Back when the CN passenger station was on the waterfront at the foot of Goyeau, there were a bunch of hotels to serve them. Wherever there were railroad stations there were hotels. Some examples still exist in the city today, most notably the Crown Inn building on Devonshire in Walkerville, home to Taloola today, and the Southwood Hotel on Wellington, near the old MCRR Station.
Downtown there were a pair on Goyeau, with the Ambassador at the south west corner of Riverside & Goyeau, as seen in the ad above from 1930.
Behind the Ambassador, on the north west corner of Pitt and Goyeau was the Woodbine Hotel, in the photo above seen in 1929.
I’m not sure when that block fell, but I’m guessing that it was around the time this monster went up. Sometime in the 1980’s I’m guessing?
Anyone have any recollection of either place?
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I remember that block before that ‘monster’ went up… there were some pretty sleazy bars in that area in the 70’s and 80’s…. I think the original Tracy Starr’s Burlesque was right on that corner before they moved to Maiden Lane.
Yes that area was quite run down and shabby looking. There were many brick buildings in the area all crammed in together.
Today it would have been considered ripe for gentrification and could have had real impact downtown.
The name of the saloon on the southeast corner was the Beanery. Tracey Starr’s faced the riverfront. Both were emporiums of gentlemen’s entertainment. I worked on the 75 Riverside Drive East job. I believe the year was 1985.
I recall a hotel called The Ritz somewhere in this area, I think on Pitt perhaps?…
The Ritz was a local bar on the corner of Pitt and Goyeau. It was there for a long, long time. It was purchased and became the Beanery which was owned by a partnership that still dabbles in the bar business to this day. The Beanery was indeed a strip club which served as second string to the likes of the already mentioned Tracy Starr’s (Windsor’s original glory hole and home to the original mosh pit). The Beanery and the entire block of buildings was expropriated to make way for the current building which, since then, has never been able to fill the entire first floor retail compliment(an interesting tid bit if you relate it to the current Canderel Block). Just to the west of the Ritz/Beanery was Adelman’s Department Store which also faded from the map around that same time. When the Beanery closed its licence went to a partnership that took over the old Saint Clair Tavern on the north side of Wyandotte Street between Ouellette and Goyeau (in front of and adjacent to the entrance for the Mady Garage and across the street from the current Macdonalds. This bar morphed into a short lived strip club (Tails and Tophats???) and then into a bar called the Cotton Club which was owned by a partnership consisting of a local lawyer and a couple of guys directly related to todays local blues scene. That establishment went into mothball status until it succumbed to a mysterious fire. FYI…A little before and after.
M.O.M., so did the above mentionned Woodbine become the Ritz?
To JBM…
I do not have recollection beyond the Ritz. From the map and pic above YES…The Ritz Hotel is one and the same as the Woodbine.
Adelman’s Dept Store closed in March of 1979. The building was sold off and demolished. The only remaining part of Adelman’s is Papa Cheney’s which Adelman’s used as their Connection Store (sold Levi brand jeans etc.). I think prior to being the Connection it was Adelman’s carpet store.
My grandmother used to take me for lunch at the Ritz Hotel in the 1960’s after shopping at the downtown market, but in the 1970’s it became the Beanery.
I think Smith’s may have come down first. Then Adelman’s and the former Ritz all came down about the same time in the early 1980’s. Smith’s had became Micheal’s and closed about 1977-1978, before Adelman’s. Those were the days. We got paid in cash at Adelman’s and could go to Smith’s, Kresge’s, the Metropolitan Store or Woolworth’s to spend it. Lots of retail in downtown until the middle 1970’s.
Tracy Starr’s Burlesque at one point was at this location and Maiden Lane at the same time; not sure which one closed first…
Paula – you have a great memory of that area down there – I did the same, shopping all those stores in the 60’s – 80’s… recalling the aroma of the Nut House wafting onto Ouellette Ave. near Park St. too 😉 . Was there not also an old deli restaurant across from Adelman’s?? – I know there was a shoe repair shop there, but can’t recall other than that.
Hi Scott, You are thinking of Mossman’s. They had great corn beef sandwiches, soups and chili. They were located where LaGuardia is now. The empty lot next door (west) was the Windsor Recreational (Gans Restaurant and bowling ally). I think Steve Paris shoe repair was part of Patrick O’Ryans…gone now too.
Oh, yes the Nut House….all that popcorn in the window and the wonderfull aroma. So many little boutiques to shop at for dress clothes, business clothes and casual clothes….Maggies, The Princess Shop, Mayfairs, and men’s suits, formal wear etc.
What a depressing post.
Thanks Paula, yes Mossman’s Deli.
Steve: Sorry you are depressed.
Andrew: thanks for this post.
I can see the “depressed” part of it. Of all these memories you have of these great places and times you’ve had in youth, is there any that still exist? That IS depressing.
Thanks guys. While the photos are from 80 years ago, I figured the buildings were standing into the 1970’s, and I was sure that someone out there would have memories of them.
I didn’t arrive in Windsor until 1989, so I missed out on many places that are posted on here. The comments make the places come alive and give a human side to the black and white pixels on the screen.
Thanks for sharing your memories everyone.
the old Crown hotel on devonshire and assumption was the hotel passengers arriving in windsor on the Pere marquette railway often stayed at not too long after the old PM station burned the csx had a office in the area that is now the tollula restaurant
the ritz had it’s name changed to the beanery a fag bar then it was renamed the river front follies a by product of the original Tracy Tars on ouellette ave
Tracy Stars sorry type o
That reminds me of the Rainy Lake Hotel in Fort Frances, Ontario…I was wondering if any of the old-old hotels (mostly used now for low-income residential) were left in Windsor (anyone who has been in Winnipeg has seen these hotels by the dozens; some are well-kept while others are breathtakingly horrible places where the beverage rooms have the highest police service calls in the city). Isn’t there one ‘old hotel’ still downtown in Windsor about a block past the bus station?
I remember one night driving my Checker Cab down Pitt Street and as I passed the Union Mens Shop just east of Ouellette, it was early in the morning about 2am or so I spotted smoke coming out a grating in the laneway. I stopped and found it to be fire smoke. I looked up and saw that the 2nd floor bowling alley was on fire and called the dispatcher on the radio. The fire trucks came from both directions on Pitt and I was trapped on the street for most of the day till they had the fire knocked down and the cops opened the street to traffic. My green cab was black with soot from the smoke. Checker Cab did not seem to believe me about what happened until they saw the pics in the Windsor Star!
The Ambassador Hotel was previously called the Great Western Hotel.
http://heritage.windsorpubliclibrary.com/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/heritage&CISOPTR=90&CISOBOX=1&REC=17
JBM, are you sure? The Great Western Hotel, and the Ambassador Hotel don’t appear to be the same building.