The photo above was taken September 27, 1945. It was shot by the Detroit Bureau of the Acme Photo Co. It shows Goyeau at Elliott looking north.
The caption on the back reads as follows:
-
WINDSOR, ONT. — Hundreds of Detroit drivers
form long lines prior to making their way back
through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel after standing
in other long lines to fill their cars with gas.
NY CHI CLE WASH 9/27/45
CREDIT LINE (ACME PHOTO)
On the left hand side, you can see a nice shot of the G. Tate Easton dealership (a post about that building from 2008, can be found here)
Here’s the same view today.
the bottom photo looks pretty baron no houses or trees I wonder if the Easton chevy dealer was where Central Chrysler once was??
How come I don’t see the same Detroit skyline? Is it because of the bankruptcy? Good luck D.
Trees? Who needs them?! The city looks much better with surface lots everywhere.
Did you notice in the caption that Americans are coming over here to buy gas? Now that we export so much oil we go there…(no it doesn’t make sense).
Judging by the date of the photo, I am guessing that gas rationing due to WWII wasn’t as stringent in Canada and therefore Americans came to Windsor to fill up.
Does it have anything to do with gas supplies after the war? I don’t know how rationing worked in Canada but it ended in the U.S. only a month or so before the photo was taken.
Oh wow look at all those nice cars. They must’ve been thinking 2013 would see Detroit as busy as New York and Windsor with at least half a million people. But all we got is a stucco beer store, a bankrupt behemoth and one single Chevrolet Cavalier.
There was a strike on by the Oil Workers International Union which cut off the flow gasoline and oil from 24 refineries in six US states. According to the Windsor Daily Star published Sept. 25, 1945, or a day earlier than the above picture, Detroit was down to 17 filling stations which were limiting sales to essential services only. Detroit taxi companies and bus operations were expected to run out of fuel within 24 hours.
Excellent research rws!
look at the amount of street lighting in the top photo compared to the bottom photo
regular people used to walk around at night at one point
Andrew’s Mom. It was actually the other way around. lol The gas was much cheaper over here though.
Thanks RWS!