First off, this post was supposed to appear on Friday. It wasn’t until late Saturday afternoon before I realized that I hadn’t scheduled it properly… So.. I’m sorry to everyone who came by on Friday and ended up seeing nothing new…
Now on to the post…
One of my favourite little bits of history are these utility poles along Tecumseh Road East. You’ll find them between Howard and Ouellette, mostly on the north side of the street.
Some are in better shape than others, but they’re very cool, and they all feature a little pineapple finial on the top. They all date back to about the mid 1920s.
I hope everyone had a great weekend.
The little pineapple at the top is very cool they actually look better than some of the modern concrete hydro poles you see though out the city leaning to one side,if my eyes aren’t fooling me the cement pole in the first photo has a slight list
I don’t think I’ve noticed them before, but I will now.
Neat. I’ve noticed the poles before, but never the pineapple.
Yup….history right under our noses. I’ve never noticed these poles before either…from the 1920’s?? wow, I’m surprise they haven’t been replaced by now.
My wife and I found out when we went to Salem, that the pineapple sculptures that people have used for centuries was originally meant to symbolize welcome and hospitality. It goes back to when pineapples had to be imported, and were extremely expensive, so giving a guest pineapple was offering them your best.
A post about posts
When did they start using comcrete polls? I don’t think they put them in new anymore. They were probably pretty expensive.
I was on this corner this afternoon and totally forgot to look at the old poles
Speaking of utilities, what’s also cool are the old style manhole covers that were lettered to describe the subterranean services that lurked below. I can’t say that I’ve ever noticed them in Windsor, but where I work in Michigan within a few steps of each other covers labelled for Detroit Edison, the local water department and AT&T Bell System. Given the age of the suburb where I work, they are probably about 65 years old.
Tecumseh rd West not east
Gabe, the posts are all found between Howard and Ouellette. That is Tecumseh Road East. I am unaware of any old utility poles West of Ouellette.
I had totally forgotten these old poles. Many a day I would walk along Tecumseh going to and from Kennedy. Were they not painted green in the late 1050’s/early 1960’s?
ok I always though that was considered west considering tec rd is a long stretch
It is a long stretch, Gabe, but the east/west dividing line is still Ouellette ave.
I also passed these poles on the way to school and seem to recall that these poles were green in the 1960s Douglas. Just looking at the closeup pic above, it doesn’t seem the right colour to what I remember and thought they were a dark green at that time.
These are my fav too.
Saldy, even in older areas they are being replaced or already hve been replaced with the generic concrete ones.
we had old wooden ones in ouir neighbourhood until Enwin chnaged them to the ugly concrete version (and of course never did put back the pavers when they moved the poles a few feet over).
I remember them well on my trek along Tecumseh heading home from the illustrious Kennedy Collegiate Institute back in the late 60s and early 70s.
Wonder why ENWIN hasn’t changed them for cement poles other than perhaps they still work and thus no real reason to change.