Get out your hankies, and wipe away your tears…
Yup, another local landmark has a date with the wrecking ball…
Long time Riverside landmark, the Royale Tavern is falling for some big box goodness, as Shopper’s Drug Mart has decided they need to thrust their stucco clad nonsense on this neighbourhood.
The Royale has been a fixture at the corner of Wyandotte and Dawson since at least the 1930’s.
The Royale is shown in the map above from 1937 as the Royale Hotel.
Not to worry. I’m certain that that Shopper’s will be great!
Boo history!, Yay new!
What will Windsor become if we keep taking down treasures like this ?
wow….it never ends. i really believe that if you want people to know that taking down pieces of history like this affects the overall community, then we should organize a public protest/vigil, whatever you want to call it. when is the school by the university coming down? is there a date for that? that would be a perfect start to get vocal. it’s important to let people outside the blog community know how important saving our past is.
Geesh. Pretty soon we’ll have more Shoppers’ than Tim Hortons.
There’s already a SDM just eight blocks from there. Interesting. Just a year ago, we were complaining about all the neighbourhood convienence stores being converted into duplexes and giving away to big box stores like Walmart. Now, neighbourhood convienence stores like SDM and Rexall are sprouting up across neighbourhoods within walking distance so we don’t have to drive to the big box stores and we’re complaining again. Or is it that you’d rather have Hussein open up a local convienence store with everything written in Arabic? (Stucco came from the middle east, so I doubt you’ll see a different result). At least, SDM puts them out of business.
There is a Shoppers at Wyandotte and St. Louis. Anyone know if this will close as a result of this new one? It would be a shame to see this building torn down for another lateral move.
hez – I believe that’s the plan…
The latest I heard on these developments is that the permit to build has been denied.
So what? Stucco is great and big box stores are even better. That is why everyone shops there. Is isn’t because people are sheep itis because they are smart and savvy and love getting into cars, driving and then parking in the lot to get their chinese made goods for a pittance while ignoring the locally owned store right beside it.
Who doesn’t love a card where you can get points to spend on more chinese made junk?
I wonder if an employee brought something in to resell if Shopper’s would be made to buy a re-selling license for $140 to sell a few home items? I know INDEPENDANT, LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESSES have to do that. Windsor wouldn’t want to have a large small business base would they? Of course not! We can rely on the automotive industry for another 100 years!
Just think of the tourists who will flock here to see our stucco buildings (which may or may not give competition to real places where stucco is a true art form like Nevada or Arizona) and big box stores. These visitors will leave their stucco, big box store cities to come and look at OUR stucco, big box stores. Why? Because everyone loves it! Homogenization is great! Being the same as everyone else (and following in footsteps is even better) is the goal here! Why be different?
Hez, you mean like the banks in downtown? Or Home Crapot? Nothing like destroying one building to move or to move in another 5 years and do the same thing again. Windsor rocks!
No tears from me on the Royale coming down. It was a decent place at one time…..Like the 1950’s! It’s been a low-brow swill hole for too long and the apartments are low-rent dives. I grew up in the area and my mother had the baby shower for me there in the winter of 1970. They were regulars and have many good times there but the party is over and has been for some time.
Things change….get over it.
I don’t think anyone has an issue with certain buildings coming down. I believe people are tired of the lateral moves of big box stores and their impact on neighbourhoods and locally owned businesses.
As for “things change, get over it.” Typical Windsor mentality. So I am not surprised. No wonder the city still looks like it was founded in 1972. With all of the money in this city it makes me daft to think this is all we have to show for it. Windsor has no class, no direction and since it can’t be diverse in any way it has no hope of a decent future.
Enjoy your stagnation “not you” I guess life must be great being so oblivious to your own demise.
The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 255 will be next as it’s been for sale for over a year.Declining membership is the cause, and it occupies the whole end block,perfect for another stucco piece of crap !!! Also I was told by a Brewers Retail employee that the Lions Head Tavern was in trouble ,sagging beer sales,though I think that the property is more valuable as an extension of the Tim Hortons to it’s west as I was told that the owner of the Lions Head & the Timmy’s are one in the same & he owns several others.More money in coffee than beer in this city.Still I really can’t really feel sorry for bar owners that made huge profits for twenty or thirty years in this city & are now in trouble.No smoking in bars is the root of the problem. I can drink & smoke at home for a third of the cost of a bar !!!
I always find these working class bars curious — what was the motivation to brick up the windows? Is it a vestige of protestant guilt in Ontario in the 1950s and 60s? Keep the shame hidden?
No, I think it’s just simple economics. Rough crowd of alcoholics breaking the windows. Brick it in and replace the doors with steel. Cheaper in the long run.
I heard a story once, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it had to do with liquor laws at the time… That you weren’t allowed to see liquor being served or consumed from the street…
That sounds right, Andrew. A bar owner told me that a lot of those antiquated laws are still on the books but no longer enforced. For example:
It was legal to have an alcoholic beverage in your backyard but not in your front yard or front porch.
Every bar had a “men’s” side and a “ladies & escorts” side. A woman could not enter unless accompanied by a male and had to remain there while the male could move freely from side to side provided that he was not carrying a drink because….
It was illegal to carry a beverage from your table or the bar. You had to get a waitress to carry it if you wished to move.
If that were the case, how come the Howard Block still has the big bay glass windows on the main floor? It’s just as old and it was a tavern too.
ME, I am in total agreeance with you. The more people say, “oh well, tough noogies, things change” the more we will lose the simplest of pleasures and the most rudimentary asthetic beauty that our city (barely) has to offer. This attitude has gone on for generations, where our forefathers sat idly by as their streetcar system was ripped out of the ground, dozens and dozens of beautiful buildings were torn down, and our department stores were destroyed in favor of the big box empire.
I dont blame them; they were too busy making really good money and having children to worry about such civic matters. They were also old school, don’t rock the boat, let someone else worry about it Canadians.
Now, as we are losing our higher paying jobs, and not having all the kids we used to have, we are beginning to look around at this place and think, why can’t this place be at least pretty to look at, and convenient to live in?
Hopefully, what will come out of these times we are in is a new sense of saving what was once commonplace, and preserving our local history, even that old corner bar is “historic” in some people’s lives, and for that it is sad that it must go.
The sad fact is, with the non smoking laws, the 4 dollar a beer cost and the mega bars downtown, coupled with the economy, these small places are all going by the wayside…
This is crazy – does Shoppers not realize that only a few blocks west lies an empty former bingo that used to be Higginbottom’s Mr. Grocer, complete with ample parking? I realize whoever owns the now-defunct bingo might not be interested in selling. But did they even ask? The costs to re-fit that place compared to building a new one would be minimal I think, considering its configuration from being a grocery store in the past…
David – The tavern part of the Howard Block was in the rear off the alley…
Brian – That is crazy! However, most of the time these places like to build new, they like all their stores to look the same, and to be built off the same set of plans.
I suspect they think consumers are idiots and if every store isn’t exactly the same as the next one, there’s no way people could figure it out… It’s just a wasteful existence.
The only time I can ever think of an exception was the conversion of the old Future Shop at the Roundhouse Centre into a SDM. Again however, there was one at the Mall, now it will be a lateral move across the street.
What do ya mean a few blocks away there is a small pharmacy right across from the Royal & now a Shoppers,well how is the little pharmacy going to survive ? Big businesses like Shoppers gobble up whoever they can. do you remember Big V … Shoppers gobbled them up and slowly raised their prices !!! No competition..Shoppers isn’t a pharmacy It’s a glorified shopping centre with a Pharmacy !!!
Though I’ve never been there myself, I heard stories that you could enter the tavern (in the Howard Block) though one of the front doors (from Howard St.) Part of it was also in the front. The bank was there on the left side for a long time, but the tiling place was there briefly. The workers at Champion’s used to go there for lunch and after work they’d hang out at the bar as their regular local watering hole. When Champion’s shut down and moved back to Cleveland, those patrons stopped going there and then the building went downhill. You can challenge me all you want. That’s just what I heard.
The Royale Tavern in its current state is horrendous looking. Personally I think it brings down the look and feel of the Pillette Road/Wyandotte Business District. As for building a new Shoppers, can’t this city enact some sort of bylaw that forces these large companies to build something more aesthetically pleasing so it would fit in better with the neighbourhood? As much as this city wants forward progress and development of areas we continue to let companies move locations, build a cookie cutter ugly store and do nothing with their old buildings (Walmart on Lauzon, Home Depot on Howard) except let them sit and be an eyesore. I know we can’t have our cake and eat it too in this world but small steps would help improve the look and feel of the city.
It’s true that the Royale Tavern is a shit-hole (I used to live near it), but don’t forget that the whole building housed lots of people and families in affordable apartments.
I’m pretty damn sure Shoppers Drug Mart isn’t going to have apartments overtop of it…
The fences were up when I went by this morning.
There’s one sector that isn’t suffering in Windsor – whoever rents those modular fences, oh and also the demo equipment companies.
they will probably close the shoppers at seminole and george as well
THATS THE RUMOUR I HEAR ALSO 2 CLOSE ONE OPENS !!!
I spent part of my childhood growing up on Dawson (between Ontario and the tracks) and was always creeped out by this place. I can appreciate that at one time this building may have had some relevance, but the thing was in rough shape even when my family moved into the neighbourhood in 1980. The Royale has no interesting or unique architectural features, and unless it has some notable history I can’t say I feel any loss over it. In all honesty, having moved away in 1991, I am surprised to see it was still there. A building like the Prince of Wales Public School is one thing, but this building has nothing to offer to warrant preservation. As for Shoppers, I agree that they seem to be popping up everywhere, but I would take that over something like another crappy fast food restaurant to compete with the McDonald’s across the street. And speaking of across the street, even though I’m fairly certain you can see most Shopper’s signs from space, I can’t see it being as bad of an eyesore as the old run down Boots Drugs that used to be where the McDonald’s now stands. Just sayin…
As of yesterday afternoon, the only thing left standing was the front facade of the tavern.
It’s all down now.
i’ve drank at the royale Tavern over the years at one time they had a really nice back duning room near the side door you walked up a couple stairs and there were tables and chairs with white linen tablecloths on each table kind of felt homey
FYI the convvenice store east of the royale was a FINA gas station back in the 50’s