Downtown Windsor – 1959

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• It looks as though Cobo Arena was under construction at the east end of Cobo Hall across the river. Nice to see the two twin-stacked paddlewheel railway ferries docked on the Windsor shore. Thank you Scott and Andrew for your efforts.

• I've always been curious about what came first: Cobo Hall or the old Cleary Center. Also, was a hockey arena part of the original plans for the Cleary? I've heard that an arena was part of the original plan for the Cleary but the city cut it out of the plans at the last minute.

• Kari> ME is wrong. Every city I've been to (often for various urban-related projects) from London to San Jose to Edinburgh to New York to London all say they are the worst at historical preservation. Windsor is not unique.

• Further to my above point, check out what hamilton lost!

  http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k28/segaert/oddstuff/destruction.jpg

• I remember Ouellette Avenue being quite lively in the 70's and 80's. I don't know for certain, but I think it was the extension of E.C Rowe out to Lauzon Parkway in the early 80's that killed downtown Windsor. Before E.C Rowe, the fastest way to get from Windsor to Belle River was Tecumseh Road, which made daily commuting a time-consuming headache in even the best weather. Now you can get to Belle River in 20 minutes thanks to the expressway.

• When the expreeway was first prposed the cost was 12 million dollars, demmed by city council and the province as too high. When they reconsidered and started construction the cost had escalated out of sight. The first stage was between Walker Rd. and Dougal Rd.. Not affecting the drive time from Tecumseh or Bell River. By this time Dorwin Sentry, and Gateway Plaza were already open, Devonshire Mall wasin the planing stages, or construction.
  Downtown declined due to lack of retail in the core area, Sears Simpson Sears only had a small catalouge office downtown. When Devonshire open all of a sudden we now had Simpson Sears and Robert Simpson stores.

  Robert Simpson stores where boughtout by Sears Robuck, first the catalouge, then the stores

• Wow, this is the saddest group of shots I have seen. When they pick off the buildings one or two a year you don't notice it as much as when you look at the whole arial picture. I wonder if the red areas in the pictures were labelled how many we would remember and what has replaced them....parking lots, banks,casino, appartments and office buildings? Too bad we don't have a similar shot of what is there today. What is so upsetting is that in some cases it is whole residential neighbourhoods that have been destroyed.....and they wonder why they have no one to shop downtown....oops I forgot there are no stores left to shop in. They even tore down two large downtown hotels...the Norton Palmer and Prince Edward. Both must have been good for foot traffic downtown. The new hotels and Casino are now on the fringe of the downtown or on the riverfront, not in the core. There is no starting point from the hotels to start shopping and keep on strolling. You would have to walk several blocks from the hotels to get to one store...if you could find one...lots of restaurants but little retail and little reason to even window shop. Very sad. Thanks for the postcard Scott.

• last summer while they were rebuilding the block of ouellette between park nd wyandotte i happened tobe driving north on pellisher street at the corner of park and pellisher street there was a sign mounted on a pole that stated SHOPPING ON OUELLETTE then i thought what shopping ????

• our core area reminds me of that road in grand bend that runs from the main drag out to the beach nothing but sovenire shopsand fast food joints .....very sad

• of all the hair brain ideas city councilhas evercome up with the canal has to be the worst i saw some film footage of the river walk in San Antonio on tv the other night and windsorwill never aquire that eddie francis bettercome back down to gound level