Big thanks to regular reader Darren, who sent along this series from the Foundry. It appears they are back to work, doing some work clearing the yard surrounding the plant. The giant concrete silo was today’s victim…
Thanks again Darren!
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…
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Not sure. When I asked about that I was given the answer that it would be many years...
Darren - The reason that the outside demolition is going on, is that surprisingly the WCP is a listed building on the inventory. They are still waiting out the 60 days, which should be up very soon (next week or two?). Once the 60 days is up demolition of the main structure will commence.
Funny how they had to wait 60 days, but the Seagrave was "overlooked".
i'm sending you a photo now of how it looks today with the rest torn down.
ah ok. at least the site is looking cleaner now. i'm glad i won't be hearing jack hammering anymore now too.
The old part of the foundry was an Albert Kahn design, was it not? It really was beautiful building, and then the additions started...
The Foundry was at one time 2 separate buildings. There used to be a charcoal drawing of the Ford Windsor site at Huron Lodge that clearly showed the foundry as 2 buildings(the drawing showed cars parked in between them). The drawing was done in the early 40's , I'd say.
As you say Chris the esthetics changed dramtically with all the uglyblue sided additions that were added, especially on the west side of the plant.
Does anyone have a pic from the 40's or 50's era that shows the 2 structures?
Bob C.
Yes Chirs - it was designed by Kahn in 1934(?)
Bob - As far as I know the foundry was always one... It might have been a seondary building near it but not part of it...
Check out the last photo here... http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=289
The capiton I had to the photo was "above is the 14 ¼ acre machine shop, and new foundry and heat treat building" Maybe it was the Heat Treat building? I'm not sure...
The separate building is south/east of the foundary building, and housed the pattern makers who fixed and cleaned to molds that were used to produce the sand cores for the casting process.
We spent our days "Picking and Grinning" - yes, I was one of them.
Thanks for the pic Andrew, it confirms what the 'Huron Lodge' sketch depicted.
Click on the link in Andrews' post (2 above), look at the last picture . The main part of the pic is what's now Windsor Engine Plant but ignoring that, the picture also shows 2 separate structures, the foundry(on the left side--very small in size) and another structure with a V shaped roof in the rear centre of the picture. It looks like there's a large open area with a few vehicles in between the 2.
At some point, the foundry was expanded to include the V shaped roof building(titled the "Heat Treat building" in the pic).
Chris> The Pattern Shop as you know it is relatively new---80's I think
Bob C.