From the AM 800 Website:
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.
My bet says that one of the construction workers offed with them just because they have the tools and a reason for being there. On the other hand, this neighbourhood is full of thiefs who routinely pilfer any kind of metals from backyards etc. I have even seen them chopping ground wires off of utility poles. One place to start looking would be a relatively new scrap business located on St. Luke street which is a common place for these morons to off their booty. Hope these plaques show up soon. By the way. Kudos for the City of Windsor and their chosen contractor for being so “on top of this precious matter.
I am sure it is probably in someone’s basement bar or now in a box somewhere.
Why didn’t they remove the plaques first when they were going to do the work?
Everyone knows (Except those who work for this crummy city) that anything left of value will always be taken when demolition is to occur.
More history lost froma city that cares about nothing!
I was tempted to do this myself, because I KNEW they wouldn’t be preserved. I even called the Department of Public Works to make sure they had plans for the plaques. Sad to say, but this doesn’t surprise me at all.
I’m with those who suggest these plaques probably have found their way into a private collection. They would be too difficult to pawn off to a scrap dealer, and let’s face it… they’ve survived there since 1934. No great surprise that their disappearance coincided with this project. Whoever has them probably (wrongly) figured they’d be discarded or misappropriated anyway, so why not take them anyway…
It makes me furious the level of disregard for the past this city has.
With the armouries vacant, that should be a prime candidate for a museum conversion, but no… Other than a summer of farmer’s markets, the place has remained vacant. There is no vision, and no leadership in this city.
Never mind that removing this underpass, and filling in the road is a colossal waste of tax dollars… Remove the overpass, fine, but leave the road as it is.
Topher, I couldn’t agree more. Our museum is a joke, the employess there do what they can, but it is so small, it’s really pathetic. Heritage and culture are at the bottom of the list of importance in this city. Even if those plaques had made it to the museum, I bet no one would have seen them for 20 years.
The museum and archives really need a new home.
The armories is a great idea for a combined museum/archive.
It would also diversify the downtown, give people a reason to go there during the day again (along with the AGO and…..1 or 2 other places). That angle could appeal to powers-that-be…
Make it a combined windsor/essex county archive/museum. The Toronto Archives here are in a magnificent building and they do the most wonderful exhibitions.
Here is a portion of the email I received from Tiffany Pocock, Engineer with the Department of Public Works, when asked about the specific scope of the Wyandotte project. Maybe we should take them to task for their consistant dropping of the ball in light of the loss of these plaques.
“There are two projects that is/will be under way on Wyandotte between Walker and
Drouillard. One being the “Rehabilation of the Wyandotte/Drouillard Underpass
Structure, Tender No. 46-07” which is through the city’s operations department.
The project is the repair and repaint the bridge.
The other project is the “Wyandotte Street East Temporary Improvements and Bridge
Removal, Tender No. 96-07” which is through the Engineering Department. The
project is to remove the existing structure and construction a new asphalt pavement
at graded.
The Drouillard project is to start today and the second project is to start next
week. Both projects are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
the detour is to be along Riverside Dr from Walker to Strabane.
the combine value of the projects is $2.1 millions.
The plaques on the Wyandotte structure are to be removed and saved.”
C’mon Andrew. Why do we need history when we can go downtown, get drunk & fight each other. THAT’S what Windsor is about.
Long Live King Eddie!
Well she’s not lying they were “removed” just not by the city 🙂
Navi, sad but true…
BRING BACK MIKE HURST!
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.
You’re being sarcastic about Hurst right?
Bring back Elizabeth Kishkon!
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.