Equity Chambers on Chatham St. in downtown Windsor, hides the story of its history behind a renovation. Looking at the architectural styling of the facade, I would guess this renovation took place in the late 1920’s. When the old City hall was demolished, and while the current one was under construction, Equity Chambers served as the interim City Hall in 1955 and 1956.
The building was originally built in 1911 as a Piano factory for the Grinnell Brothers of Detroit.
Walking through the alley you get a look at the original 1911 skin of the building.
On the western elevation, the name GRINNELL can still be made out right by the lampost. Compare the font to the one in the old photo above from 1913, and you can see that it’s a match.
A detail shot of the wall.
Unexpected parts of our history are hidden in plain sight. 🙂
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LOVE IT!! The building is OK (the renovations were tasteful, not overdune) but I absolutely adore the remains of the painted Grinnell sign on the back of the building. There's a lot of historical informatuion to be gained if one either looks on the upper sides or around back of buildings. Wouldn't bother me a bit if you showed more of them......
Yes Definately an interesting find. When I was looking at an apartment on Goyeau St, up one block south of Tecumseh road, I was curious about an old opening in the buildling, with a crane of sorts on it. When I asked the landlord what it was for, he said back when the building was built in the 20's, it was very common for people to all have piano's, and this crane thingy was for hoisting them up. I am assuming piano's where very big back in the day, more so than today with everything being electonic, keybords, ect..
That was a cool find, Ross... I'm sure the crane was for pianos as well as all manner of large/heavy furniture. Remember back then they made furniture out of wood - not particle board. ;)
Very true John, as that old saying goes...they don't make em like they used to!!
It was honestly a surprise to see the ghost of the sign on the side.
DouglasM - I knew this one would be right up your "alley" (pun intended :) )
I agree - more of these. Urban archeology.
Nice building, one problem , is'int that another closed bussiness on the ground floor??
Yes it too has closed under this council and Eddie's reign.
I like the renovations of the building over the original design. But I am sure someone will buy it and stucco it like everything else....
The Steak House was a neat historical artifact, but are steakhouses like this still popular? Their clientel are likely dying off (probably helped by all that steak) and people don't seem to go for the dark paneled cave-like steak houses anymore.. Downtown may be dead and a mess, but you can't blame everything on the mayor and council. When you do that it's like the boy-who-cried-wolf, and people will stop listening to more legitimate criticisms.
I worked at the restaurant for while, back a the turn of the Millennium, and it was a nice place to work at. The basement was small and you can tell it was old, with beams everywhere holding things up. The high ceilings inside the kitchen and such were also different from most other restaurants i worked at (besides former Cadillac Jacks, which is now The Windsor Beer Market). The ceilings were like a stucco style but also were hard and solid inside. The kitchen had to be made around the pillars of the Building as well, with a few pieces of equipment pushed out further from the wall then others. The upstairs of the building was redone, with the cheap textured wallpaper, that was tacky, but people still enjoy it,and the building was kept in good shape, by the owners.
Is there any history about the 2 buildings where Chatham Street Grill is and also the Beer Market. when i worked at Cadillac Jacks back in the day, you had to climb upstairs to higher levels for some of there storage, that looked to be a mess. This was 3 floors above the restaurant, and man the ceiling were high and everything else. I was told this building was a Warehouse of some sorts before and also a Furniture factory. Could someone help on this explanation. Also in the first renovation of the building into a restaurant, the elevator was removed from the back of the building, it was a rather large cargo size one. Back in the late 90s when i worked there, you could also barely see a painted on wall mural on the back of the building as well. The Chatham street Grill building, all the info I know is before the restaurant it was owned by Union Gas, and then the offices moved and they sold the building. I remember going into that restaurant often, since the Cadillac Jacks was owned by the same guys who owned Chatham Street Grill, and we had a door connecting the 2 buildings in the Kitchens. that building had been basically cleaned right out and started from scratch, on the first floor and the basement was just basic renovation to Restaurant storage, and so forth, and upstairs with its offices, and old school hardwood floors.
Can someone else dig up some other information about these buildings.