At various places around the city are some 100+ year old slabs of concrete that have survived all these years. Many of them date from the 1905-1910 era, and are simple slabs with the street names impressed near the intersection.
The one above is found at Louis and Niagara on the north west corner, I didn’t know about this one a recently stumbled across it. Many of these slabs have be lost to new sidewalk projects over the last 20 years before an effort was made to preserve them. There were a great many once located in Walkerville.
Are there any near you?
As a side note the intersection of Louis and Niagara has always been strange to me. One of the only ones I can think of in the city that don’t line up, there’s a slight jog in the intersection.
The corner of Tourangeau and Reginald is almost the exact same, slight jog in the road. No idea why.
The corner of Baby and Tournier streets in the west end is the same type as well.
Pine and Victoria is like this too.
I also don’t understand why Josephine is crooked between Wyandotte and University.
Or why the really old area around Marentette/Parent/Wyandotte is so “hilly”. lol
Andrew, will you be doing a post on “Danny’s”, now that it is coming down?
The hills near Parent, Wyandotte, and Marentette are just the terrain of this part ‘up’ river.
It’s a ridge that stretches quite a few blocks actually!
I always thought it was a pretty cool area of the city.
During the last Ice Age, the shorelines were different. The ridges (hills) correspond to the old shorelines. I believe with some places, if you were to dig down far enough you get to beach sand. You see the same thing around Leamington.
While we’re at it, Raymond & Villaire was always strange to me:
http://bit.ly/179k3RL
On the southwest corner of Fairview and St. Rose (formerly called Intersection Rd.) there are slabs with the road names. They replaced the sidewalks there a few years ago but those slabs were preserved. There is also one on Belle Isle View.
You “stumbled across it”. HA!
This is a simple practice I would like to see come back. Surely it can’t be expensive to do it…
I agree. Why can’t every side walk have that?
The ridges are also due to the old ravine that used to be where Giles Blvd is today.
@Shawn and Jane – Thanks for the info! I agree Shawn. I like that area as well.
@Rob – I think it’s strange too. My guess is there was either a school on the property, or some sort of estate.
@Dave – I don’t know if I’d call it a ravine. It was more of a creek.
Yes – Giles Blvd was actually a waterway – maybe a slough. You can clearly see where the banks were. The water had to be drained so that homes and the road could be built, but until then, people could go skating there in the winter. Originally during the Ice Age it was a glacial spillway, I think (high school geography was a long, long time ago!)
Intersection of Marentette Ave and Tecumseh Rd E
These slabs really are a fantastic artifact from days gone by. And great post Andrew. There are a number of these slabs along Tuscarora Street by Argyle, Devonshire and Kildare. They’ve made an effort to preserve them and good that some were saved. Of course, others were not.
To see what an original slab looked like, you can catch a glimpse from an earlier post done on Kildare Road.
http://internationalmetropolis.com/2012/02/22/kildare-road-c-1910/
Regarding Giles Blvd, have a look at this:
http://heritage.windsorpubliclibrary.com/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/heritage&CISOPTR=623&CISOBOX=1&REC=6
That’s a great picture of how Giles looked! Thanks for sharing this.