Lost Windsor

Crescent Lanes - 871 Ottawa

September 15, 2024
Crescent Lanes first opened on Ottawa Street in 1944 at 1055 Ottawa Street, opposite Lanspeary Park, in the building just west of Master Cleaners, in a 12 lane bowling alley. That building in 1957, was the first bowling alley in Canada to have automatic pin setters. In 1965, the alley relocated to the building shown above to a larger 24 lane facility. The bowling alley was operated by…
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DemolitionLost WindsorOld Photographs

Joseph L. Reaume House - 1924

April 21, 2024
One for the lost Windsor files, is this house that once belonged to Joseph Reaume of Ford City. Reaume was a builder and was was also the assessor of the town of Ford City. The house was built to resemble houses that Reaume saw during his winters away in California. The…
Buildings of WindsorDemolitionOld Photographs

Dieppe Park Demolitions - 1954

April 4, 2024
Before the waterfront park system was in place, there were once buildings on the north side of Riverside Dr. Back in the early 1950s work was set in motion to clear the north side of Riverside Drive and establish a civic centre and park. Across the river in Detroit, the same thing happened with the creation of Hart Plaza, and on our side we got Dieppe Park. From May, 1954, here’s a look…
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DemolitionLost WindsorOld PhotographsWindsor

Tunnel Bar-B-Q 2015

November 19, 2023
I recently came across this photo that I took in April, 2015 in a folder of older pictures. 2015 doesn’t feel like that long ago, but it was nearly eight years ago already. The long lost Tunnel Bar-B-Q was a local institution for generations, dating back to the the…
Lost WindsorOld Photographs

Drouillard Road - c 1928

July 30, 2023
Photo above from the collection of the Windsor Public Library A shot taken around 1928 on the east side of Drouillard in between what is today Whelpton & Trenton streets. A pair of architecturally interesting buildings here, both lost to time. Oddly the building to…
Old Newspaper StoriesWindsor

Sign Cleaning - 1923

July 16, 2023
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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PostcardsSchools

Holy Rosary Separate School - Drouillard Road

June 18, 2023
Image above from SWODA A nice postcard view from the late 1920s showing Holy Rosary Separate School on Drouillard Road. Opened in 1922 and designed by Pennington & Boyde, this building served Ford City for nearly a half century. The boom of the Ford assembly plant in…
Lost WindsorOld PhotographsSchools

St Clare School

June 4, 2023
Located at Bruce & Shepard, the St Clare School was designed by Windsor architect Gilbert J P Jacques & Co., and opened in 1922. By the late 1960s the Separate School board was looking at options to either renovate or replace the old school building. After a lot…