Yawkey Farms

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• now that's a barn if i ever saw one.

  here's some history i dug up from the site "windsorscottish.com" turns out there was also a golf course associated with it. You can also find pretty much the same info on walkerville times. sorry about all the space i'm about to take.........

  "Disgruntled Scottish Windsorite George Mair decided, along with other local golfers, that the area was in desperate need of a more suitable golf course. By 1902, Mair had successfully solicited enough community support to warrant the establishment of a new club. Mair, appropriately, was elected the first president of the Oak Ridge Golf Club. The course was set out on 130 acres of land in the northwest corner of Ojibway donated to the club by the Detroit iron and lumber magnate William Clyman Yawkey. Mrs. George Mair secured membership subscriptions to the new club and raised enough money to erect a small clubhouse. Over the course of the decade, the Oak Ridge Golf Club enjoyed great success and an ever-expanding membership.

  This growth, however, meant that the golf course and club house were soon incapable of accommodating increased demands. So in 1909, the Oak Ridge directors purchased a 53-acre property at the intersection of Prince Road and the Essex Terminal Railway line in Sandwich. The lease on the Yawkey farm expired as construction began on Prince Farm, so the Oak Ridge golfers reverted to Walkerville for the 1910 season. Their ripe enthusiasm for the new course infected the Walkerville golfers, and the two clubs amalgamated to form the Essex County Golf & Country Club."
  .............................................

  i'm thinking the farm IS the neighbourhood of brighton beach. in a 1952 DTE shot, right at the end of Healey at the river there seems to be a large barn that looks like it was set up long before the neighbourhood popped up. i don't know....pure speculation. more speculation for the location of the course at prince and the ETR. again in the 1952 DTE shots there looks like maybe he marks of an ancient golf course headed north along the tracks, but also south which would put the main body of the course under malden park OR a pile of garbage if you will.
  again sorry for the taken space, but thanks for sharing that pic! i'm going to have to see if my mimi has any old photo's i can put to use here.

• i also ment to mention, that my mother always refers to the ojibway park area as "yawkey bush" as i'm sure many on this site still do. it's also still labeled that way on windsor road maps and whatnot. that's where my "location speculation" comes from.
  have a good weekend everyone!

• Thats my recollection too Ojibway was Yawkey bush, I spent many a day riding horses there.
  excellant picture of great old barn.

• isn't it? that barn would have made an excellent place to sell old antiques or a great setting for a farmers market today.

  i also remember a distinct difference in names between brighton beach and yawkey bush. the former being refered to as "dogpatch". does that ring a bell for anyone else?

• wow...that is one fantastic looking barn!!

• I've always known that as Yawkey Bush as well.

  OT - what ever happened to that small boat that was out front of the park?

• Great picture. Oak Ridge GC, which became Essex Golf and Country Club was at the corner of present day Prince Rd and College Ave, where Marygrove is today.

• We called the woods west of Broadway "Yawkey Bush" though it was certainly part of "Ojibway". I lived on Healy Street in Brighton Beach from 1949 through the sixties but never heard it referred to as "Dogpatch" until I drove cab in the '80's. I guess that was city folk terminology!

  The small boat Ric refers to is probably the one that sat by the creek on Matchette Road in Ojibway Park which came along much later. It was intended for kids to play on and mine did but it was likely a victim of safety concerns when they started removing all the really neat old playground equipment everywhere. I have a picture of that one somewhere. That was way south of Brighton Beach.

  Healy doesn't go as far as the river - never did. Chappus did and Page went down to the old River Road. Oddly I don't remember the barn though I certainly would have been down to the river in that area many times and I do remember old house foundations. If it was in that area, you'd think there'd have been something remaining. I do remember a "riding stable" at the corner of Broadway and old Highway 18 (now "Ojibway Parkway") but I don't recall anything as imposing as that barn.

• Interesting, the city’s history of Ojibway Park says Yawkey Bush was named after a family which lived in the area in the 1800s. Perhaps the Detroit industrialists were descendants. Yawkey Bush was renamed Ojibway after the land was turned over to Windsor in 1957 although the land was actually in the town of Ojibway which was founded in 1913 and did not became part of Windsor until the annexation of 1966. Details can be found here http://www.ojibway.ca/history.htm and there are helpful rollover maps to show then and now. The Oak Ridge golf course description referring to Prince Road and the Essex Terminal Railway sounds more like the vicinity of Mic Mac Park than Brighton Beach. But both border on the “Bush. “

• Clair, Yes that's the one I'm refering too. I loved playing on that thing, until the floor boards rotted and you could see right to the bottom of the ship. It was there thougout the 80s but I think it was gone by the mid 90s.