From the Windsor Daily Star – December 31, 1964.
The photo above ran in an advertisement of one of the suppliers for the concrete work, but shows the old Viscount Motor Hotel on Ouellette Avenue.
Here’s the site today.
Anyone have any memories to share?
I think CKLW used to have their studios on the tower section of the hotel. There was also a pool at the far south end of the main floor. When was the building demolished?
Brian, not sure when it was demolished. I’m pretty sure it was gone by the time I came to Windsor in 1989.
The Sheraton-Viscount Motor Hotel was originally a 4 story structure built in 1964. An 18 story tower was added a year or so later and featured entertainment facilities, a Biff,s Coffee Shop and 5 bars, including the “Crazy Horse Saloon”, an old west themed saloon (complete with sawdust on the floors!) located on the lower level of the original 4 story structure.
The “Top of the Town” on the 17th floor featured dancing and live bands which converted to a Star Trek themed discotheque called “Disco-Trek” in the hotel’s later years.
Radio station CKWW-FM was located on the top floor and later changed to CJOM-FM, a rock station.
In it’s final years, it was sold to Wandlyn Hotels and became the Wandlyn-Viscount.
In 1983 the hotel closed and was demolished in 1987. A planned condominium project never materialized and the property was eventually sold to Hotel-Dieu Hospital for parking.
I remember the Viscount only for going there to get fares and Biff’s Coffee Shop, butr dont remember much else about it. Spent more time at the Bali Hai down the street. Is that still around?
I remember the Viscount only for going there to get fares and Biff’s Coffee Shop, but dont remember much else about it. Spent more time at the Bali Hai down the street. Is that still around?
i remember Biffs coffee shop but does anybody remember the bar that was in the basement i think it was called the boots and saddles they had saw dust on the floor got wasted there a few times
CKWW was and still is an AM station at 580 on the dial, after the Vicount site it moved to Cabana Rd. Now owned by the same company as CKLW.CJOM was the FM station of CKWW, or CKLW.
i must be blind the crazy horse thats the bar with the saw dust floor
Tom the Bali Hai is now a rest home for people with mental problems
there was another coffee shop similar to Biffs somewhere near where the exchange on ouellette is now AAron do you recall the name of that one it seems to me that you could walk in off ouellette and walk out the back onto pelisier street
That was also Biff’s and it opened before the one at the Viscount. I believe it was part of a chain out of Toronto.
my one & only memory of this 17th floor motel/hotel while walking south on Ouellette with no place to “crash” that nite, I heard a girls voice calling my name from a window. It was snowing & when I realized that she was inviting me to her room.
I took her up on her offer & spent 1 warm night in this motel style hotel.Maybe they went outta business because too many people were staying for free.
C P
Geez gary…..I’m not too sure. Could very well be before my time if it was in the same time frame as the Viscount. I was only 6 or 7 when it came down!
Back in the 70’s it was a great place to have the prom night afterhour bash and crash ( at one of the rooms ), especially coming in from the county, ee haa!! We thought it was the best place in town with the diff. bars and rooms, all in one building. Later when college days appeared it was the place to bring your hot date to impress her with the view of Windsor and the Detroit skyline from the Top of the Town restaurant and then disco dancing in the lounge. They both shared the top floor. The one item that became the towers’ downfall is that it was way out of plumb and leaned like the Tower of Pisa. How much ? someone out there could verify by how much.
In the 70s, Tepperman’s had an ongoing “Junior Announcer” contest which my parents enrolled me in. Basically you auditioned to read a commercial script for Teppermans. Kids with bright, cheery voices got the gig. I did not win, but the consolation prizes were still cool. So was the amazing view over Windsor from CKWW’s suite on the top floor of the Viscount.
Also, does anyone remember “PLAN A” for this property, after the Viscount was demo’d?
Remember the “Pheonix Condominiums”, which they were pre-selling for quite some time before giving up. I’m not sure how much of the condo building was actually built, if anything at all, before the barrier boards came down around the property and it became what it is today – a parking lot for the hospital. I remember my father took some photos during this time period.
Windsor……world leader in the transformation of architecture into……parking lots.
Stan Willimont, then the Director of Recreation for the Parks and Rec Department, rented the Viscount pool and offered private swimming lessons. I worked as his assistant instructor for a season or two in the early ’70s.
Kathryn, I took swimming lessons there. Remember the classes well.
Thanks anyway Aaron joe verified that it was also a biffs which proceeded the one at the Viscount….god i’m feling my age
So long as you don’t act your age, everything is good.
Well, 19 years is certainly no winner for longevity. Maybe as Jerome said, it was built with structural faults. Biffs, as I recall, was on the west side of Ouellette. There never was a Biff’s in Toronto. I’m wondering why Hotel Dieu’s parking lot is so far away from the hospital? Has anyone ever calculated the percentage of parking lots in the downtown core?
Here’s another thing from a dim past brainer: The side of Ouellette where the Viscount was built, was a parking lot, but with a lot of flowers adjacent to the sidewalk. I also recall Windsor being referred to as “The Rose City”… but, wasn’t Brampton a claimant to that title? Or was Brampton called “The Flower City”. Can someone clear that up 4 me?
Thanks.
According to its web page Brampton is the Flower City
Biff’s was indeed located on the west side of Ouellette in the building where the “Exchange/Crazy Horse” bar is now located. It was established in the late 60’s by George Corchis, a local business man who also built and owned the original 4 story Viscount Motor Hotel which also had a Biff’s and a Crazy Horse bar (later changed to Bloody Mary’s). He later established the Hacienda restaurant (the one with 2 railroad box cars for dining rooms) at the corner of Tecumseh & Ouellette where the Medical Imaging Clinic now is (formerly Mario’s and Gentleman Jim’s restaurants).
Several years ago I was told , rather firmly, by a Welland City Councillor that Welland is the Rose City.
came down in march of 1988 …had a funeral across the street at JANNISE BROS and watched it come down the 3 days spent at the funeral home
The Viscount’s biggest problem, according to The Star, was its location next to Hotel Dieu. Apparently a lot of patrons didn’t like hearing ambulance sirens at all hours of the night and the hotel never made much money. That’s also the excuse developers gave for the failure of the condomium project. Nobody wanted to live next to a hospital so the only use left for the land was parking lots.
Sounds like the developers where not to sharp, if thats there excuse for leveling the building. It probably was not a vacant lot before the hotel.
Can not blame Eddy for this, befor his time.
I cant believe this hotel was demolished in 1987!
I have a pretty good memory of being downtown as a child but, have NO memories at all of this building! The Greatest hotel loss for Windsor was probably the Prince Edward or the Norton Palmer.
I recall back in 1967 during the riots in Detroit that my father took me and a couple of my brothers up to the lounge in the Viscount Hotel (I believe it was the 17th floor) and we could see the smoke and fires burning in our sister Motor City. My uncle from Calfornia came to visit us in Windsor after the rioting had ceased. The Ambassador Bridge and the tunnel had reopened and there were still National Guardsmen and U.S. Army soldiers positioned on street corners in downtown Detroit. I was born in Hotel Dieu Hospital next to the Viscount and have many fond and interesting memories of Canada’s “Motor City”.
disco trek was owned by Brother Bill Gable. a cool dance emporium for its time. when i learn to down load photos of the viscount i will post them. a great ouelette ave. memory
one more thought. bill gable was one of the mainstay disc jockeys on CKLW
As I’ve said in a previous post, we still refer to that parking lot as “The Viscount” to this day. People drive cars…gotta park them somewhere…
Does anyone know who owned the Viscount Hotel?
I remember that building well, the windows used to vibrate and creak when the wind blew. I also remember Biff’s Coffee Shop because one day I was in, a guy try to, ‘befriend’ me. I was quite shocked and left but I later found out that such things were common in that establishment.
I worked at the Viscount until the day it closed on January 3rd 1983. Lots of great memories from that job. Anyway to Linda 1 year plus later, the answer to your question ” who owned the Viscount ?” The last owner before the bank and other secured creditors took over was a Hindu businessman from Toronto. His name was Victor Elisha.
I worked at CKWW in 1982. There was a restaurant below us with a huge ventilation fan that shook our studios so bad we had to roll off all the bass response from the station’s audio. Water poured through the ceiling every time it rained, which was a little unnerving considering the floor above us housed the 80,000 watt FM transmitter for CJOM (now 89X). One day we were told the building was ‘condemned’ and the radio station had less than 48 hours to get out. They ended up throwing together very makeshift studios in the basement of the Bob Pedler real estate office, a big advertiser with us at the time. Thinking back I wonder if it was really condemned or if that’s just what they told us, but it any case I’m sure it was hazardous, the building was in terrible shape and infested with roaches by the end.
I remember the Viscount. I grew up in Windsor in the 60’s and 70’s. I would go to Biff’s for French fries with gravy. It was cheap about a buck. There used to be an oriental restaurant there too. Forgot the name.
My mom worked at the Viscount at the front desk, in the early 70’s I ate at Biff’s a lot