Happy Friday once again everyone! Today’s photo is dated July 11, 1930 and features a good look along Windsor’s waterfront.
I’m not sure what event this was used to illustrate, but with early “photoshop” techniques, they’ve circled the old train station, and also highlighted with the arrow, the location of the City Hall. It would have been a stroll though a densely packed urban area, a much different Windsor than one would see today if they took the same route…
Interesting to note as it was still 6 months away from opening, the Windsor-Detroit tunnel plaza is still far from complete…
One of the parts of the photo that grabbed my eye, was this stretch of Pitt St. West. and the two 3 story buildings side by side. Those two buildings were both fine looking structures, and today are parking lots.
This photo truly shows what downtown Windsor once was, and how much has been lost. In 80 years, we’ve gone from a dense urban area, to an area devoid of a cohesive feel, and devoid of the life that many vibrant urban areas have.
Hopefully the election in a few weeks puts in some people with foresight and initiative into office….
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Also, don’t forget the pre-sale for the 2011 IM.com calendar
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wow! hard to believe we actually had a city back then. even industry. wierd.
I just drove by St. Anthony of Paduo (sp?) church at Parent and Shepherd – It’s got demolition fences around it. Looks like you were right about it, it’ll be coming down.
One of the three story buildings on Pitt St. housed the Windsor Recreation Centre. There were bowling alleys on the upper floor, with pinboys re-setting the pins. The basement held a pool hall (billiard parlor to those of a more genteel persuasion), right out of a late ’40s film noir, all dark and sinister, with brass spittoons by every table. Used to transfer buses downtown on my way home from Assumption High back in the mid ’60s. A bunch of us would often go down there for a game of snooker or two, soaking in the atmosphere. The whole setup survived into the seventies. Pitt St and downtown was full of hustle and bustle. Very depressing going down there now.
Love how everything north of Tecumseh is basically semi-rural. Also interesting is how you can identify the older residential streets based on the size of the treetops.
Would be neat to see a high res version of this picture.
W-I-E – The bigger of the two was the Windsor Recreation Centre I believe. I think I’ve come across ad’s for it in old newspapers, and I seem to recall it being a fairly large building.
WOW…DOWNTOWN WINDSOR USED TO BE SO CUTE…THE BUILDIGS WERE SO COLORFUL AND DETAILED…THANK GOD WE RIPPED THEM ALL DOWN TO BUILD UGLY BORING BUILDING THAT HAVE NO CHARACTER WHAT SO EVER!!!…THIS IS WHY I HATE PROGRESSION…NO THOUGHT GOES INTO THE ESTHEIC BEAUTY OF A BUILDING ANYMORE…ITS JUST ALL FUNCTION…
WHEN WILL SOMEONE PERFECT TIME TRAVELING? IT WOULD BE SO NEAT TO GO BACK AND LOOK!
I too am a “Windsorite in exile”…left in 1974. In the 50’s I set pins at thw Windsor Recreation Bowling alley on Pitt…we were paid 5cents a game for 5-pin and 8 cents for 10-pin. If you set for a league on a Sunday PM (two teams of 5 players each playing 3 games) you could earn $2.40 in about three hours. This was alot of money when you were 13 years old in 1957. Played a little pool (billiards)downstairs on my transfer from Assumption High.Thanks for the memories!!
Looking further out, you can see the racetrack that is on the site where Kennedy sits, you can see that Ouellette pretty much ends at Tecumseh ( just a little past). You can see the beautiful homes where the old Greyhound bus station was. Wow. The buildings N of the drive where the ferry docks were.
Andrew – yup the bigger building was indeed the Windsor Rec. A real “family fun place” to be sure. Looking further east in the vicinity of the old Windsor Market, I remember going there with my dad in the fifties. The whole area was in an uproar, teeming with life. The block directly west of the market was a warren of narrow laneways between 19th century buildings, full of squawking chickens and hollering fruit vendors, humming with the general hubub of the crowd. It wasn’t just the market itself but a whole district dedicated to the buying and selling of food and the elaborate social ballet that goes with it – more like an opera, actually. But maybe I over romanticize. I would like to think it a travesty that all that was destroyed but nobody’s to blame really. We just got in our cars and moved out to the paved-over countryside and abandoned the old core. A real community effort. Most people prefer the clean and sanitary and brightly lit Costco, where they don’t have to talk to anybody or be offended by weird smells. Personally, I never minded the occasional rat that would scurry between those nineteenth century buildings.
Judging from the density of buildings downtown in this view, parking must have been a real problem. I guess that issue has been fully resolved!! It is interesting to see the number of buildings north of Sandwich Street on the river’s edge. Also interesting is the number of hotels and rooming houses along the riverfront blended with industry and commerce.
I like that Windsors original town hall is squeezing in the picture there too on Riverside in front of the market building.
The parking bit is hogwash! Coming back from Europe it took about 10 minutes to find parking and still people shopped around.
We are lazy people period! In fact the distance to parking in downtown is closer than parking at the mall and walking to your store of choice. I know, I had measured the distance some time ago and couldn’t believe the results.
Kenndey was already built at the time (1929).
I hope council starts giong after people who demo bulidings for a glorified parking lot. Better yet, go after the surface lot owners now to clean up their property. We shouldn’t have any parking lots that are gravel or dirt (do you hear me Larry).
i think the old cn station was tore down in 1953