Here’s only old drawing from an ad that ran in the Border Cities Star in 1932. This building was located on the south side of Cataraqui Street, just west of Louis Ave. This warehouse built in 1922 and survived through the mid 1960’s.
It was originally the Maillioux and Parent offices and warehouse, built in 1922, and used by the company through 1928. They were better known as the local grocery chain of M&P pure food stores.
It was also the original home to National Auto Rad.
From the Star – March 25, 1957:
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FIRE TOLL HEAVY-Black smoke blllowed 100 feet into the air late Saturday as firemen
battled a $100,000 blaze in a furniture and clothing warehouse in the 600 block of Cata-
raqui St. The structure shown here is owned by Harry Vexler, of Vexler‘s Department Store
in downtown Windsor. Fire broke out in the portion rented by Allen Kaplan, owner of Kap-
lan’s Furniture Store. Mr. Kaplan’s complete stock valued at $25.000 was destroyed.
Today the site is a vacant lot, it was last used as the parking lot for the Children’s Aid Society building across the street. However, if you zoom in and look at the back of the lot, there is a wall dividing the lot from the surrounding properties, I believe that the wall is a remaining part of the building.
People sure do like watching things burn.
…and Windsor sure does love their cars and parking lots.
Wonder if it was arson like Ashok Sood’s business the other day, meeting the same fate as the Seagrave building he owned that once stood on the other side of Walker.
Spontaneous combustion- evidently the property deed rubbed up against the insurance title and caused a spark….
“Spontaneous combustion- evidently the property deed rubbed up against the insurance title and caused a spark….”
HA HA HA HA HA HA!
I hope no one loses their jobs over that fire but I can’t help wondering if Sood just a got bit of a payback from his illegal Seagraves demo and the subsequent use of that property?
Isn’t this his second fire in a few years? I thought he also owned the building that housed the Flag Store (I think it was a zipper factory before that) a block south of the current Party Warehouse fire?
I do not believe he has/had anything to do at all with the Flag Store/Universal Fasteners Building.
Not sure if “payback” is the right word, maybe karma?
I think it’s an inside job, again.
http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=427
Has the cause of the Seagrave fire ever been determined. Was it a mysterious “spark” @ 01:00 when no-one is in the building?
The loss of this old outdated structure should provide enough money for a brand new up to code facility.
Strange how these old outdated structures suddenly develop “sparks” in the wee hours of the morning after standing for decades without any hint of “sparks” in the building. Could it have been a late night voltage spike?
Could it have been vengeful,demonic rats chewing thru the wiring?
Could the mysterious accelerant soaked back-pak been flown in by terrorizing pigeons, who forgot to take their backpak with them?
Maybe it was Elvis Presley?
Someone knows.
I love Karma… But I didn’t know that Karma carried a back-pack. The whole back-pack thing seems to convenient. Almost like it was just planted there.
As for National Auto Rad, things don’t look good for it’s future in Windsor. The workers were locked out yesterday, and they were saying that the building is already empty.