Some comments the other day were asking about the peabody bridge. I don’t have much info about it, but here’s what I do have.
A postcard view, you can see the bridge to the right of the silos.
An aerial view from 1952
1981 – Note the Peabody building is still standing. If you look at the corner of Devonshire and Riverside Dr. you can see the footprint of the flatiron building.
2007
A view from 1913 of the Peabody Building, and the Peabody Bridge.
Obviously the bridge was in place in 1913, and was well built, as it lasted into the 1990’s, only being removed after the rail lines came off the river front.
As much as we’re all fans of the heritage of the city, I doubt you’ll find many tears shed over the loss of the Peabody bottleneck. 
This is worth looking at while we’re on the subject…
http://www.walkervilletimes.com/war-peabody.html
As kid, I hated going over that bridge as my stomach would always seem to drop by the quickness of the descent off that bridge.
I can’t say that I miss traversing the old bridge, but it did make for an interesting riverfront landmark. The space it created between what would be the riverfront park, if it existed at the time, would have joined up with Old Walkerville and the Walker Power building to create a great link between the new and the old.
Thanks Andrew, I emailed you 1 photo once of the peabody bridge it was in black and white….I was looking for your email to send it to you and i lost it……can you email me and give me your email so i can email you the picture of the peabody bridge, so maybe you can post it on here as well…..thanks
Ps…No i don’t miss the peabody bridge! LOL! Winter days it was awful driving on it!
But i did drive on it 1,000 times because you had to!
not sure if you saw my photo on flickr that i posted of these 2 people standing on the peabody in the 40s?
or the other one i posted that was taken on wyandotte in the 40s with the same person in it. maybe i will email them to you.
The bridge must have been redone at least once.If you look in your last picture of it you would notice it ended at the end of the factory there and at the side road.In the first postcard view picture it ends past the side road and little farther down Riverside Drive past the factory.It may have been built it 1913 but it was extended or rebuilt at least once.Maybe it was rebuilt after the bombing of the factory.Not sure of when that happened but I do remember reading about it.
In the recent ariel photo you can see where the peabody building once was compared to the others. I don’t remember that building at all but do remember the bridge. Of course I was about 10 yrs old when the building was demolished. When was the flatiron building demolished and what is the building called that still stands today that was right next to (just south) the peabody building?
Colin, the Flatiron came down around 1991-1992 I think…
As for your second question, I’m not sure which building south of the Peabody building you’re asking about…
I remember that bridge a little bit from my childhood… I remember going with my dad to work (at CNR) when i was younger, when he worked on the Waterfront yard, before things moved to Dougall Ave yard. I remember him taking me on the train under that bridge and going by the VIA station. I also remember just after the yard was closed, and the rails were just lifted up to the Hiarm Walker Grain Elevator, and CNR rented 2 of the older VIA Rail Coaches for the Families of local CNR Employees to take the train from Pilette Road Yard down to the Waterfront for the Fireworks, and they parked the engine & Cars right under the bridge, and we twalked up a few blocks to watch them. It still feels weird going by there now a days and thinking about the bridge was there, just like the former underpass on Wyandotte, feels weird not going up and down anymore.
Hah, small world. Made a blog post on ‘Visuals today about the Walker Power Building, as I noticed recently there is work going on inside. As rundown as it is, demolition there would be another great loss for the city. Funny how Walkerville has changed so much with the de-industrialization and removal of the rail lines.
There where two bridges that I know of, the first one an wood bridge and was called the GTR bridge, for the Grand Trunk Railway before it became part of Canadian National Railway. The second bridge is what everyone remembers was an concrete one, I believe when it was rebuilded that is when the ramp and platform on the north west end of the Peabody building was added for shipping and recieving by trucks. When heading east on Riverside Dr. just before going onto the bridge there was access to Kildare Rd. ,one way, there no access from Kildare to Riverside Dr. I have seen a 30 second film that shows an SW&A street car on an shoefly that was used by the SW&A when the bridge was being rebuilt.
colin, i think that building is or was called the neon shop? i remember hearing about some bands renting lofts up there for jam sessions and whatnot.
you are speaking of the only building left on that plot of land, right?
neat how riverside drive still couldn’t really avoid taking the same shape as the peabody.
something about that bridge being there in the first shot makes the area look more….glued together.
thanks andrew!
bernie….what’s a shoefly?
That building did house sign shops, skate shops, bands, etc. They all had to leave as the building was not good for tenancy. There were some stories in the paper a few years back that the city was preventing the owner from zoning the building how he wanted and therefore he couldn’t sell it for condos. Don’t know how true that is. It’s neat inside though, but pretty creepy. It’s all still there and the Drive advertises their covers on the side.
Aaron and Colin, that building is the Walker Power Building. I made a blog post yesterday with some pictures from it, and an itty-bitty description of it, but Andrew could do a much better job of detailing the history of that place!
http://community.livejournal.com/windsor_visuals/66978.html
The Peabody Bridge (1) Had a steep inclined ramps and motorists creeping up them risked sliding backwards in fresh snow and ice. (2) Although sort of “S†shaped it had two sharp “elbow†bends rather than easy curves. That led to many accidents, often involving speed and drinking. (3) The pitched incline, bends and mostly solid side walls, impaired vision. Once my relatives from out of town got lost and found themselves on the bridge, fearing they were on their way over the river to a mean, scary, post-riots Detroit. Also you wouldn’t see oncoming traffic until suddenly confronted at the bends. (4) It was built solid. Even when chunks of the deck were falling out and you could see through to the tracks below, the city engineers found it was safe for regular passenger cars traffic. (5) It has a neat history involving wartime sabotage. Check the first comment above.
Did anyone know there was an indian draveyard underneath the peabody bridge?
They discovered bones when they removed the bridge, and i guess they put the bones back where they belonged……….
I wrote graveyard wrong haaaa
I heard a story about a burial site there too but it went a little different than that. Had something to do with a brief epidemic and that victims of said epidemic were buried there sometime prior to the turn of the century. Always wanted to get some solid info on that. It is quite intriguing.
westerntragedy – thanks for the info! those are some great pics you got there, great job!
http://www.citywindsor.ca/DisplayAttach.asp?AttachID=4370
“In 1992, the City of Windsor commissioned M.M. Dillon Limited to conduct archaeological investigations in conjunction with the demolition of Peabody Bridge in Walkerville. Directed by W. Bruce Stewart, the investigations focussed on the potential for impacting a mass grave of some 60 Norwegian immigrants who died of cholera in 1854 and were reportedly buried in the area of the bridge. The study area was defined by Moy Avenue on west, Devonshire Road on the east, the southern limits of Riverside Drive and C.N.R. lands on the south, and the northern limits of Riverside Drive and C.N.R. lands on the north (Stewart 1993: ). The road bed was not tested; testing was reserved for the former railbed of C.N. lines and edges of street allowance.”
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/7051/cholera2.html
http://www.walkervilletimes.com/37/yellow-brick.html
Above two links were just shot over to me by Mike B. More info there as well as the City of Windsor document indicated in previous response.
nice finds john and mike! it’s funny how in the walkerville times article, it said even the peole of the time knew not to bury disesed bodies near their drinking water. then goes on to say that the definition of “near” to those people was totally different the people of today, as they’d think nothing of walking for miles to get somewhere LOL!
i would think being at the railyard in the first place, the easiest and quickest way of disposing of the bodies would be incineration.
i also had no clue that in 1850 windsor still only had a population of 750.
Andrew,
I had a question, where can I get old google earth type aerial photographs of Windsor? (like the two you used in this article) I’d love to pour over some of those old photos some day…. I’d look at them for hours.
brendan i had stumbled across a site that had some and i was blown away with some of the shots. i sat for a very long time looking at them over and over. i forget the site so this info is usless to you lol
but i nearly pooped myself when i seen that the whole shore of the river west of the bridge might as well have been russel street in nature!!! then docks came, then the shore was extended……..amazing.
i’m gonna look around for you, if you find it let me know because i love pouring over stuff like that too!
thanks Aaron, sounds good. Glad to know I’m not the only one who likes that type of stuff
yeah i love that stuff! why is it so easy to find stuff when you wern’t looking for it in the first place? lol this is making me cazy, i even tried virtual motor city but there’s a million pictures in there.
i did find a picture of Kennedy C.I. from when it was brand spankin new though. not even any grass yet! and some features that just arn’t there anymore.
good luck Brendan…….i’m pretty usless with computers though….may be the problem i’m having lol
Virtual motor city is a good site, lots of great pictures! Well, the search goes on….
Guys,
The photos are from DTE’s aerial survey collection. As they were planning out Detroit for Hydro, occasionally Windsor snuck in there. Mostly Downtown, and some Walkerville. 1967 goes out to old St. Mary’s Academy.
http://tools.comm.wayne.edu/media/low_res/aerial_photos/indexold.htm
Enjoy, if you like these, then you’ll waste many, many hours there… I did
*claps excitedly*
thanks Andrew!!!! i plan on wasting alot of company time on these! lol
what really stings me, is since 08:02, i’ve been scowering the net. i was even at the site you linked us to! but when i clicked on the year i wanted, i got that initial map where it’s all green and red lines and thought “damn, there arn’t aerials!” and left the site. i never bothered to click on little places on the map. LOL
thanks again Andrew!
Yes Aaron- I was going to tell you I’ve seen a few shots of Windsor from the late 20’s and early 30’s with Kennedy in a couple of them. I found them on the Wayne State univ website and did some digging with Windsor stuff. I too, love that kind of stuff. Andrew, my question above was answered I think..the building I’m referring to that still stands today is the “neon shop” or whatever it was termed by someone above. It is the building that is covered with vines etc. It was directly south or even attached (so it looks in the photos) to the Peabody building that was demolished in 85′.
Seen as how the last few great post, have been from this area. I have wondered if anyone got pictures of the former Pere Marquette train station, and other C&O items from that area, and also information on when the Present Day VIA Rail Station was built on Hiarm Walkers Property. I know that the VIA Rail Station was built when CNR was still into Passenger Rail service, but do not know what year that it was built. Also what about the former CNR Station that was Closer to Downtown. I just wish i could find more information about this stuff, but its also nice to see what others have from around Windsor.
Colin, that is the Walker Power Building (east of the Peabody Building). It was built by Detroit Architects Stahl, Kinsey & Chapman c. 1913. They also designed the fence around Willistead, and the old King George on Ottawa St. (now Ecole Envoleé). I’m not sure what the current status is of it, but it’s ripe for reuse IMO…
Ian, it seems our rail heritage isn’t the most covered. Especially when it comes to stations. I recently came acorss some interior photos of the old staiton at the foot of Goyeau from the 50’s. It was a complaint in the paper about what a dump it was…
I’ll see if I can find it.
Andrew, the reason nothing has happened with the Walker Power building are two-fold.
1) Windsor’s fire marshall stated the building was “a death trap” with no escape routes in case of fire, poor signage, no exit signs, blocked main routes…that is why they clsoed it.
2) due to PCB’s in the ground they cannot convert this building and remoed some of the people who were living there. Until that is cleaned up the building will rot away.
Thanks for the DTE link Andrew. I used to have it bookmarked but lost it and couldn’t find the website. I have already spend many many hours on this site and plan to spend a few more.
No problem. The DTE photos used to be housed elsewhere, but the program at Wayne State that used them was discontinued, and they were moved elsewhere on the site.
I know that Windsor is only an afterthought in those photos, but they are fascinating all the same.
i remember as a kid the riverdale bus the predessor of the crosstown that used to run along the drive,i used to hate going over the Peabody bridge in the bus because of how steep the west bound lane off the bridge was it always felt like we would hit a oncoming car
my mother and i were having a convo about this the other day… she mentioned something about one of her childhood classmates getting caught in a switch and losing there life during one of their adventures on the tracks