From the Border Cities Star – March 16, 1929:
- This is an architect’s conception of a proposed park development in Ford City, in the area bounded by Alice street, Tourangeau Road, Reginald street and Bernard Road. At the Ford City Parks Board’s meeting on Monday night, a petition will be presented, asking that this park property be acquired by closing Rossini Boulevard from Alice to Reginald streets, and by closing the alley between Tourangeau Road and Rossini Boulevard, and that the ground be developed into a park and children’s playground this year. This additional land would increase the acreage of the present park site at Rossini Boulevard and Bernard Road, to about nine acres.
Above is that land today, the north park of AKO park.
From the City of Windsor Park History:
-
AKO Park
Commonly known as: AKO Park
Former/other names: Rossini Park
Location: between Reginald and Milloy Streets off Bernard and Tourangeau
Roads
Property acquired: 1951
Acreage: 15.91
Official designation: Community park
Originally established as Rossini Park in 1951, the Alpha Kai Omega fraternity began exploring the
possibility of becoming involved in the future development of the park in 1952, when the City was
constructing an athletic building on the site. Dedicated to the sponsorship of junior sports since
World War II, AKO teams used the park and facility frequently for training. In 1954, additional
property was purchased and the AKO group was approached to seriously discuss the official
sponsorship of the next stage of the park’s development.
In 1961, the fraternity donated $30,000 of the estimated $80,000 needed to construct the AKO
Neighbourhood Centre, the first facility in Windsor to be designed specifically for use as a
community centre. Needs of user groups were carefully considered, space allotments and layout
concepts were developed. It was a design that would become a fundamental component of
subsequent centre in the area. Located within 16-acre AKO Park, the centre offers east side
residents high quality, all-season recreational facilities.
Outdoors, AKO Park provides such diverse facilities as a football and soccer field, hardball and
softball diamonds, a wade pool, plus a wide assortment of playground equipment. During the
winter months, area children enjoy the park’s small sledding hill.
The 1935 Fire map doesn’t show any park there, and it shows the streets running through, so this proposal was not successful, although decades later the same result was achieved.
Have a good weekend everyone, see you back here Monday!
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As you said, looks like it happened anyways, but minus the row of houses still on Tourangeau Road.
In the early 70’s I attended the nursery school and spent a lot of time playing at the community centre and the park. The sledding hill, equipped with extremely dangerous wooden ramp was a big draw for all the kids in the neighbourhood. That is now torn down but the hill remains. The community centre was a typical mid-century design but the outside was redesigned within the last decade with a modern look. On Saturdays the centre would be full of kids playing billiards, ping pong, floor hockey, crafts. Hot dogs, chips and pop. Those were good times. This link shows a photo of the outside of the building before the remodel: http://www.citywindsor.ca/residents/facilities-for-rent/pages/constable-john-atkinson-memorial-community-centre.aspx