A slew of buildings along Howard Avenue are looking forward to a future as a temporary roadway around the Howard Avenue grade separation.
Among them, is the Ferguson Glass Building.
It’s an older cinder block warehouse with an interesting 1970’s office slapped on the front.
It’s an interesting, and architecturally different building, with all kinds of interesting angles on the facade.
I know nothing about Ferguson Glass, but apparently they had a few offices at one time.
Looking away from the offices, the warehouse is older than the facade.
When it went up, I have no idea. The 1937 fire insurance map shows a lumber yard on the site. I think it was probably a late 1940’s early 1950’s warehouse.
Check it out while it’s still there, the building eaters are closing in. A strip mall, Partscource, the Bedroom Depot, Dayus Roofing, Ferguson Glass and Angelieri lumber were all on the expropriation list
The Ziebart on the east side of the road, just south of the tracks is already gone.
Anyone know anything about Ferguson Glass?
I dont know much about Ferguson Glass but if Dayus Roofing is going to be coming down how much of the property behind Dayus will be used for the road. Old Dayus Speedway is still there in the trees behind the store. I’ve heard that racetrack started out as an old baseball stadium and when the team left the stadium owner started holding auto races in the baseball field. After a year or two the dirt track was paved then closed a couple years after that. I hope we’re not going to lose that old “diamond” in the rough with it.
Which reminds me now. Obviously we’re not really anymore but in the time when we were calling ourselve Canada’s “Motor City” You think we could have been able to build an auto racing facility that could have stood the test of time. Checker Flag/Windsor Speedway gone. The aforementioned Dayus Speedway, gone. Windsor Dragway, yup you guessed it gone.
Show of hands how many people think Windsor’s NIMBY’s put pressure on the track owners to shut down after moving in knowing all too well racetrack = noise. *raises hand* I know of one track that went down this way.
A’Burg Dave – I covered the stadium in the summer: http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=696
It’s actually further south from here…
I actually work in the Dayus building (in the insurance office in the front of the building). Our office was actually the office of the lumber yard’s owner; it is filled with interesting and lovely woodwork.
AFAIK, Ferguson Glass still exists in Calgary. The owner of the Windsor location retired about a year ago and the building has been vacant since then… now owned by the gov’t, and not long for this world.
We’ll be moving in two weeks, and have been here for 25+ years.
Except for a few parking spaces Angileris won’t be touched.
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/graphics/english/engineering/border/windsor/pic0911_plan.jpg
Thanks for the link Joe. I was going off the city expropriation report. They have the Angileri property listed. It doesn’t go into detail though.
However the graphic you’ve got only shows the new roadway, don’t forget they are installing two shunt roads around the project during construction….
Ferguson Glass merged with Neudorf Glass and are now mostly located near Toronto.
http://www.fnglass.com/
They were responsible for many glass projects in the Windsor area – including Daimler Chrysler. On a side note….Mrs. Ferguson was a typing teacher at Belle River District High School 🙂
didn’t the bedroom depot and parts source only go up a couple years ago? i’ve always wondered if the part of the wearhouse shown in the second last picture was shaped that way because of a spur line off the ETR. does your fire map show a spur there Andrew?
and speaking of the ETR, are we going under those tracks as well? it seems like the underpass will come to grade right on top of the ETR RoW.
and if i’m not reading that map in the link wrong, it would appear Lens Ave is getting widened and put on a totally different path. it’s probly just goin to dead end at the old toledo scale though. it would be pretty akward sitting on the angle that lens would have to meet howard at.
also Andrew, you have a bit of the city’s ear i would think when it comes to preservation ;). do you know what can be done for that group of trees behind ferguson and dayus? some of those things look ancient and it would be a shame if they were torn down after a 80 years to make way for a temporary road.
isn’t the city the least bit interested in relocating relocatable, mature trees to other places in the city they want to beautify without the 10 year waiting period of a young tree being nothing more then a stick?
Aaron – Shoot them an email, they are reasonable people:
Parks and Recreation
2450 McDougall Street
Windsor, Ontario, Canada N8X 3N6
Phone: For general information, call 311.
Email: forestry@city.windsor.on.ca
Or go right to the top 🙂
Bill Roesel – Manager of forestry and horticulture
broesel@city.windsor.on.ca
(519) 253-2300 ext. 6709
i just might do that. thanks Andrew! 🙂
Expropriating all that land along Howard has got to cost of fortune. What is the purpose? Are they going to be widening Howard all the way to Wyandotte St. and then to the tunnel? Or, does this directly connect to McDougall somewhere? Do they plan to build bridges over the rail tracks?
David – You missed the part (obviously) where the train tracks are going to receive the same treatment as Walker Road.
The difference is that Walker Road was a mess, and they have decided to keep the road open this time, by building temporary lanes around the construction.
I believe that the funds for expropriation are coming from either the Provincial or Federal Government. So you’re paying for it out of a different pocket 🙂
Obviously…
And, how do I find this mto report on the master plan of the extent of this present and future expropriation bondoogle?
well i for one still ain’t gonna drive there during construction. something tells me they arn’t going to build 4 lanes of temporary road, so it’s just going to be mile long back ups, dusty as hell, and on top of it all we’ll still have to wait for trains. walker can handle whatever traffic howard can throw at it now, maybe they’d be better off just shutting it down and get’er done.
of course, since there STILL isn’t any lane markers on walker yet we’ll just get a bunch of accidents with the increased traffic, and back ups anyways.
nevermind 🙂
I think trying to keep Howard open during construction is bad planning and a waste of money. I would think Walker, McDougall, Ouellette and Dougall would handle all the traffic and would not have inconvenienced anyone. Provisioning temporary routing on Howard only extends the time to complete the project and likely adds much to the bottom line…. That said, I’m sure the planners can defend their decision.
i don’t know about ouellette. it’s ass as it is between euginie and grand maris between 4 and 6. that’s something else that needs a solution, it’s horrible.
hey Andrew…..have you noticed all the posted times on IM are off by an hour? i also noticed when i’m on midnights the site doesn’t post the days topic until about 02:10 instead of the 01:06. not sure why i’m metioning it now, it’s been going on for a while now lol
Thanks Andrew. I thought you had done a write up on the old speedway. I first found out about it from an old co-worker who used to race at Checker Flag and told me about some of the old places in the City that held auto racing. Funny I didnt believe him that there was a track in this part of the city, of course I didnt realize this part of Howard Ave was once considered the boodoggles of the city. LOL
JBM – I agree. Unlike Walker, with no other nearby North South routes, Howard has McDougall only 150 feet or so west….
Aaron – The time is the time on the server IM is hosted on… There’s not much I can do about it, sadly… I’ll start posting at 12:05 for you instead 🙂
A.
Has anyone tried to drive on Walker rd south of EC Row? The traffic has becomenighmarish now with the big box badlands. Especially near Cabana. The reason is the stupid light put up for Home Crapo on Walker about 50ft south of Cabana. I would like to know who on PAC thought that was a good idea and/or who in the traffic department approved it?
ME, I completely agree with you, from EC Row to the 401 underpass, traffic on Walker Rd. is brutal. I would like to know who on the PAC committee approved all of these retailers sprouting up withing 10 years of each other, yet the only improvements they made were to widen Walker Rd. near the 401 underpass and add some traffic lights. I guess the city didn’t think people would use Provincial/Cabana to travel from South Windsor. Based on the city plan, in the next 20 years those roads will eventually be improved for better flow.
Back to the Howard Ave. underpass construction, the city was trying to think ahead and be proactive as traffic would be brutal on Walker Rd and Ouellette if Howard Ave was closed. I know personally that trying to use Howard Ave. or Ouellette a year ago at this time, cars would be backed up from Cabana to Memorial Drive. It may cost more money to expropriate and it likely will only be one lane in each direction, but it’s better than complete closure for two years.
Nice to see the Ferguson Glass Co remembered. Keith Ferguson was a great guy and a superstar in the commercial glass business. His company did a large chunk of the Skydome ( Rogers Centre)