Photo © Matt Kulbacki – All rights reserved
Happy Friday everyone, and happy long weekend!
Today the last few pictures from Matt Kulbacki’s series on St. Mary’s in South Windsor. Today’s pictures deal with the demolition of the old school, shot from the neighbourhood on April 29, 1977. In this shot the building starts to collapse on itself.
Photo © Matt Kulbacki – All rights reserved
…Until all that was left was a pile of dust.
Have a good long weekend everyone. Due to the holiday on Monday, no post here. Regular posting resumes Wednesday.
I’m curious how many housing lots fit onto this property.. and if we add up the values of those houses, would it even come close to the value of what this building would be worth today? This building could have been a beautiful institution for a high school, or even a college campus, but instead we are putting our kids into schools designed like penitentiaries simple concrete block structures with tiny windows, or even worse, pre-fabricated portables that are cold and damp.. these are not good learning environments.. This building could have been something special, but our priorities are ass backwards.
Shane
I couldn’t agree more with your comment.St.marys came down in the 70’s and here we are now ,things in Windsor haven’t change much except for people being more compulsive about knocking old building down with a cookie cutter stucco box.Windsor should learn from Ottawa,incorporate old with the new and the result is you still have a nice city.
shane
i couldn’t agree more.St.marys went down in the 70’s and here we are today things haven’t change much except that lately people seem to be more compulsive about knocking down old building which is still useful or change the appearance of it so it looks like a cookie cutter stucco box.I’am all for some modern buildings but Windsor should learn from Ottawa where they incorporate the old with the new.Just my opinion.
nevermind college or high school, what would the value of that building be if someone had the foresight to develop that as loft apartments? Or the Prince Edward ??
anyone care to guess what the houses built on that property are worth today ? anyone want to bet that they’ve increased in value at all, or are being cherished as prime architecture that increases the value of all properties surrounding them?
windsor suicide, demolition style.
Never will forget that Friday afternoon. I lived on the east side of Dominion Blvd. one house north of Richardie St. I put up a (safe) ladder and all my hockey and CBC Radio buddies and even a reporter from The Windsor Star clambered up and sat on my roof for an unobstructed view. The wind was blowing south so we hadly received any dust or debris. My roof looked like the bleachers at Tiger Stadium. I even provided refreshments, although it was, in many ways, a spectacular but sad occasion and I still wish another use for that beautiful building could have been found.
I also remember that day. They were supposed to detonate the building in the early afternoon of April 29, 1977. Because I was in school at the time it was supposed to come down, I took my time to head over to St. Mary’s that day. I lived about 2 kilometers away. When I arrived at the sight, I found out that I missed it by only 30 minutes! All that was left was the rubble. Well I still have the copies of the Windsor Star with the pictures of the destruction. I bring them out every once in a while and marvel at the event. The building would have made good lofts if someone would have thought about it at the time. But the it needed many repairs to bring it up to code and the nuns at the time could not afford it. So they sold the building to the highest bidder. I still remember the tower being quite a bee-ken in the South Windsor area. I also remember being able to see it clearly when you traveled over the newly completed Dougall/Howard overpass of the E. C. Row Expressway.
I was there the day they demolished the Academy as well… We stood on the east off Woodland Ave. near the the Central Park pool… After the sirens went off for the pre-demo warning, it all went so fast, I shot a sequence of photos the best I could using my Kodak 110 Pocket Instamatic camera. I should dig them up and scan them….. I do remember it was a perfect spring day and the flowering crab and almond trees were in full bloom along Academy Drive.
whoevers idea it was to demolish this structure should have drove a pinto down E.C. Row in the oncoming lane, in reverse.
I attended Holy Names in South Windsor and whenever I drive by it I am shocked to see “Trailers” parked all over the East Lawn. Obviously the school isn’t large enough for the student population. Image how awesome it would’ve been had St Mary’s been kept … perhaps now, Holy Names wouldn’t look like hell – as St Mary’s might be the principle Roman Catholic high school in South Windsor. Such a shame, such a loss.