Flat Iron Building – Walkerville

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• oh i wish you had a photo of the little parkette on the corner.... i never knew this building was ever there.... i have lived in this neighborhood for the past six years and never knew. i was aware that they moved the building behind it...thanks so much for the old photos... hope you enjoyed the walk tonight...

  RF

• May have marked the moment Hiram Walkers went from good corporate citizen to bad.

• Thanks to Robert Pratt for having the foresite to get those shots. Must remember this demo was thirteen+ years ago and we all weren't quite as keen about our built heritage as we are now that blogs like I.M. are raising awareness. (Better late than never.)

  Question to Andrew: This demo today would have obviously been met with staunch opposition. How did they pull it off in 1995? Haven't looked at the inventory PDF yet but I assume this would be prime material for designation, non? Not assigning blame - just curious as to how something this amazing went down the toilet.

• Shawn, the previous owners, Allied Domecq, were even worse at being corporate "citizens" (truly not in their lexicon). They removed all of the flowers round the property that would be planted each year and instead installed pea gravel.

  John, there was some opposition but much like many things in Windsor it didn't matter. Windsor will allow the illogical things to be done while logic remains on the shelf. I believe it was one reason the Town Hall was saved. A "compromise" if you will.

• I thought only Detroit had buildings that nice. What a waste! Was this an office building or an apartment building? Why didn't they just sell the building if they didn't like it? It survived for a century, so I doubt they'd have a problem keeping it rented. I bet Hiram Walker was turning in his grave when it was being knocked down.

• wow...what a stunning building

• Re: Was it an office building?

  I think Walker's used it as offices. I do recall an interview with the recently deceased Camilla Stodgell Wigle and she said that her father ran a store located in this building. That would have been in the late 18th/early 19th c. I'm assuming that the lower level must have been shops and the upper stories may have been apartments - I'm saying "assuming" - I don't know for sure but so many of the urban streetscapes were set up like that.

  Andrew - would the fire insurance maps clarify this?

  It was a beautiful building and it was such a shame went it was torn down - ME, you are right - it was a "compromise" - the city hall building was saved and this one was sacrificed. (I miss the flowers, too).

• Initially the building held shops on both levels, then just the lower level with a bowling alley on the top and then it was used for storage for a few years before it was demo'ed.

• Wow, it had a bowling alley on the top floor? That's sad. I guess it could be worse. Like if I were a preservationist in Detroit seeing the historic Wolverine Skyscraper Hotel across from the Fox getting demo'd for a parking lot for Comerica Park or even Hudson's for Compuware Parking. Man, like how are we even supposed to take all these landmark demos in Windsor and Detroit with a grain of salt and not have a heart attack? The history and architecture of what the Motor Cities once were was like reading about something great like the Roman Empire crumble into dust...

• According the the book "Postcards from the Past" from Walkerville Publishing:

  ... [had] a 600 seat auditorium, a reading room on the second floor, and a tearoom in the curved bay near the street corner.