Old AdsWindsor

Riverside Brewery

Happy Valentines Day! We’re sticking with the prohibition era breweries today. Heading east from LaSalle all the way to the former town of Riverside, and the former Riverside Brewery. Founded in 1926, the building was designed by Albert McPhail, who designed many other buildings in Windsor. It’s amazing that after 85 years, the sign is still clearly visible. Over the front door…
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Old PhotographsWindsor

St. Paul's Mission

Today’s photo is marked “St. Paul’s Mission, Windsor” and dated January 21, 1925. I can’t find much on this church. There is no listing in the 1924 directory for a St. Paul’s. Locally there is a Catholic St. Paul’s in LaSalle, on…
Essex County

Hofer Brewery

The Hofer Brewery was established in LaSalle in 1927, and architects Sheppard & Masson designed the brewery building on Front Road shortly after. The brewery was founded by the former Mayor of LaSalle Vital Benoit, and the brewery was created for the sole purpose of…
BlueprintsUnbuiltWindsor

A.S. Boyle Co. - Campbell & College

This past summer I spent some time at the Windsor Community Archives in the basement of the Windsor Public Library on Ouellette. There is a real treasure trove of local history down there. While there I was browsing through the J.C. Pennington collection, when I saw a listing for the A.S. Boyle Co. Not being familiar with this particular business, I made a request to see the blueprints. The site…
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Old PhotographsWindsor

100th Anniversary Cake

This one has a caption on the back “The Cake on Ouellette Avenue”, and bears the date June 5, 1954. Taken during the celebrations the first time Windsor celebrated a centennial in 1954. Once wasn’t enough, and they decided to do it again in 1992. The first…
DemolitionWindsor

Riverside and Aylmer

I’m sure that many readers are familiar with the long vacant and derelict house at the s.w. corner of Riverside Drive East and Aylmer. View Larger Map As the years have gone on, the house has been getting worse and worse. We’ll low and behold I drove past it…
RenderingsUnbuiltWindsor

Villa Maria Home for the Aged and Orphaned

Another of the great projects from unbuilt Windsor. This one was to be located in South Windsor, the original planned Villa Maria home for the aged and orphaned. Here is a more refined rendering to go with the sketch above. News of the project appeared in the paper February 1, 1929, but was announced the night before, 82 years ago to the day. “Here is the architect’s drawing of the…
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Lost WindsorOld PhotographsWindsor

Sandwich Street - 1954

Once again, a Happy Friday to everyone! Today’s old photo shows us a view along Sandwich St with a date of April 19, 1954. A nice close up view of the old retail that was once along this stretch of Sandwich St. You could get your TV repaired, and pick up some Bologna…
Old Newspaper StoriesOld PhotographsWindsor

Oliver Farm Subdivision

“Officials of the small holdings development branch of the Veterans Land Act visited the Maryland or Oliver subdivision near Windsor yesterday to view the subdivision and judge it as par of the Dominion-wide competition which will name the best developed subdivision in…