Another blast from the past. I caught this a few years back, long after the store had closed, but before the signs were removed.
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I’m thrilled that Liquidation World found a use for that building. Going there brings back memories of N&D from when I was a child.
I am surprised that Yorktown Plaza is holding its own all these years after N&D closed down. Always thought the grocery store pretty well anchored the whole complex. Now of course we have Shoppers Drug Mart and Timmies at the west end of the property, but for many years there was no big draw except for the hardware store.
I wonder if anyone has any old photos of the Dominion grocery store in Dorwin Plaza that became Value Village. It’s an excellent example of mid-century architecture. I remember going there with my parents when I was a kid. I loved looking out that huge front window at all of the traffic going by on Dougall and wondering where all those people were going.
While I do seem to remember Dominion as a tenant for a few years before moving south to the current location of Food Basics, what I remember most about that location was Sentry Dept. Store. … and the Fotomat in the middle of the parking lot.
Yeah Sentry was the big draw in the 70s! And Calliope, as well, of course!
And was it across the road from the Value Village site where Consumer’s Distributing was? I think Zehrs has a gasbar there now. I’m fairly sure that’s the location I mean; I last remember getting a toy carwash there as a kid before they demolished it. Maybe it was at the Leone’s property? Hmm.
So, what would you call this kind of architecture with the kind of moorish dormer and romanesque arches? How old is it? Was this an add on or originally there? I wonder who the architect was.
David, I’m not quite sure how you would describe the style. It is an eclectic mix of different elements. On a list I have, there is an N&D listed as being designed by the firm of Johnson & McWhinnie in 1962. However it doesn’t specify if it was the Easttown or Yorktown store. J&W (who designed much of Windsor in the 50s & 60s) also designed the Budmir Library across the street (which was built with N&D money), so I’m inclined to lean towards them as architects.
I seem to remember going to the Calliope once or twice. I know the building, but remember little of the inside. Was it a theme restaurant?
That Consumers Building stood empty until at least the late 90s….I think it came down around then.
western: The current Leone’s building was Autohaus, Windsor’s VW dealership throughout the ’70s and part of the ’80s. Leone’s itself has been in three different locations that I can remember over the years. Sentry was in the building that is now Value Village. The area where the dressing rooms and across the checkouts are was the cafeteria, and there was pinball/games machines across the front window. As you walk in the door, there was a small camera dept. and record section, right about centre front. And at the parking lot entrance on Dougall, I remember a statue on each side as you drove in, of a fully uniformed Sentry with the logo “Sentry Guards Your Dollar.” Around 1985 Sentry had a big sale and went out of business forever.
Shawn: Yes, you could have called it a theme restaurant. The Calliope was a family friendly restaurant slash ice cream parlour that was a popular place for parents to bring their kids for birthday parties. Every now and then in the summertime they’d bring in a real calliope to the parking lot which attracted a lot of attention. In more recent years that building has been a successful meat market type by night, known as Casablanca’s.
Yes, Consumers made way for the Zehrs gas bar. The west-end Consumers on Huron Church Road is now the Columbia Sportswear outlet store, and the eastside Consumers on Tecumseh is Perani’s Hockey World.
“Sentry was in the building that is now Value Village.” – really? I remember it being where that Food Basics store is now – I have a feeling it was demolished. I thought the VV was a Dominion.
Yes, overtly family friendly, that’s about right. The ice cream parlour aesthetic is what i couldn’t remember, but it fits with my hazy memory.
Well acquainted with Casablanca’s — never been inside, but walked by a lot as a friend lived just north on Dougall for a while in the middle 90s. Saw lots of Friday-saturday night dry-humping in the parking lot. Usually people 30+, which made it unique.
burningrome: early onset long term memory loss here! You are absolutely right, Sentry was located in the south building that is now Food Basics. I checked with an old friend of mine from the ‘hood after you got me second guessing myself.
The building at the far north (now VV) I’m thinking of was indeed Dominion although I also remember Dominion at one point moving into the newer section at the far south that is/was a bingo hall. Probably just as foggy on that too!
VV was Dominion store, was a big adventure going there with my folks, behind was the Windsor Sportsmen club where they had deer in a pen also at one time a sad looking black bear. theiir hunting dogs would bring you their bowls, always made me think they were hungry.
When Sentry opened it was the place to shop! I ordered my wedding stemware from them but they bochted the order so I never got them.
Moran Moters VW dealer was on the site of the tunnel duty free shop, changed owners and moved to east side of Dougal Rd. Domonion Store was where Value Village is now.
Dominion store opened at the north end od Dorwin Plaza in the early to mid fifties.They also had storesin different locations on Dougal Rd, Dougal & Cabana, Gateway Plaza south end from Woolco.Three different locations south of Doorwin, where the furniture store was, where the bingo hall is and finaly they bought and tore down the Sentry Store. They built a new building with many different departments and services not available in other Windsor Stores.
Shortley after this store opened A&P bought Dominion Stores, after a period as a Dominion Store A&P tried the Farmer Jack experiment,A big floop. Then they split the building into smaller stores and intrduced the green monster Basics.
Farmer Jack in Windsor? When was this? I never frequented that part of town, but that sounds familiar. Or is it a false memory? I know we had an Olive Garden or two.
I just want to add that before Value Village..Marks Work Warehouse was in that building.