A big thanks goes out to Chris Edwards at Walkerville Publishing, for sharing these photos with us over here.
Last year at Art in the Park, Chris put on an exhibiton of historic photographs in the Manor House, and in that exhibition Hi Ho was featured as being Canada’s First Drive-In.
“The Hi Ho Drive-In began on Sandwich Street on the west side of Windsor, Ontario, in 1937 by Aimee Fortin. Hi Ho was the original fast food drive-in restaurant in Canada, featuring “curb service.†The Fortin family asked for and received permission from the Walt Disney Company via a simple letter, to use the trade marked Seven Dwarfs and the “Hi Ho†name for their restaurants in 1934; no lawyers were involved. Hi Ho eventually expanded to four locations but closed in the late 1970s.”
The Founder Mr. Fortin
The Howard Ave. location
The Tecumseh Rd. location
The Hi Ho logo
Have a safe weekend everyone. Enjoy the holiday if you’re off, other wise I’ll see you here Monday morning.
That Walker Road location – WOW! Looking back, it would be cool to have something like this still standing. Even though most people would probably make fun of it. But that post-war style diner is just amazing to look at compared to what that building has morphed into over the years.
^^ Woops I meant to say Tecumseh road location. My bad. ^^
I believe the Maple Leaf restaurant is the old Hi Ho.
Hey Andrew..I saw on the other post you said the one on Howard is gone..but to me it looks like the place that is at the locattion of the diner where the Ivy Rose Motel is.I could be wrong but is reminds me of it
Yes it would appear so, Simeon. I remember it before the most recent reno and even then it looked different still from the Hi-Ho photo, so I imagine that building has had two more more major renos since the Hi-Ho days. Whoever reno’d the Maple Leaf in the ’90s had an eye for history – some nice Walkerville memorabilia on the back wall of the east dining area.
Scott, that’s what Bernie said in the other post. If it is the same building, it looks nothning like it anymore. Although it could be under the modern brick facade…
I believe the Applebee’s on County road 42 has the letter from Disney hanging on a wall.
I wonder if calling hamburgers “hamburgs” is a Southern Ontario thing, as I’ve never heard it outside of S.O.
Hi Ho, Hi Ho, its off to lunch we go; the Ho Ho lunch is the best of the bunch! Hi Ho, Hi Ho!
I liked the Grumpy Burger and fries ‘n gravy at the Tecumseh Rd and Ford Blvd location.
Many a good time were had back in the late 60’s “cruisin'” from the HiHo on Tec. Rd. E to the A&W on Central. I had my first car and my friends and I would do this Friday or Saturday nights in hope of meeting boys. And we did !!! I think my favourite part though was ordering the pizzaburger and a cherry milkshake at the curb service. My,my,how I love those pizzaburgers. I still order the same thing whenever I visit the Maple Leaf restaurant located in the HiHo’s place at Tec.Rd. east. Good for me, that they continued to make some of the same burgers HiHo had on their menu… without using the signature names of course. Yum Yum
Good memories, those days back then are !!! thanks for the trip down memory lane.
My family all worked there. My grandmother, Mal Lemire Groulx, aunt Judy Groulx, Cousin Brenda, and myself all worked there on Tecumseh Road. My grandmother actually started with Aimee Fortin
The howard ave location was tore down in order to accomodate the EC Rowe expressway. The weigh scales are almost at the location of the Hi Ho that was there. Those little shanny rooms in the background are gone as well. My dad use to take me there every saturday morning for a stack of pancakes. We always ate inside.
IF MEMORY SERVES ME WELL THE IVY ROSE AND HI-HO LOCATION ON HOWARD WAS ORIGINALY THE HOME OF THE DERBY DRIVE-IN , CARHOPS AND ALL . PERHAPS FORMER CARHOP ELSIE BIDINOST COULD CONFIRM I HAVE OFTEN HEARD THE FIRST HI-HO WAS AT THE SITE OF AIMEE FORTIN’S HOUSE AT THE SE CORNER OF ST. ROSE AND RIVERSIDE DR IN OLD RIVERSIDE