Last Thursday night, on my way home from work, I was coming up McDougall when look what my eye see… The famous building eaters.
A neat old factory, was last used as a place called Rust Shield a subsidiary of Flex-N-Gate, a large US based Auto parts supplier.
Like may other jobs in our fair city, this plant too closed up shop. The facade of the old office section fronting McDougall hinted back towards the 1920’s.
You could see the lines where the build had been expanded and added on to over the years…
The building was big, stretching from McDougall to Windsor and taking up the better part of 3/4 of a city block.
This sign always caught my eye, the old sign for a long closed in Receiving Dock.
So as the sun set, and the weekend approached…
…I suspected the building wasn’t long for this world.
A look at the old Fire Map shows the site as being the Essex Wire Corporation, and the back half as being Martin Transportation. All of these buildings eventually were swallowed up. Anyone remember any other companies that were located there?
So with it being the weekend and all, I always have a suspicious feeling, and whadda ya know? 7:15 pm on a Sunday night and the crews are hard a work tearing down an old industrial building.
Hard too see here as I was shooting into the sun with a camera phone, but this asshat parked his pickup with a giant trailer in the bike lane and most of the southbound lane of McDougall, I suspect that wasn’t legal.
I wonder if everything was in order, permits, etc… I am always suspicious of weekend demolitions… Anyone with any connections to any one in Planning or Building at the City who could check if permits were issued? If you find out and don’t want to leave a comment, you can always send me an email about it and stay anonymous.
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I liked that the building sat close to the road.
Now if we could demo those awful road signs (like the one in picture #11) the city would be on to something. They really are an eyesore!
Wow. That's going to signficantly change the scenery of our walk to get groceries.
what?!?!?! That WILL significantly change the area. I practically live around the corner, how did I not know this was happening? lol
That's a shame. It seemed to be sound, I wonder why it came down. Obviously, poele will relocate some kind of manufactuing space here, like they did at the south east corner of McDougal and Shepard ;)
I always thought it was a great building, and I too have noticed that receiving sign and thought it was neat. I also liked the old school roof vents that had a fin on the top to tun them into the breeze. I suppose back in the day it wasn't an issue having rigs block all of Hanna? With the place that burned the other year across the steet, that's one bare intersection.
Wasn't it connected to Chrysler by some kind of conveyor over the road?
Thanks Andrew!
The shame is the uncompetitive property taxes. With the uncompetitively high property taxes, aggressive unions, and excessive stonewalling by the city, why would manufacturing ever return to this city? After the building across the street burned down, the fire dept. wanted a $150K+ sprinkler system put in and that was the final straw that broke the camel's back and they moved the rest of their operation to Mexico. This city doesn't work with businesses to keep them or want them to invest. Add that to the banks and credit unions giving up on the city and you've got a mess and a half.
Elias' bought it to expand their business. No one else wanted it. At least, it'll not be another vacant blight. I'm not sure if the whole thing is coming down, maybe part of it like the former K-Mart/Walmart site.
"This city doesn’t work with businesses to keep them or want them to invest. Add that to the banks and credit unions giving up on the city and you’ve got a mess and a half."
The quote above is one of the silliest I have ever seen on this site. It doesn't even make sense. The city doesn't want investment?
Dave, are you still on welfare? Get a clue.
Long time visitor first time commentor. Everything should've been in place, they've been trying to get everything in place to tear it down for a few weeks. Great site, I love the old pics. I was born here and my grandparents use to show me photos and tell me stories about Windsor when they were growing up so this site reminds me of that.
I just hope the commenting on this site doesn't turn into the junk that people comment in the Windsor Star about how it's this persons fault or that persons fault things are closing up or being torn down. This site is remembering what Windsor used to look like and let's keep it that way please. Thank you
The former woolco/ walmart on the east side is being renovated, the former k-mart site was expanded and is now zellers.
Yeah, I am "still" on welfare. But you sir are an asshole and always have been on here.
Why can't you back up your dumb statement? I guess it is easier to hide behind a computer making childish remarks than it is to back up your statement. Coward.
Bruce,
It isn't like that at all. Just some people act immature every now and then but for the most we all love this city and it's past glory. We are hoping that this administration and future administrations do not continue to make the mistakes of the past. Welcome by the way :)