Some of these have been posted before, but I’ve recently come across a rendering showing the proposed, but only partially built Cleary Auditorium.
This rendering above dates to about 1955-56 and the early planning stages of the “Civic Auditorium”. Designed by Johnson & McWhinnie, the building was actually built in 1957.
Above are a few postcards of the building after it was built. As you can see compared to the rendering the western section was never built.
It’s a shame. Perhaps if the building had been built as it was originally intended to be, it may have been more useful and had a longer life without renovation. Once the hotels were built to the west, the building essentially became landlocked, and unable to expand.
With the demolition of the Guest House and the sale of the Cleary to St. Clair College, the legacy of the Cleary Family, and their contributions to the rebirth of the civic centre in the late 1950’s, is all but forgotten today.
____________________________________________________________________
I loved the old Cleary, I was a Uniformed Staff there during the 80’s when I was in University, worked with Bill Muxworthy who had been there forever. Sometimes there were 3 large weddings going on simultaneously.
One other thing I remember about the old Auditorium was that there was a pattern of bricks on the rear exterior that was supposed to spell out something in Korean. There was some kind of tie in to Korean War vets.
the old Cearly bears striking resemblance to the Ford auditorium.
In the late 60s, City Council took a serious look at expanding the Cleary as originally planned in order to boost the centre’s use and city tourism. But the leaders got a surprising report from the consultants assigned to studying the market. Essentially, they said there was a limited number of national conventions of 2,000 delegates which the city wanted to target. There were already a dozen facilities in other cities to accommodate them. Because of the competition Windsor, at best, could hope to attract a half dozen groups or less. An expanded Cleary, half empty most weeks, would be a heavy burden on the taxpayers’ necks for years. The expansion was shelved. Within five years, the need to boost tourism returned, spurred on by the closing of the Prince Edward and Norton Palmer hotels. The existing hotel stock was inadequate and fewer and fewer regional conventions were booking Windsor. The Cleary was facing deficits. The election issue of 1974 mayoralty election between Frank Wansbrough and Bert Weeks revolved around hotel construction. Wansbrough wanted a hotel on the riverfront, former- BA Hotel site.Weeks said no to riverfront construction and said it could go next to the Cleary, where the hotel could also provide additional convention services to bolster the Cleary trade in regional conventions. Weeks won, and that’s why hotels rather are there instead of a new wing.
I saw Chuck Berry there once. Some kind of a teen dance. I think it was in the basement. You could walk right up to the stage, cherry coke in hand and get anointed by the sweat pouring off ole Chuck. Lonnie Mack opened. Killer guitar player. The restyled St. Clair whatever-it-is looks gross. Fits right in with the contemporary aesthetic of downtown Windsor.
Shane points out that the Cleary bears strong resemblance to Ford Auditorium in Detroit. I would like to add that they were equal as well in having horrible acoustics. These two halls are arguably the worst i have ever been in for terrible sound quality.