Off to Lasalle today Windsor’s western suburb, where the decision had recently been made to demolished the former Colonel Bishop School.
The former school today serves as a community center, and the land will become a park, once the school is demolished.
An article in the Windsor Star claimed the building is 63 years old, not ever having seen the building before, I decided to cruise by and shoot it before it is lost forever.
According to the dates given by the Star, the building would have been built in 1944-45. However it looks much older to me.
It looks like it has a Deco influence.
A detail shot of the ornamentation around the doorway
It’s good to see that history is important to the almighty suburbs too…
Ok this gets my goat, What is wrong with this building ? It looks perfectly fine to me, I mean get real already Lasalle. Your in the county don’t tell me there isn’t land some place else to build your precious park ?? This building don’t deserve the wreckers ball the people in Lasalle need to bring this to county council.
You should have see this building in it hayday. I live just down the street from CBS and all my children went there.. The building is in very bad shape and would cost more that it’s value to repair.
William
Just for the record LaSalle is not a subburb of Windsor, We are an incorperated TOWN, Were the former Township of Sandwich West.
William
First of all – not saying I want to see this gone, but… a feasibility study of maintaining a building like this is not as simple as looking at a few pictures. The pictures tell us it is architecturally very interesting – and rarely seen Art Deco theme at that. But we don’t know how much money needs to be spent on the building’s facilities – plumbing, hvac, electrical, etc. to keep it’s heart beating. Again, not saying I’m in favour of seeing it go, just saying maybe keeping it might mean telling the ratepayers they’ll need to fork out big bux for upgrades. I’d like to know more about this building though. It’s one of those ones you drive by and take for granted. I agree with Andrew too, that sure looks like late ’20s, not ’40s.
I asked my daughter and she feels that it was built around 1928.
Will see if I can find other information and will post it
William
William, 1928 sounds much closer.
Let us know if you uncover anything.
The red brick and ornamentation says late 20’s but the streamlined Deco influence and relative plainness (compared to some 1920s buildings) feels more mid-to-late 1930s to me. The 1940s were not a big decade for construction (and by then the Deco-style had mostly passed), so 1944 sounds unlikely. Though, I’m speaking from a US viewpoint, where the reason for lack of construction around then was material shortages due to WW2. I don’t know if the situation was different in Canada.
LaLuce,
Same thing on this side of the border, the war effort really slowed down construction as well.
I went to Colonel Bishop from 1979 to 1981. In either 80 or 81 we had 50 year anniversary t-shirts made up. I still have mine. Doesnt fit of course !!
Also we buried a time capsule in the front yard. I cant remember if it was near the flag pole or near the front wall of the building. I ran into an ex-teacher from there a few months ago and he says he knew where it was burried.
I too went to Colonel Bishop from 78-83. I do remember a capsule being buried but i cant remember where….if anyone finds out where, id just like to know what was placed inside.
I went CBS in 1961 thru 1964. I remember Mrs. Wells playing “God Save the Queen ” at assemblies in the gym (before Oh Canada became the norm). I went right into grade one (before kindergarten)? I can recall Miss Hutton, Mrs. Ferguson and Mr. Burke as teachers.
Who or what was Colonel Bishop named after? Was perchance it Billy Bishop, legendary Master of the Air?
The teachers for our cohort (196-1968) were: Grade 1, Miss Pinckney; Grade 2, Mrs. Hutton (formerly Miss Joyce Best); Grade 3, Mrs. Pearl Kirk; Grade 4, Mrs Irene Ferguson; Grade 5, Mr. Ron Kerr; Grade 6, Mr. Herbert Burke; Grade 7, Mr. Morley Pattison; and, Grade 8, Mr. W. Thorburn. Mrs. Lynn Bassi was a special education teacher. The caretakers were Mr. David and Mrs. Rose Veighey, lovely people from the north of Ireland; Mrs. Veighey was a teacher at Colonel Bishop for awhile during the 1950s.
The years for our cohort, mentioned above, should read, “1960-1968.”
Does anyone know how long Mrs. Pearl Kirk taught at Colonel Bishop School? I know she was there in 1958. One of her sons is married to my father’s younger sister. I am working on his family history, and I don’t have much information on his mother’s work history.
I lived at 187 Superior Street and went to Colonel Bishop School. I remember Mrs. Wells, Mrs. Hutton, Mrs. Delmage (the one they put in the insane asylum) I used to tell my Mom she is crazy, I stayed in this school up to Grade 5.
We used to sing God Save The Queen, We had to salute the picture of Billy Bishop and say the lords prayer. It was a protestant school and everyone wore normal clothes. The other school Sacred Heart was a Catholic school and everyone wore blue uniforms. Catholics looked down on protestants and I asked the Catholic preacher, why if Jesus teaches to love everyone, why do the Catholics hate Protestants? I asked the Protestant preacher the same. They both fed me bullshit so after that I kept the dime and went fishing instead of church. I sold fish at the coal docks and bread was 12 cents a loaf. Hamburger 25 cents, candy was 3 or 10 for a penny.