Today’s photo comes courtesy of regular reader Mark, it was taken by his grandfather William Rudkin around 1927 from the ferry to Detroit.
The quality and sharpness on those old photographs is simply outstanding. The detail can really take you back in time…
This detail crop of Ouellette and Riverside (sorry about the colour correction… 🙂 ) is interesting as it appears to show a traffic signal cop in the middle of the intersection with a streetcar behind him. The low-rise building behind the cigar sign is still there on Ouellette (home to Wooley Bully’s today), and along with a small part of the Manning House Hotel one block south are the only buildings in the entire photograph still standing.
In 80 years, without even a major catastrophe to blame, we have managed to completely wipe our built heritage from downtown Windsor. Sad.
amazing how many buildings used to be in that block between the river and riverside drive. sad how they were all taken down. or burned down. not sure what happened to them all.
Darren, they were all demolished in the mid 1950’s for Dieppe Park.
Thanks to Mark and Andrew. Outstanding photos!
I guess that was back when we had a downtown. It is too bad the various mayosr and councils have slowly but surely killed it.
With regards to Wolly Bolly’s too bad they can’t take off the stucco and retore the upper windows again…facade grant anyone?
As for the Manning House it too will be gone shortly once another bank decides to play new kid on the block and once again tears down our history and the entire block…whoopee for so called progress!
Question: Regarding the first two picks of the ferry dock- is the picture taken basically from the water and the first block being what now exists as the Dieppe space? If that’s the case, was there an East to West road that ran along side the river or did Ouellette basically end at the river?
Colin there was a road that ran along the river. It was called Medbury Lane and it ran one block east before ending and turning north into Station St. That same configuration is still there today, with the second entrance to Dieppe just east of the fountain. To the west it ran to Ferry (1 block) where it jogged a 1/2 block north and ran basically as a dead end alley to Dougall.
Awestruck by this photo. It is very rare that we get to see a photo of the ferry dock vicinity from the north, at the river’s edge. And even rarer we get to see such amazing detail of the original buildings that once stood where Dieppe Park is now.
I did a quick Google lookup of the “Home Bank of Canada” which we see on the n/w corner, and found this wiki entry which helps date the photo to possibly even a few years earlier, assuming of course the sign was removed promptly upon its failure in 1923-24.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Bank
Thanks to Mark and the Rudkin family for preserving this rare visual of 1920’s Windsor!
If recent media coverage of developers intentions come true, what little there is left today will also be gone in a few years.
Thanks Andrew for the info. One more question about it- you said Medbury turned north into Station street which is the second driveway to Dieppe… I was wondering if the brick road is from that era or possibly even earlier?
I would imagine it’s possible, or a worst it’s a recreation. It has always seemed odd that that “street” was paved with brick.
The “wall” along the west side of that driveway (what was Station St.) is the foundation to the former Birtish American Hotel. The last building on the north side of Riverside Dr. to fall. It was demolished I think around 1974.
Looks like the Manning House will be demolished according to AM800…
I’m sure Andrew is on top of this. 🙂
Scooter – I am… I’ll have more info on that next week. 🙂
Absolutely amazing. I didn’t think there was money for anymore downtown construction. Are they gonna demolish the Irish pub behind it too? It’s too bad for that pub. I really liked the architecture of that building.
for what reason again??? why do i get the feeling you have something up your sleeve andrew? lol
ahhh i see it’s on the heritage inventory. most of it anyways lol. they just can’t leave that little bit of history standing can they. it must be driving eddie nuts having to see what was one a prosperous city. at least there’s time to raise a stink
I’ll cover it on Tuesday next week, but in a nutshell, the park of the building that remains, is such a small part, that the building has lost most of its context. The best part of the building was demolished in the 1960’s. It’s not like the building is coming down for a vacant lot either, there is a concrete plan to redevelop the site with a sign tennant.
Based on that the Heritage Committee decided to not move to force designation.
Have you been able to come across any architect renderings of what this new building is supposed to look like or is it coming up Tuesday? I can’t find it anywhere in a google search. If the plan is so concrete, why haven’t the photos been released yet?
I have seen the renderings. It will be a 4 story glass box basically. It won’t be square but will have some bump outs, etc…
Very modern, but nothing spectacular. I’m not sure why no renderings have been released, but the develloper had them at the heritage committee meeting. It will be an improvement over the vacant mess that’s currently on the corner.
For four stories, it doesn’t even seem like it’s worth the trouble for prime downtown land. Will it even have underground parking? Did they mention what’s going to happen to their current location? Will it end up being vacant like the CIBC building on Wyandotte St or is it something that just doesn’t get asked.
well david, if history has taught us anything about that historic neck of our woods………eeeeyeah. underground parking should be manditory downtown for new construction in the core or near residential areas now. we can’t keep razing buildings and houses. but again…history tells me that the irish pub will have to make way for 33 new spots.
thanks andrew! didn’t expect an answer this early lol, usually just me right now. i guess i understand the heritage commities position, but i’ve always enjoyed looking at that building and letting myself kinda drift back in time. it’s the only remaing glimpse at how our downtown used to look *sigh* guess i’d better go take pics of the ol girl before she’s gone.
Yeah, you’re not the only one working midnights this week… 🙂
Yeah, grab some photos while you can. it will be gone sooner rather than later. Likely in the next month or so…
has anyone here ever been inside the upper floors of the manning house? i wonder if it’s “modernized” or if it’s still pretty much still intact. if she’s still fairly original, someone needs to get pics of the inside.
Aaron, I’m already on it 🙂
From what I understand it’s completly moderinzed, but I’ve arranged to visit on Monday regardless.
*applauds extaticly* : )
how about some quick preservation news for a change? not sure if you already know andrew, but the new owners of windsor court, a big company from T.O. ( $ ) plan on restoring the building to actually get it it’s heritage designation. nice to see someone, much less a coperation take an interest in our heritage. i’m moving in there sept 1st, so that’s great news!!
and the elevators in that place ROCK!!!
me again. “4 storey glass block” hmmmm? sneaky, sneaky lol
Restore Windsor Court? You mean from the outside or what? They’ve already wrecked it from the inside: cut up the larger apartments into smaller ones, gutted the lobby, glued pergo tile to the hardwood floors, and painted most of the woodwork. Last I heard, they only had 30 out of the 120 apartments rented because most of the apartments were so run down that it had a lot of code issues as well as fires. And, it’s been like that for years. What exactly did they say they’re going to do to restore it? And, what’s the time frame? They made such a mistake selling the parking lot next door to the radio station. They have like 18 underground spots now to accomodate 120 apartments. It may have been something when it opened in 1925 as a premier hotel, but today it’s got a looooong way to go to bring it back to its former glory and so far every group who’s had a crack at it ran out of money and sold it to the next group of Toronto slumlords. Dealing with the parking issue is going to be one of the biggest challenges if the owners plan to get better clientelle than the ones they’ve got there now.
i don’t know; restore it…….in and out…. i didn’t get into specifics. but the lobby hasn’t been gutted, as a matter of fact it’s remarkably intact with all sorts of intricit trim, fire place (bricked in). yeah, alot of the wood work is painted over but that’s what happens over 80 some odd years right? they are replacing all the windows in the exact same style just more efficent, they just did the roof, rehabing all the units….and they’ve only owned the place since april.
i checked out 6 apartments and all of them had beautiful gleaming original hardwood floors, and the apartments themselves were in fantastic condition, 9/10 ft ceilings, 2 bdrms had beautiful ornimental fireplaces….the old kind that had a huge elecric heater in the hearth…they don’t work but they look nice. they freely told me that i think it’s up to 60 of 120 units are being rented because the rest are uninhabitable, they arn’t ashamed of it or anything, it’s something they want to correct. the other owners were letting trash live there, most of which have gotten the boot by this new company, and then just little things like broken windows, and one burned out apt. i don’t think they’re toronto slumlords either. they operate 50 buildings in toronto alone, they also manage buildings in Belleville, St. Catharines, Windsor, and Montreal. so they have the cash. cut up the larger apartments? they told me the 3 bed room apts are close to 2000 sq ft…so i’m not too sure about that, i can always take a look for you though. the timeframe is however long it takes. like you said, the building has had it’s face kicked in over the last century….so it’s gonna take alot of work, or should it just be given up on beacuse it’s alot of work? no. and better clientelle don’t necessarily have to drive a car, they are crackheads who need parking too….so that means absolutly nothing. i have a spot….so i don’t care.
wait till i move in…..i’ll gather as much info as i can about the rehab goals and start taken pics, or even invite andrew for a tour if he’d like, the shutterbug can try and catalouge the progress that’s made if he likes.
Well, I hope they get that building together because it sounds like they made huge improvements over when I stopped in a year ago to have a look. Back then, I only saw carpet, pergo, or that plastic simulated hardwood. But, kudos to them for throwing that junk out and resanding the original hardwood flooring. I remember them ripping out the oranmental fireplace in the lobby and seeing it in the back dumpster along with lots of trim. But, I guess they found something else to put there that will fit in with the decor. They also had some really cheap lighting in the hallways and not a single chandelier anywhere, which I hope they fixed since then. I always hoped that the building would find someone who appreciated it and would bring it back to it’s former glory.
Now, if they would only buy some of those houses on Dufferin and Pelissier for parking, they could really turn it into something.
It really has the potential to be grand again. They could even turn it back into a part-hotel with conceirge like some of those grand places in Yorktown Toronto. We’ll see. Now, if they could only do something about the crackheads in Marine Towers, that whole stretch could be like Windsor’s Yorktown again.
absolutly david. i can’t say i remember any chandeliers in the lobby, and there’s still cheap lighting in the hallway. i’d imagine they’re gonna get to any saftey issues before really goin to town on it. the hallways kinda made me feel like i was in the 3rd and 2nd class halls of the titanic….but that can change too lol i agree that they need more parking, but the hanna/duffrin area isn’t deathly horrible for on street parking if nescessary. hell i’m impressed that something built in ’27 HAS underground parking!! pretty neat too, there are sky lights (granted they’re broken, probly from old trash in a psychodelic rage) lighting the garage and it’s heated. there are also sky lights in the stairwells which i thought was a nice feature.
i was looking at moving to the marine apartments 2 years ago. went to check out a place, nice apartment with a great western veiw on the 11th floor….i liked it quite a bit. on my out i seen an ambulance, 2 cruisers, and some junkies at the drop off for the lobby…..never went back.