A postcard today, that I hadn’t come across before… It’s an interesting view of the Ferry Landing, from about 1920, and at the height of the auto age. The cars are coming off the ferry, and it looks like some are lined up on the right waiting to get on the ferry.
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Sometimes when i walk down there………I can’t believe how times have changed….old pictures rock ! Thanks Andrew
Nice find Andrew!
The ship looks like it could be the steamer “Pleasure”. Do you know when they had constructed
the new dock made of brick? It’s strange to see these shots of the landing because nowadays it just doesn’t seem like there’s room for all that!
Thanks Andrew!
where was the fairy landing? foot of ouellette?
bw – yup.
Great photo. It would be interesting to see a few more of the waterfront during that time period. Was there more than one ferry crossing area? I thought that there was something around Hiram Walkers as well?
There are two books which have photos of both the Walkerville and downtown Windsor Ferry docks- “Birth of a City” by Carl Morgan and “The Ferry Steamers” by William Oxford. The two systems operated independently. The downtown ferry operated, strangely, From the foot of Ferry Street at one time and later, from the foot of Ouellette .
It would be cool to see a photo project that showed the entire downtown riverfront as it was 100 years ago. Is there anything like that out there?
Kari, I came across these photos and some are quite interesting. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwbia/sets/72157623462036402/
Thanks JBM! I’ve actually seen this set already. Now we just need someone to stitch them all together!
The incline at the foot of Ouellette Ave.was once called Ferry Hill, and was situated between Lower Ferry Street to the left and Upper Ferry Street to the right. The British American Hotel was situated between Ferry Hill and Upper Ferry Street. To the east of Upper Ferry Street was located the 1861 Joseph Hobson-designed Grand Trunk Railway station. A big brick ferry terminal was built at Ferry Hill in 1883 and lasted until the end of the ferries in 1938. It then became a dance hall named the Showboat Ballroom, complete with its own orchestra. It was torn down in 1958 to make way for the opening of Dieppe Gardens in 1959, which hosted the Royal Yacht Britannia with Queen Elizabeth II aboard that same year and the first International freedom Festival fireworks ever.
Last week on the Windsor Star web page from the vault they had a picture of the Showboat Ballroom.