An old postcard, this one was postmarked in 1988, but I’m fairly sure it’s much older than that.
Anyone have any memories of this place?
From the back of the card:
NEW FRONTIER MOTEL
Featuring 121 Modern Air-Conditioned Units. T.V., Radio, Telephones, Wall to Wall Broadloom in every room. Furnished in Early American Style. Dining Room and Coffee Shop, Swimming Pool. Banquet Rooms. COnvention Facilities.869 Mill St. at Huron Line.
Located on No. 3 Highway, at foot of Ambassador Bridge
Tel. 254-3771
WINDSOR, Ontario, Canada
That has to be the one they converted to a University residence! I wouldn’t have remembered the name and I’m pretty sure it was called something else in one incarnation. Not even sure if the residence is still there as I haven’t been by that way lately. It bordered on the MacDonald’s parking lot as I recall.
Clare – you beat me to it! I’m sure you’re right.
The residence is gone. I can’t remember when it stopped being a motel but I would guess the mid 1970’s ???
BTW, Andrew – I saw this card recently on Ebay – did you just buy it?
The Ambassador Bridge acquired the former-motel university residence and the neighboring apartment-building like studednt residence behind it on Mill Street and tore them down several years ago. Maybe as long as five years ago. The vacant lot is used as a dump site for construction rubble from roadwork on the bridge. The property lies in the path of the proposed twin bridge. The Essex Terminal Railway track runs beside the lot and then there is the McDonald’s outlet — once the highest selling McDonalds in Canada.
Pretty sure that my dad told me the place became a residence sometime when he was a student at Windsor, which was about 67-73. It was torn down about 2002 if I recall correctly, but it had stopped functioning as a residence sometime before. I was at the university 95-98 and I think it was empty by the time of my grad. The residence that is across the parking lot is gone too, it was Tecumseh Hall I think and I actually went to daycare there about 30 years ago.
Jane – I did just buy it, but not from eBay. I picked it up at the WINPEX show in Windsor a few weeks ago…
Another example of the bridge company expanding…. which could lead to a rant but I will hold on comments. The former site of this motel/residence is a mess.
That looks very old!
The rumours at the U (I was there 93-99) that the old motel-residence was eventually condemned. I don’t know if was part of the general apocryphal stories about the University’s sad state from students, or some truth.
The apartment building residence was Tecumseh Hall and the old motel was Huron Hall.
Years ago I remember seeing the demolition of a building that looked motel-ish (and rather decrepit) in this area and wondering what it was, as I hadn’t really noticed it before. Looks like I’ve found the answer.
looks like a retierment home in this picture lol were nurses uniforms common place in the hopspitality buiz back in the day? lol
at least they look happy 🙂
Can’t believe how quickly things fade and vanish through the years. Little changed physically from its days as a haven for travellers, Huron Hall was downright luxurious and afforded a higher degree of freedom and privacy than the standard university dorm of those days. Each room had its own bathroom and sliding glass doors to the outside, unlike the shared facilities and grimly stacked decks and cubbyholes of Macdonald or Tecumseh Hall. There were some pretty wild times there back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, when the first wave of college bound baby boomers hit the place…..out of body experiences, speaking in tongues, that sort of thing. The Moody Blues were popular. Huron became a haven to a new kind of traveler. I think there may actually have been a few serious students there but I don’t remember meeting any.
As a former U of W employee who was once (briefly) responsible for the management of the building (both before and after it closed)–I can confirm that the building was not condemned. The decision to close was based on a handful of factors–most notably a decline in enrollment, a decline in demand for residence space and the pending sale of the property (and adjacent Tecumseh Hall) to the CTC for their future expansion plans. There was past concern with the safety of the balconies in the building–and they were closed sometime in the early 1990s. Nonetheless, prior to it’s closure the building remained in generally good repair.
In the year following it’s closure I had to attend the building on a few occasions (while the sale was pending and the U of W was still responsible for the property)–the building did suffer from damage inflicted by vandals, etc–what I recall was a significant amount of broken glass. Those visits nonetheless afforded me the opportunity to see the building top-to-bottom–there was a basement located under the “service” area (front desk, restaurant/lounge area) which still had full-on food service equipment, meat lockers, walk in coolers, etc. Even the front desk of the building retained some of the hotel front office features/cubby holes, etc. The restaurant space pictured in the postcard became known as the “wagon wheel lounge” so named after the light fixtures visible in the postcard–which remained. The space looked nearly identical to the appearance in the postcard–very few cosmetic changes. Hope this sheds some light on the history of the building.
As a side note, when the CTC took possession of the buildings and demolished them, Huron Hall had been cleared of furniture, etc–however, the U of W elected not to remove the furnishings, appliances, etc from Tecumseh–so that building was demolished with it’s contents–fridges, stoves, furnishings, curtains, etc–completely intact–a strange sight.
The New Frontier was owned and operated by the Wonsch Family for many years at which time it was sold and converted into the U of Windsor residences. It has been torn down . Many great memories !!!!