A thanks goes out to regular reader Aaron for the suggestion to cover this old Hydro Substation on Hanna St. in his old neighbourhood.
I thought I had some information on this one somewhere, but I couldn’t find it anywhere…
It was decommissioned around the time the one on Walker Road just north of Richmond was. Maybe around 2002 – 2003… I seem to recall that this one was a few years younger, and was maybe built around 1918 or so… I know that this property along with the one on Walker were put up for sale by EnWin as surplus properties, but I’m not sure if this one ever sold.
It really is a great looking building, and it’s a shame that it’s in the sorry condition that it’s in today.
I’ve always admired this building for the straight lines, symmetry and brick and stone facade and constantly wondered why someone didn’t turn it back into a place of business, prestigious office, or some kind of loft style home everytime I pass it. It’s a shame some people use it as target practice, but I guess it’s a good thing the the owners had the good sense to fence it in with barbed wire on the top to preserve it from graffitti bandits. I guess it’s not on the heritage inventory since there’s no mention, but it should be.
Oh, and speaking of cut limestone entrances on vacant warehouses like ths one, did anyone else read the story in yesterday’s DFP (5B Aug 7 08) that the stone entrance on the front of the old, vacant Packard building on East Grand Boulevard sold for $161,000 US. Yet, in here in Windsor, a lot of people prefer to just have them destroyed and hauled to the dump lke the BMO building on Ottawa and Walker. Just a litte food for thought that old buildings like this still hold its value for its craftsmanship.
I’ve always liked that building, even as a kid in the area. If I had the money and it was for sale, I would buy it, put a green roof on top, open plan main floor and cosey basement. And I wouldn’t toucj facade of the bilding.
The Packard plant entrance was headed to the Packard museum, I think. It’s very historical and one of a kind. It would have been nice to save the BMO entrance, though. Someone could have used it in their house or something. I bet the current owners are kicking themselves for not putting to auction or Craigslist.
Wow….this is memories…Aaron and I grew up immediatley across the street from this building in a little yellow house…the utilities Rescue team used to practice there every few months on a few practice poles…it was fun as a kid to watch….. this neighbourhood was way more active then…seems the whole area is closing down… we had the substation, th e ETR line right behind it, the Schincariol Market across the street and the Airforce Club….all of which are no longer there….a few of the othe buisnesses in that little section I think may still be fighting thier way onward….. like Famous Cleaners, windsor Fence Co. the ABC Nusery and another Cleaner which I thinkis now Cintas but was Forest City when we were in the area…..
Famous Cleaners closed over the winter, Sammy. The Windsor Star did a story on it. Cintas is still there and you sure can tell by all the trucks parked out on the road after hours. It’s a dense area in terms of housing and it would be nice to see something re-open in the old Schincariol building for starters, but I think the popularity of the Price Chopper plaza will stand in the way of that nice little neighbourhood seeing a revival of small mom and pop businesses.
David-
Actually I was there one of the mornings when the BMO Bank was being demolished, and a women actually bought the two top pieces…not sure what you’d call them, but they were the decorative tops to the columns on each side of the door. So not all was lost, or taken to the dump from the old BMO Bank. I happened to be there that morning shooting some pictures, and actually have shots of the crane loading up her pickup with the cement pieces. She planned on using them in her garden……I thought that was nice to see.
They probably just bribed the demo crew $20 to load it onto the pickup.
Just the other day, I was rollerblading along Odette Sculpture Park and they had this piece called “columns”, which was four free standing columns about the same height with a fraction of the detailing that the BMO columns had, especially the top crowns. What I don’t get is why couldn’t the selfish prick who had the BMO building demo’d have saved the columns, crown and lintels, simply laying them next to the demo’d building and offering it to the city to come pick it up and put it in Odette Sculpture Park as a sign of goodwill The stuff on the building was far superior to the free standing columns they have there now. The city could have even wrote him a $10,000-$20,000 tax receipt for donating it as artwork. Habitat could have even written him a tax receipt for those commercial casement windows that they simply destroyed with a quick demo. I even heard there’s a huge warehouse in Detroit that stores and sells a lot of old stonework from demos and they could have bought it too. It’s always these classical architectural terrorists who come from the middle east and destroy everything in their path either through complete demolition or crappy stucco jobs. Absolutely no good will and no sense of compromise and giving back to the community; just destroy all remnants of history and send it to the dump. Total selfish ass clowns.
It’s always these classical architectural terrorists who come from the middle east and destroy everything in their path either through complete demolition or crappy stucco jobs
Wo-ow….
UM…….. I really don’t think anyones personal and cultural heritage has anyting to do with it…I think it is greed and/or poor information and lack of education……
but um…I guess we all have our own opinions dont we…
but back to the topic…. this building is really great and has a rathe rlarge property condiering the hood its in….. it would be cool to see it turned into something useful….
Of course now it matches with the empty market and empty airforce club and as John pointed out Empty Famous Cleaners building…wow….seems like the ol’ hood is doing just fine LOL!
sigh…..
Actually…. if you divided it down the centre and used the main middle door as the entrance you could put to pretty cool aprtm,ents in there….. not sure what the basement is like but I am sure its good for storage…. the big green service door on the West side of the building could be turne dinto a window or even an opening to an added on deck or balcony or something….
but I am sure the environmental issues in that building have quite the sorting out to do before it cvan be used for much….
man I can hear the hum of the transformers in the back of the building now…..almost 20 years of growing up across from that place and playing catch in the front yard of it I am sure did my body good LOL!
PS sorry about my AWFUL typing and spelling…wow…….I rule….
sweet another one! thanks for posting this andrew! i suppose sammy covered the memories lol andrew, would it probly be safe to say that our old house directly across the street was buit around the same time as the year of this building, around 1918?
thanks again for covering the ol hood!
on eof the stories I remember hearing about our house was that when they were diggin out the basement fropm just a crawl space to a actually basement they discovered some prohobition ers bottle of booze in a few crates under there….I thought that was cool…but have no proof of the story……..
and growing up in the 80’s we were told the house was already pushing 80 yrs old then….so that may be right…but I am no expert and it is hard to tell under all the yellow siding on the house what is really under there…
R: You can find out quite a bit by visiting the building dept. and looking up permits. I was able to find the build date for my cousin’s century-old catalog house on Windermere, and a few dates for my own house, ie. when certain additions were made like the bathroom dormer. As to the area, I’m guessing most those houses were built in the 1910s onward.
John…thanks for the info! I appreciate it…..