From the Windsor Daily Star – July 4, 1952:
Above is an artist’s sketch of the city’s newest housing develop-
ment known as “Bridgeview,” in which 325 new homes soon will be
completed. Many of them now are ready for occupancy or within
a few days of it. There will be an official opening of the new
project tomorrow afternoon at 3 o’clock when government and
housing officials will be present. The house on the drawing
marked “Riverside” will be the approximate location of the public
ceremonies. Guest of honor for the occasion will be Hon. R. H.
Winters, Canada’s minister of resources and development; federal
and provincial members also will be guests as well as all members
of the city council. A key will be passed over to the first tenant
to receive a house. The homes are rented under supervision of
the Windsor Housing Authority. The area of the new project
is that bounded by Tecumseh boulevard, College avenue, Parting-
ton avenue and California avenue. All the homes are for rent.
Each contractor who participated in the project will have a house
on display tomorrow – the locations of which are indicated on
the sketch.
325 houses were built for the Bridgeview subdivision, but only 8 were ready for the opening ceremony in July, 1952. All of the houses were built as rentals. The monthly rent on the two bedroom models were $58.00 – $59.00 a month. Three bedroom houses ran from $63.00 to $68.00 a month. Anyone know when the houses were put up for sale?
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I recall some of the houses still being owned by the Windsor Housing Authority in the late 1970's.
My grandparents lived on Tilston. The house they lived in was definitely a Windsor Housing Authority property. They ended up buying the house from the WHA after living there for about 10 years back in the 50's. I have a lot of good memories of that neighbourhood. I had an chance at buying my grandparents place after my grandma passed but decided not to, a decision that I am kicking myself for today.
It is interesting reading about this neighbourhood in the newspaper the past few days. I did not realize how many parks are concentrated in a couple of city blocks. This is a very unique urban design with a city park at two ends of one street. I have seen a urban plan like this any where else in the city.
I pass through those neighbourhoods occasionally and always marvel at the foresight of the developers to put in those parks, it created a a very livable neighbourhood. Its a shame that the city wants to eliminate parks that are "under used" as their worth is not measured solely in child playing hours per day but in just having green space amid the urban development. If keeping them as well groomed playgrounds is too expensive for the city to maintain then alternative uses could be explored, public garden lots, plant trees and have a woodlot, etc etc. One thing I have never heard a visitor say about Windsor is that we have too much green space or too many parks.
The Bridgeview units were geared-to-income which meant there were limits on income to qualify for the subsidized rents. What happened is that over the years some tenants got better jobs, raises, or other improvements in family income. Suddenly the authorities caught up to the fact that some residents were no longer qualified. That became a political issue because people who had lived there 15-years or so were facing eviction. Around 1966 the province announced a plan to let some tenants buy their units. But it moved slowly because there was opposition by the subsidized tenants who feared this was a way to get rid of all geared-to-income units. The controlled sales began about the 70s.
I lived at 946 Rankin during most of the 80's under Windsor Housing. Many lower income or single parent occupied. The area was a good place to live as many people took pride in tending to the lawn and planting flowers. It was nice to have owner occupied neighbours mixed in.
Cookie-cutter, monotone houses with a view of the bridge- what more would you want in the 1950's?
WHA! My gosh! While it is grat to hear that many people kept up the homes and had taken pride in renting them. It is a far cry from what we see of WHA today.
Look at the many homes in downtown that are owned by WHA. Many are just above dilapidated. Some are quite old and have interesting character but are covered up with siding and/or porches removed for pressure-treated wood witout keeping to the general deisgn or character of the existing neighbourhood. At least the above subdivision is still in good shape (I wonder if that is because WHA is no longer involved??).