Sandwich East Township Hall

Here are a few details dealing with the environs of the Sandwich East Township Hall. In the later part of the 1950s, Tecumseh Road was widened to a 4 lane thoroughfare by Fullerton Construction. At the time, it was also designated as Highway 39. Lauzon Road south of Tecumseh Road was but a gravel road.
The farmland along Tecumseh Road extended north-south. There were a few dwellings along Lauzon Road and these were not farms. On the west side of Lauzon, approximately where Yolanda Street intersects, there existed a 3 room separate school name St. Anne. The main structure of brick construction housed two classrooms and was built in the 1920s. An additional classroom was contained in a separate wooden bungalow. The bungalow had grades 1 to 5 English. One classroom in the main structure housed grades 1 to 5 French and the other had grades 6 to 8 bilingual. This school was demolished in the late 60s.
Also on Lauzon Road south of Tecumseh Road and south of the Little River was Little River Golf Course. No trespassing was enforced. This golf course is now city owned. Twin Oaks Golf Course was on the south east corner of Lauzon and the Third Concession (E C Row Road, pre-expressway)
Across the road from the golf course was a privately owned driving range. The Molnars owned a pig and poultry farm on the south bank of the Little River on the east side of Lauzon Road.
Around 1960, K-Mart moved into the area with the acquisition of a large tract of property on the north-west corner of Lauzon and Tecumseh Roads. Several affected homes were moved to make way. Hanks Esso station remained on the corner. A Dominion food store joined K-Mart and eventually several shops were added. This was the beginning of the Tecumseh Mall. This development led the way to much activity in the area. N&D Eastown arrived on the north-east corner and was eventually joined by Woolco. The home on the south-west intersection was demolished and made way for a service station.
As cited by Don Bland, East Side Auto Plating was situated on Tecumseh Road on the west bank of Little River. It was a bumper manufacturing plant and involved stamping (lots of noise) and chrome plating of bumpers. This plant passed though several hands and name changes over the years.
GM built a trim plant on the north side of the CN rail tracts in the late 60s or early 70s. WFCU arena now occupies part of this now demolished site.
McDonalds came to the area in the early 70s. Two homes were moved to make way. A third brick home east of these two was demolished. Just east of this development was Louis Barber Shop and Chinee Villa.
Along Tecumseh Road and west of the Township hall, most of the property was farmland. A large tract near where the rail line crosses was owned by Ford Motor Company. Ajax Lumber was across the street. Eventually, Dingwall Ford (now Rose City) moved in.
East Side Auto Wreckers (owned by the Laporte family), located on the south side of Tecumseh Road relocated to Walker Road approximately across from where Costco now exists. Eventually, a Beaver Gas station was constructed near this area. The ensuing years brought much commercial development between Jefferson and Lauzon.
The Forest Glade subdivision got its roots in the mid 60s and development was quick and extensive. The Toronto based developer approached all the landowners and made an offer. All the landowners had to be in agreement in order for the development to proceed. After many meetings, all agreed and the rest is history. And finally, this led to the construction of E C Row Expressway.
To end with a bit of trivia. The 1946 tornado passed trough this area and Mrs. Daniel Fields (Helen nee Labadie) was to perish. She lived in a home on Tecumseh Road on the east side of the Little River. The tornado was weakening at this point and went on east with little damage (as was related to me).
I didn't intend for this to be such a lengthy narrative.