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August 2007
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From the AM 800 Website:

HISTORIC SIGNS STOLEN 2007-08-22 15:07:46

Two historical signs in Walkerville have been stolen from a construction site.
The bronze signs were posted at the corner of Walker Road and Wyandotte
Street East in 1934 as part of the underpass. They were scheduled to be moved
to Windsor’s Community Museum for preservation and display, but they went
missing on Friday.

Anyone with information is asked to call Windsor Police or Crimestoppers.

I only hope that whoever stole them, is a historian, and not taking them to the scrap yard for scrap metal by the pound.

Thanks to reader Rich B. for the heads up on this item… However, if they went “missing” on Friday, why did it take until the following Wednesday, almost 5 full days to break the news to the public? By now they could be melted down into a hunk of bronze, and nobody would be any wiser.

Typical in a City where culture and history is a secondary thought. In a real city items of a historical nature like this would have been removed first thing at the start of the project and moved to the museum. In Windsor, it happens when they get to it.

In the meatime enjoy your Peace Beacon, New Bus Terminal, Daimler Chrysler The New Chrysler, LLC building, (and Parking Garage), and eastend arena.

Here’s a new motto for King Eddie, “Windsor, where history and culture are an afterthought”.

It had to have been an inside job, or utter incompetence. Either way, they would have had to have been removed by the contractor. Those two plaques were seriously mounted to the underpass, and would be hard to remove without attracting attention.

Only here. Things like this make me ashamed to be a resident of this city.

PS – For more good news, stay tuned for an upcoming announcement of another 300 or so job losses.

Andrew

View Comments

  • Andrew, I always thought that the old spitfires barn would make great farmers market for downtown. If not, what might become of it?

  • Fausto, from what I understand Windsor arena will continue to be used as a public skating rink once the Spitfires move to the Taj Mahal on the eastside.

  • Well, we've already got a historical museum of Windsor in downtown at the Duffy Baby House. So, why not make the downtown Armouries a Military War Museum. It would be a tribute like the Jackson Park war memorial with the Spitfire and Hurricane. They can have like a WWII tank, a howitzer, and a retired helicopter inside. A collection of all different kinds of soldier uniforms and rifles and other weapons all the way down to the War of 1812. Display cases of different battles that occurred in the war of 1812 and Canada's role in WWI and WWII. Heck, the Federal government may even foot the entire bill because it's a military museum, since this city is broke. They can even move part of the collection from Ottawa down here because their economy is so good.

  • I wonder if the downtown armouries is big enough to house the Lancaster Bomber. They charged admission to go inside the Landcaster at Devonshire Mall. They could do the same here.

  • David, the Baby House is not big enough for the current museum and all of the artifacts they currently have. As for the amouries, I do not believe they would be able to house the Lanc, it is too small. Ottawa would never part with any part of their military museum considering how much it cost and what it took to finally get the thing built.
    The armouries would make a great museum and archives for the city. Either that or the Junction (with an addition of another building on the lot) would be another viable location. They could even incorporate the TD bank facade into one of the bulidings. But then I am thinking big, something this city only does when it benefits only a few.

  • I think the armouries would fit the Lancastert, as I recall from when I was last at farmer's market. The armouries is much wider than two street lanes it was moved on to do Devonshire Mall. http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=371 If not, one of the wings is easily removable to make it fit. And, the disconnected wing could also be put on display.

    Since when does Ottawa not do things that cost too much and doesn't make any sense?

    And, there would be plenty of room for the archives in addition to a War Museum. There's planty of other rooms like a mess hall and sleeping quarters, offices and a basement that could all accomodate that as part of the Museum too. You can have a war museum/archive. Everyone's accomodated.

  • Cemetery angels and grave markers and now commemorative plaques...what next? Pretty pathetic for sure, should be publicly flogged if caught!

  • David.

    If you are still here and reading this site. There was ABSOLUTELY NO admission fee to tour the Lancaster when it was on display at Devonsire Mall. That was for donations OF ANY AMMOUNT of your choice NO ONE was forcing you to make a donation and if someone was then they should be kicked off that project.

  • that's true ABD - i went and it was a donation. and there is no freakin way the lanc could fit in the armouries. beleive me i did restoration work on it. even with the wings of it would never fit thru the front door.

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