Railroad Hotels

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• 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!