I recently came across this neat old postcard from 1957.
There are several things that jump out at me in this card…
On the north shore, the land for Cobo Hall & Arena has been cleared.
Work is progressing nicely on Windsor’s new City Hall. Note the long demolished Court House and old Police Station.
The north side of Riverside Drive has been scraped clean of all its buildings, and is looking rather green as the new riverfront park is laid out. Also the land is cleared and construction looks ready to begin on the Cleary Auditorium.
Construction is well underway on the much maligned Cleary Guest house at Dieppe Park.
The parking lots surrounding the Tunnel BBQ look jammed, and an old gas staiton sits on the n.w. corner of Goyeau and Park where the Tim Horton’s is today.
This old Apartment Building sits at the corner of Park and Pelissier. Luckily it was demolished for a parking garage.
It’s amazing how much has changed in the last 50 years.
in that last photo, it was actually knocked down for a parking lot. stood as a parking lot for many years before they built a parking garage. i remember parking there all the time when it was just a lot. 🙂
Look at how filled it in was back then — how few parking lots there were! So painful to see pictures like this. So many good buildings, gone.
So sad the Cleary Guest house is coming down. Such a nice little mod building. The replacement will most certainly be atrocious (holds out hope, though).
Sorry to burst your bubble Shawn, but the replacement will be crap.
It seems that the supporters of the Cleary Guest House are few and far between.
I for one am going to miss that building when it’s gone.
Yeah, I noticed the nay-sayers on that post you made. Come on! It’s a perfectly modern understated building. With the best font for the WELCOME.
sigh.
Some people don’t realize what they have until it’s too late.
ANDREW YOUR RIGHT!! PEOPLE SURE DON’T REALIZE IT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE!!!!!!!!!
GOOD PICTURES!!! THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOUR THE BEST!
I love the Guest House and will miss it. Local Windsor architectural firm Johnson & McWhinnie designed it, and prominent local attorney E.A. Clearly paid for it. If it was cleared of some it’s more recent ’embellishments’ and taken back to form it would look fantastic (and these changes would be minimal). Instead we get the Peace Beacon. BTW Shawn, agree fully, the font is brilliant.
Someone may want to go take some pictures of Benson school, a deal was struck with the city trade land sites with the school board. The city is pondering another parking lot for the community centre across the street. ( Like we really need another parking lot ).
Ford Motor Company is looking to unload some riverfront land. It’s in the area of the Ford casting plant. City of Windsor administrators are looking at what they can do to acquire the land and how much it would cost. ( Future parkland ?? )
Rich that Benson deal has been in the works for about a year now. Trust me when I say all avenues for saving the school building were explored.
Intersting news about the Ford lands, I would imagine with the casting plant shuting down operations, there might be a fair amout of free land coming available soon.
The last picture contains not an apartment building but a Roman Catholic elementary school. I believe it was St Alphonsus. It was abandoned when the new school was built on Victoria between Park and Wyandotte late 60’s early 70’s.