Today home to a church or two, this buff brick beauty on Howard Ave just north of Tecumseh Rd., was built around 1938 as a Coca-Cola Bottling Plant.
The building was designed by the Toronto Architectural Firm of Chapman & Oxley. Some of their more notable works include the Princess Gate at the CNE in downtown Toronto as well as the original wing of the Royal Ontario Museum.
A neat little building and one of the ones that I think tends to get overlooked in the city. Glad a new use was found for it, so often these types of buildings have no other use, and once they close, the bulldozers move in…
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That’s almost like the old Canada Dry plant that used to be on Walker. Not sure if it was bottling or not. Unfortunately now it’s a parking lot for Chrysler cars to be shipped in and out.
There used to be a Bottling plant on tecumseh between york and church as well. I think they did crush. It was old when I was a kid and has been gone for a while now. Kinda sorry I did not take some pics of it. I remember the coke plant still being open there.
Ya, I think Coke was still operating there well into the 1990s.
So what happened to the business of Coca-Cola Bottling in Windsor? I can google an address for Coca Cola Bottling Detroit, Chatham and London, yet I can’t find a current address for Windsor. Why did they leave the area?
they closed their operations in windsor and sarnia and opened up a brand new plant/distribution center in chatham. the trucks deliver essex, lambton and kent counties from that one new DC now.
The Canada Dry plant on Walker Rd. was the whole deal bottling and distribution. It was localy owned, until sold to Coca Cola, later closrd and moved to Chahtam.
Did the same thing happen with Vernor’s Ginger Ale at Erie and Mercer?(I believe).
wow, we had alot of major bottling companies here, eh? what happend to this place? i can’t understand the mass exodus of major companies from this city.
“buff brick beauty” LOL. i’ve always loved the work on the right side of the building, but if you don’t notice it the building gererally looks like every other wearhouse. the back of this place is another smaller building that was used to move the product onto the ETR. i don’t know if the shipping doors are bricked in now or not, but when i was a kid and dinkin’ around on the ETR trailers spotted on that spur, the old thick wooden doors were still there.
Worked there until the bottling operation was moved to London(was what I was told), and at that time and until now, I did not want to move to London.
I still don’t want to move to London. I prefer Windsor, but sadly this city is not doing well.If they ban smoking in the Detroit casino’s, I think that will end the need for a Windsor casino.
Thanks for the pic’s as I was going to ask Andrew to do research on this edifice.
Question: what is the age of the oldest building still standing in Windsor?
They will have to change the welcome signs as you enter the city. It is no longer “the place to be”, it is the place to be FROM.
C P
CP – oldest building is the Duff-Babay Mansion on Mill in old Sandwich c. 1790.
The 7up & Giant Cola, Vernors operation where bought by Pepsi Cola that also bought Madels in Essex.Pepsi Cola bought out all there independent bottlers about the same time they got control of 7up in Canada. Madells in Essex is just a wharehouse ditribution center, no more bottling, all done in London and Toronto.
my old neighbour used to work at the crush plant at bruce and tecumseh he painted his car with that bright orange that their trucks were painted in…and David why does anybody every leave this miserable burg??