In the days before E.C. Row ran though the middle of the city, the Third Concession was the east-west road located along the present route. Parts of the old Third Concession still survive today as the North Service Road.
I have always wondered what the story was with the dead end section near Howard Ave. As you can see in the map above this part of the Third ended at Howard Ave.
When the Expressway was put in, the street was closed off and relegated to service road duty.
In the days prior to Union Gas, the Windsor Gas Co. occupied a huge chunk of the land north of the Third Concession. To this day Union Gas still has some pipelines on the property.
The map above makes reference to a “Concrete Bridge”. There is still a bridge over the creek, although I’m not sure if it is the same one or not. Although the bridge on the map is shown as being smaller, than the road is wide, the maps weren’t always 100% accurate. It also shows an electric rail siding going into the Gas Company. Any rail fans know anything about an electric railroad servicing the Gas Co. in the 1930s?
The main building of the Windsor Gas Co. is still standing, and is today used by Woodall Construction.
Built in 1929, the house at 2177 Victoria Avenue was originally numbered 1545 Victoria, pre…
Crescent Lanes first opened on Ottawa Street in 1944 at 1055 Ottawa Street, opposite Lanspeary…
Above is a photo of the home of Mr & Mrs Oswald Janisse, located at…
in 1917 two Greek brothers Gus & Harry Lukos purchased a one story building on…
Photo from Google Streetview A long time reader sent me an email the other week…
An unremarkable end to a part of Windsor's history. The large vacant house at 841…
View Comments
Andrew - first of all...congratulations on the award! I never knew this blog existed until I read about you and this site on DYes. So I've been lurking around a bit and learning my way through the site.
I have a question for you. Do you happen to know why certain roads are called Concession? I live out in the county and there are tons of concession roads. They all go by the same numbers no matter what area you're in. There's a 3rd Concession just outside of Kingsville and a 3rd Concession outside of LaSalle. Same with all the other numbers.
Anyway, I've always wondered about that. Why are those roads not given "real" names? Where did "Concession" come from?
Just wondering in Colchester!
Thats a god question!
I can take a guess at what it means. The root word concede was perhaps what the farmers in the olden days did when access roads were needed by the towns and a series of roads were gridded across the county over the private farmland. Am I close?
Rae - Welcome over here! I'm glad you've found the site, be sure to check in often.
That is a great question and Fausto's answer really seems to make a lot of sense. However, according to the "experts" at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concession_road
This is what is says:
In Upper and Lower Canada, concession roads were laid out by the colonial government through undeveloped land to define lots to be developed; the name comes from a Lower Canadian French term for a row of lots. Concession roads are straight, and follow an approximately square grid, usually oriented to a local lakeshore. They are 100 chains or 1.25 miles (2.0 km) apart, so that two consecutive north-south concession roads and two consecutive east-west roads enclose 1,000 acres (4 km²). These 1,000 acres (4 km²) were then divided into lots according to various plans. ...
Roads which led away from a lake or river (i.e.: perpendicular to the concessions) were called sidelines or side roads and Line frequently appears in Ontario road names as the equivalent of Road, although confusingly, in some townships "line" has the same meaning as "concession". For example, Guelph Line, 12th Line, and Brown's Line are important thoroughfares in and west of Toronto. The sideroad name survives in Clarke Side Road (also known as Clarke Road) in London. The first concession was often known as the baseline, and roads with that name survive in many municipalities, including Ottawa and Clarington. The first concession was also frequently known as the front, or broken front (B.F.) when it was on a lakeshore. ...
Since in most of Upper Canada this surveying preceded urban development, most Ontario municipalities have grid patterns of streets. In cities, the concession roads tended to evolve into the major streets.
*BUMP*
Andrew.......did this streetcar line handle freight like the Amherstburg line? (are they the same?)if so i'm willing to bet that's where the electric siding comes to play. Afterall, the turnaround loop was at G.M and Howard. It seems a bit too far from the old CASO electric yard which was more in the Tecumseh/crawford area.
Aaron - It did handle freight as well.
The map must be pre-1935 because the electric rail line likely would be the Windsor Essex and Lake Shore Railway. Also, it would be before Zalev Bros located the salvage yard in 1946 just west of this location off of Howard. The site was mostly a swamp draining into the Grand Marais.
Also, E.C Row (pre expressway) ran from Banwell to Howard but I believe after a break at Howard resumed at Dougall and ended at Huron Line.
JBM - at least 1/3, maybe even 1/2 of Zalev Bros sits on the former CASO/MCRR Eastbound receiving yard, and the Westbound classification yard. was the swamp roughly located closer to howard where Zalev started behind the motels and stuff? i don't know when Zalev started to expand, but as of 1967 (according to an areial photo) the railyard...at least it roadbeds anyways, were all still intact.
i'm not trying to say you're wrong, i'm just trying to figure out where the swamp was!
Aaron, I'm sure Zalev expanded over the years and possibly took up some of the vacated CASO properties. I googledand found this on Zalev. http://wikimapia.org/7612753/Zalev-Brothers-Scrap-Yard
nah, it took it all. remember, there used to be three bridges crossing Dougal. the one that remains serves(served) the mainline, the second right next to it to the north served the Eastbound yard, and the last one to the north just before the bend in the road, served the Westbound rec'v yard and roundhouse before they came together at howard. That northern railbed cuts right thru the heart of Zalev. On a 1956 map from the NYCRR, there is a 120' track that's labeled "Zalev lead".
that's interesting about what wikimapia says about the site. i don't see why it's not possible. this is gonna drive me nuts. i don't even know why i'm rambling on about railways!!!!
you know what, now i really don't know what i'm going on about. zalev didn't START on RR property, and it probly was a swamp.
sorry, this was all pointless :)