Located at the corner of Bruce and Pitt St. W. in downtown Windsor, this building has always struck me as odd due to the three story white siding that surrounds all the Window openings…
Here’s an aerial view of the building, it is surrounded on the north side by the Palmer Apartments, and what was the Billings Apartments to the west. Interesting to note that the building to the left, in 1923 was home to the longtime Windsor business O.P. Hamlin, who only closed in the last few years.
Here’s the building as it looked shortly after construction, appearing in the Border Cities Star – April 20, 1929.
Exterior view of the new Cairngorm Apartment, now being completed at Pitt street and Bruce avenue by Ward Brothers, general contractors. The building will be one of the finest three storey apartments in Windsor. It is modernly equipped in every detail and has accommodation for 26 families. W.R. Billing is the owner.
Among the features of the new building were “Iceless Refrigeration and Laundry Chutes, and Electric Washers and Driers”
The building was designed by J.R. Sculland who also designed the Medical Arts Building on Ouellette, as well as a couple of apartment buildings on Gilles Blvd. W.
I am guessing that the building was renamed in the late 1950’s to capitalize on the new Dieppe Park, steps away…
I would love to know what’s up with the siding?
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sure was a nice lookin building when she was new. i'd bet there's lots of fine wood work in there like in windsor court. gotta say though, i never noticed the parking lot light being used as a street light lol.
i wonder if the siding is some 50's fix to cover up stained brick from rust and whatever else that runs off window sills.
I remember my brother living in an apartment on the second floor. The hardwood flors and the woodwork itself was amazing. Even the size of a one bedroom apartment was pretty decent. He was living there at the time when the old Holiday Inn on the river burnt down
ahhhh...i remember that. i was standing in dieppe park where it used to end on a hill right next to the holiday inn. man what a cooker! seeing the detroit fire boat in action was pretty cool too.
For the record... Not me. That's another Andrew...
The lobyy is in great shape with brass doors and plaster cove ceilings along with elaborate doorways. The mail box for the apartment is all brass and still has the old Imperial Canada Post seal on it.
Sadly the building went into disrepair about 6 years ago with a new owner (previous owner kept it in great shape) allowing prostitutes and junkie/drug addict scumbags to move in. I understand there has been a new owner for the last year who has been doing some work on it and trying to clean it up (get rid of the scumbags).
I also understand there are still one or two families in the building which is nice to see.
From what I have been told the siding was added to cover up shoddy new storm windows that were put in years ago and they put it down the entire side to make it more uniform. I cannot confirm this though.
As for the apartment to the west, Green Shield Canada also rented out offices in that buildng for a time.
Andre do you know when the Palmer Apartments were built? It seems that they were already built when this building went up? Also I can't remember what was on the corner of Bruce and Riverside Dr before the new condo was built there.
Bring on the next energy crisis! The Dieppe Apartments is a perfect example of the kind of building that folks will be lining up to move into once the price of gas hits ten bucks a litre and suburbia becomes an untenable living arrangement for anybody without basic farming skills.
I lived in a building on University and Curry that was owned by the same property management company. The Windows at that building cladded in metal the same way. I remember the building in university was a nice old building, but the inside was not kept up as well as it could have been.
The Property management company that owned Dieppe Park Apartments as owned Ambassador Apartments as seen in the link
http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=147
Nice aerial shot. Provides a good sense of the few surviving structures from previous eras struggling to survive amid the desolation of the old city. Being a pessimist, and a student of Windsor's urban renewal "strategies" I feel that their time is not long. Thanks for preserving them for posterity, Andrew. Those parking lots put me in mind of the Mojave desert. I knew this neighborhood when it was dense with houses and shops and the smell of malted barley hung heavy in the air. Mabel - Black Label!
Its a beautiful building, one that I've hoped you would cover (or that you had already covered and I should search for on the site). I also wondered about the weird siding. If the Western Anchor ever gets built, or the ditch gets dug, this would be prime real estate. Interesting that it was to be one of the finest "3-story apartments" in Windsor, when I can count 4 stories.
does anyone know when the palmer was built?