Old Newspaper StoriesWindsor

Sign Cleaning - 1923

The photo above appeared in the Border Cities Star a century ago, appearing in the the July 17, 1923 edition on page 3. How would you like this job? There is no need telling where the two brush wielders are working, for the Prince Edward’s big electric sign is familiar to everyone in the Border Cities, and a landmark to most Detroiters. Like everything else in the hotel, the sign gets…
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RenderingsWindsor

Bell Building -1929

A rendering from 1929 showing the Bell Telephone Building planned for Goyeau. The million dollar building was built to the utilized solely for the modern dial system service. The new building was designed to take care of 14,000 subscribers in addition to the subscribers…
Old PhotographsWindsor

1290 Tecumseh Road East

Image from SWODA This photo shows the Supertest Gas Station at the north west corner of Tecumseh Rd E and Hall in 1960. It appears that the station remained at this location from the 1930s though about 1985, when the budling was demolished and replaced with a Big V…
UnbuiltWindsor

South Walkerville Home for the Aged

Back in 1951, years before Huron Lodge came to be, the city hired J. P. Thomson to draw up plans for a retirement home to be built on city owned land in South Walkerville. Not sure what happened to this plan, but it never came to be, and it would be almost another decade before Huron Lodge would open on Huron Church, just south of Tecumseh Road. Discussions are continuing on the proposed…
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Old PhotographsWindsor

Ottawa & Moy - 1959

Image from SWODA A view looking at the north east corner of Ottawa Street & Moy Avenue in September, 1959. The Woolworth store stands on the corner. An attractive art deco styled building, it is still standing and is home to Holland’s Consignment Shop today. A…
Old PhotographsWindsor

53 Pitt Street East

Image from SWODA Back in October 1956, the south side of Pitt Street East, between Goyeau and Ouellette was hopping. “Urban Renewal” would bring a massive parking garage to the corner, and the buildings from the Canada Salvage at 65 Pitt Street East and…
SchoolsWindsor

Walkerville Collegiate Institute Renovations

Keeping with the theme of renovations, I noticed that Walkerville CI is undergoing a renovation/restoration that’s long overdue. After many years with a horrible out of place window selection, the school board is replacing the badly retrofitted windows, with a look that is similar to what would have originally been there when the school opened nearly a century ago. You can see in the…
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Windsor

Bartlet Building Annex Renovations

Built in 1926 the Bartlet building on the corner University & Pelissier was actually built as an annex to the original Bartlet Building built in 1920 just east of this one. Photo from Google Streetview As you can see in Google Streetview the lower levels have been…
DetroitOld Newspaper StoriesWindsor

The First Fireworks - 1959

After a few years away due to COVID the annual fireworks returned to the riverfront this year in spectacular fashion. However it got me thinking about the history of the fireworks, and exactly how the first ones were handled in the media… I decided to go back through…