a year ago, I was walking by and the door off ouellette was wide open (busted open actually), but I was with a few friends (one was in a long dress and heels) so we never went in.
More recently, I guess achannel ran a news story about this building being used by drug addicts or something? (never saw the story)
Anyways, I remember this building being in ROUGH shape. In fact, you can smell the mold from Ouellette. I can’t believe they’re actually going to tear down the section that includes Patrick O’Ryan’s though.
Mike
fantastic post andrew!!!!! thank you so much for getting in there and getting the shots. you were tight though about the best part of the building already being taken down, but as much as it’s worth, if the canada gift shop is part of the manning house….some of it remains. still not as modern as i thought inside though. and it really bothers me that with all the time in the world in an abandonned building……windsor teens STILL can’t produce any decent grafitti !!!!
i really don’t understand why patrick o’ryans is going. didn’t they used to be on the norwich block? do they have any plans that you know of? i guess that’s another place i have to visit before it disappears forever.
i really hope the new developers are keen on the idea of using the bank facade.
Great work Andrew.
I wonder who’s financial transactions are strewn all over the floor.
Maybe I’ll see you @ Willistead this Sunday. The forecast is for rain.
Hopefull the rain holds off cpike.
I’m looking forward to the return of the show, it was always one my my favourites to shoot.
Andrew, I have to thank you for having the passion to provide us with some of the history behind these buildings. Although the comments and opinions from the group are always intresting and much appreciated, they need to understand that most developments are Tenant driven and developers have very little control in design & integration. This is especailly the case with a large national tenant, whether it be a drug store or banking institution. The bigger picture (which the committee was able to see in this case) is that without this approval, that corner of downtown Windsor would remain an eyesore for years to come. I believe we are all concerned with the growth and finacial strength of our City and sometimes that is more importanat than saving an old building which is in such a poor state of repair that it would be financilly infeasible to ever re-use it.
DP
Davide, thanks for stopping by. While it would be nice, I undertands that your direction comes from your client out of town.
This is a good project for downtown, IMO. That corner will be cleaned up, it would be nice however to incorportate some of the elements suggested in the comments.
However, for that to happen, the city needs to change their desgin guidelines, until that happens, corportations like your clients will not pay any more than they have to.
The onus needs to be on the residents to demand better from our planning department,.
Andrew, do you have any more information on the old Patrick O’Ryan’s? It was just after I had been there a few times, and fell in love with the place, did I find out that it was closing and slated for demolition. I was so bummed out by it. I still miss it.