The Ernest Wilby House is long gone. It was actually knocked down a few weeks back, but little work has taken place on the site recently.
So another empty lot is planned for Ouellette, sad but true.
From this, to vacant land.
*Sigh*
874
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Such a sad loss of Windsor history 🙁
That’s our style. But the Medical Arts Building retro fit is coming along swimmingly. Or is it? (cringing…)
What funeral home did that once occupy?
James Sutton Funeral Home
Ken is correct, that is the stupidity of city hall…Our style! So just another vacant lot on supposedly the #1 street in Windsor. The gap-toothed whore that is now Ouellette Ave has lost yet another tooth!
When will our clueless administration and spineless council ever understand…DENSITY PEOPLE, DENSITY!
They demo’ed the building without saving anything from it. Not even the windows. How sad.
The bigger picture is never really on the mind of politicians that can think no further than the next election. Planting a tree is an act of faith. What are the odds of planting a tree today and ever being able to fully enjoy it’s shade. Forward thinking people plant trees every day. My father who is 88 planted 4 black walnut seedlings this spring. Now that is an optimist :). Why would a politician stick their neck out and risk not getting re-elected by supporting some act of faith in good sense city planning. Just take a look at the new train station. It looks like a bigger brother of the bus station. Did they save a whack of cash by recycling the drawings? A huge opportunity was missed on this one. Imagine using the drawings from a turn of the century (20th not 21st) train station and upgrading it with geothermal heat and cooling, handicap accessible amenities and all the other things that make it user friendly. As long as we think small we will be small. What possibly could the cost difference be, a few hundred thousand dollars? More money than that has been wasted by governments in this country in the time it has taken me to write this ramble.
Right on, Pinstripes. The politicians, especially local proud residents in Smiths Falls, Ontario, twisted VIA’s arm, ever so slightly, and got what was/is pleasing to the eye and a quite practical facility — as opposed to what VIA was proposing. Mayor Eddie, are you and your gang listening and thinking about the next tear-down in beautiful Windsor? Density is something to be desired if that’s why you’re allowing sad demolitions I’ve seen illustrated on this site.
If the city bought every building with historical value nobody could afford the tax rate in Windsor,thus people would move out, no city no old buildings.
Simple dollars and cents rules.
Richard, who is saying the city needs to buy these buildings? What is needed is a change in policy. How about before a building is demo’ed, the owner has to have another use for the land and then it is decided if the structure should be torn down.
If there is no plan other than tearing it down to save tax dollars for the land owner (and thus less revenue for the city) then the landowner’s taxes should stay the same or even be raised.
It isn’t our fault (the residents of this city) that the landowner bought high and couldn’t sell at a higher rate. Their bad business decision, not ours. At least we wouldn’t have vacant land all over the city as we have seen in the last decade.
Pinstripes, what is even worse is that when the city does chop a tree down they don’t replace it. The landowner has to ask the city to plant a new tree. This usually takes another 2 years! I always thought the city should automatically replace the tree they cut down unless the landowner says no. It would help beautify the city espeically where there are a lot of absentee landlords are located.
I will state once again our policies are ass-backwards in this city….we are not progressive enough and it certainly shows.
take Toronto, every piece of vacant land gets turned into condos eventually. A corner gas station vacant for a few years becomes a hole in the ground as they put the pilings in for another high rise apt building or condo. When all these high buildings are shoulder to shoulder like at King & Bay streets in Toronto, and the wind starts to blow it feels like a hurricane on the street level cause the wind has no where to go. Ouellette Ave, shoulder to shoulder high rises from Tecumseh to the river, giving the wind somewhere to go!
tom, we live right across the street from that former service station and we feel we are being squeezed in, with no less than other newish structures of dizzying heights nearby. This town (Toronto) doesn’t let vacant/unused land sit around for long. We joke about seeing a tiny parcel of land somewhere and comment: “look, another condo building coming soon (very soon)”.
And both Wyandotte (east-west) and Ouellette are ideal for a “wind-channel” — so, when are we building the high-rises (shoulder-to-shoulder or not) on these routes?
I think cities like Windsor would do better if they followed the example set by European cities where high-density, mixed 5 and 6 storey buildings in the city centre and narrow commercial arteries full of pedestrians are the norm rather than your typical North American city where 40 and 50 storey buildings and ten-lane commercial arteries that are devoid of life predominate. By the way, I have relatives living in Europe who think Toronto is a terrible place to live.
I am an ex resident of Windsor (1949-1960) and have been living in London, England since 1965.
I read with great interest International Metropolis every Friday. What a wonderful site it is and with the interesting comments. Your city council with its’ mayor would have a “field day” in London. I live in a house on a street where all the houses were built in 1885. What would happen to the beautiful St Pauls’ Cathedral or the thousand year old Westminster Abbey or even Buckingham Palace. Demolishing older buildings to make car parks, indeed. Clearly your city council needs throwing in the Detroit River!!!!
Paul you seem to have missed the point,the mayor and council are not tearing down buildings, it is the property owners tearing Windsor down to make parking lots.The sites you mention are far different than whats in Windsor, also your buildings are national treasures, suppoted by being listed as heratige sites.
The point is, our council needs to change these silly rules.
In the end, it is entirely our governments fault. And I’m embarrassed they represent my city.
The public is also not fighting hard enough to save these places. We all need to do more.
i look across the Detroit river at the city of Detroit with all the different buildings and it look HUGE then you see anaerial view of the south shore and it looks like a nuke strike i don’t know why council has this thing about uniformity in it’s skyline and Shawn don’t hold your breth waiting for council to change these rules remember the the mayor’s favorite saying STATUS QUO
I lived in Windsor from 1987 to 1992 and loved every minute of it! However I have never seen a City so diverse in history tear down and level so many of its buildings! From the old Academy in south Windsor to where the Chrysler building stands now, there is little in the way of old buildings with great architecture.
The auto industry been both a blessing and curse for Windsor. In its’ heyday back in the 60’s and 70’s the auto industry provided high-paying, secure jobs that attracted folks from as far away as Europe and more than doubled the city’s population between over a period of twenty years. Unfortunately, our reliance on one industry left us vulnerable when the global economy changed and auto production moved to low-wage locales. We let our transit system go from being one of the best to worst while other cities invested heavily new light rail, subways and electric buses. Today, we find ourselves living in the 21st century with a 20th century mindset. Instead of preserving what made this city unique we tear it down to make it more look more like a suburb of Calgary or Toronto.
i love one of mayor Eddies youtube videos about the city he says the city of windsor is vibrant and exciting i don’t see where it is
What made the auto industry in Canada stable was the North American Auto Pac, championed by Herb Gray, and other forward thinking people. The downfall was the North American Free Trade deal, whitch everybody from Canada south wants to be part of it.
The street cars where gone by 1939,never had modern electric busses,lightrail is new name for street cars. In over sixty years I have never heard anyone call public transit in Windsor one of the best.
If you build cars for a living, you buy what your neighbor builds.