Demolished – International Metropolis

Buildings of Windsor Lost Windsor Notable Windsorites

1156 Ouellette - Oswald Janisse House

August 11, 2024

Above is a photo of the home of Mr & Mrs Oswald Janisse, located at what would be 1156 Ouellette Ave today. The photo above dates to 1924. The house was built around 1921 by Oswald Janisse. Oswald, along with his brother Eugene, ran the Janisse Brothers Realty company which was established in 1913. They quickly realized that waterfront property was a desirable asset and cornered the…

Demolition Lost Windsor Old Photographs

Joseph L. Reaume House - 1924

April 21, 2024

One for the lost Windsor files, is this house that once belonged to Joseph Reaume of Ford City. Reaume was a builder and was was also the assessor of the town of Ford City. The house was built to resemble houses that Reaume saw during his winters away in California. The…

Buildings of Windsor Demolition Old Photographs

Dieppe Park Demolitions - 1954

April 4, 2024

Before the waterfront park system was in place, there were once buildings on the north side of Riverside Dr. Back in the early 1950s work was set in motion to clear the north side of Riverside Drive and establish a civic centre and park. Across the river in Detroit, the same…

Demolition Lost Windsor Old Photographs Windsor

Tunnel Bar-B-Q 2015

November 19, 2023

I recently came across this photo that I took in April, 2015 in a folder of older pictures. 2015 doesn’t feel like that long ago, but it was nearly eight years ago already. The long lost Tunnel Bar-B-Q was a local institution for generations, dating back to the the early 1940s, the business closed in September, 2014. The building was demolished in 2015, not long after I took this photo. The…

Lost Windsor Old Photographs

Drouillard Road - c 1928

July 30, 2023

Photo above from the collection of the Windsor Public Library A shot taken around 1928 on the east side of Drouillard in between what is today Whelpton & Trenton streets. A pair of architecturally interesting buildings here, both lost to time. Oddly the building to…

Old Newspaper Stories Windsor

Sign Cleaning - 1923

July 16, 2023

The photo above appeared in the Border Cities Star a century ago, appearing in the the July 17, 1923 edition on page 3. How would you like this job? There is no need telling where the two brush wielders are working, for the Prince Edward’s big electric sign is…

Postcards Schools

Holy Rosary Separate School - Drouillard Road

June 18, 2023

Image above from SWODA A nice postcard view from the late 1920s showing Holy Rosary Separate School on Drouillard Road. Opened in 1922 and designed by Pennington & Boyde, this building served Ford City for nearly a half century. The boom of the Ford assembly plant in the neighbourhood brought families to the area in droves. Nowhere is that more evidenced that in the educational system in…

Lost Windsor Old Photographs Schools

St Clare School

June 4, 2023

Located at Bruce & Shepard, the St Clare School was designed by Windsor architect Gilbert J P Jacques & Co., and opened in 1922. By the late 1960s the Separate School board was looking at options to either renovate or replace the old school building. After a lot…

Demolition Old Newspaper Stories Old Photographs

The Centre Theatre - Wyandotte Street East

December 18, 2022

Plans for an east side neighbourhood movie house, first came up in the 1930s, but the onset of the Great Depression but those plans on hold. Once the economy improved enough the onset of WWII further delayed the theatre’s arrival due to a lack of building materials.