windsor [[walkerville) maps

[windsor_shane]

i was wondering if anyone here has some old walkerville maps from around 1920.. specifically im looking for ottawa at victoria [[victoria is now known as chilver)

im looking for some information on my block. i just bought a house on the 1200 block of chilver road [[between ottawa and huron [[huron is now known as ontario)

if anyone has old photos or maps of this area i would really appreciate it!


thanks

[Mikeg]

Hornwrecker's map of c.1930 Detroit includes that area of Walkerville and cuts off just south of Ottawa St.

[blackmath]

What a cool map Mikeg!

This is the first map I've ever seen that shows the original location of Essex Golf and C.C. By the late 1930s it was abandoned and it moved to its present location near Amherstburg. My grandfather and his brother used to play in the old sand traps and explore the huge overgrown golf course as little kids. It was a stone's throw away from where they lived. Now it's a massive housing tract full of wartime housing built for soldiers returning from WWII.

Thanks for the link.

[blackmath]

i was wondering if anyone here has some old walkerville maps from around 1920.. specifically im looking for ottawa at victoria [[victoria is now known as chilver)

im looking for some information on my block. i just bought a house on the 1200 block of chilver road [[between ottawa and huron [[huron is now known as ontario)

if anyone has old photos or maps of this area i would really appreciate it!


thanks

Shane I grew up on that very street - the 1200 block of Chilver. Nice, quiet neighbourhood, close to a lot of amenities and you have the Market just a couple of blocks away. Little has changed there in a century. A few of my most vivid memories is the smell of the hops and barley coming from Hiram Walker's Distillery and the streets choked with people when Art in the Park comes around. Great place to live.

[MikeM]

From 1923:

[Danny]

I have notice something on the Walkerville/Windsor Maps. On the southeast corner of Sandwich TWP. There were a proposed street grid that lead to Huron Chruch Rd. What happen to that grid? Did a proposed 'BOOMTOWN' neighborhood should have been built? or did it died out after the Great Depression.

[Downriviera]

What was the name of the rock n roll bar that was on Walker near Wyandotte back in the 80's. I think they had some big name bands in there.

[MikeM]

I have notice something on the Walkerville/Windsor Maps. On the southeast corner of Sandwich TWP. There were a proposed street grid that lead to Huron Chruch Rd. What happen to that grid? Did a proposed 'BOOMTOWN' neighborhood should have been built? or did it died out after the Great Depression.

I have no idea:

[blackmath]

Yes Danny, long story short, the steel industry was supposed to come here in a huge way. Windsor was going to be the "Pittsburgh" of Canada and a massive plant was to be built on land that is now the racetrack and Ojibway Park going up to the river. It would employ many, many thousands of people - hence the streets platted out here. Of course the Depression and WW2 happened which killed that idea and the city remained reliant on a single industry. They laid some of the streets out that used to be much more visible and all that remains are quickly disappearing curbs, fire hydrants and street signs with shacks scattered around here and there.

People built homes out there anyway and made a small subdivision for themselves, but an F4 tornado ripped most of those homes apart in 1946. As I said, all that remains out there are dead end streets to nowhere, piles of dirt blocking old roads and thousands of deer.

That is one heck of a map, MikeM, btw.

[blackmath]

Downriviera -- You're thinking of Californias. That was on Walker and Niagara on the eastern fringe of Walkerville.

[blackmath]

From 1923:

Shane - as you can see here, Chilver was called "Victoria Street" back then. It was called that until Walkerville was absorbed into Windsor in 1937. I guess Windsor's version of Victoria won out.

[Magnatomicflux]

Wow, Ojibway sure had a neat street plan in mind, eh? Look at all those spurs the Essex Terminal Would have had! I wonder just how big they would be today had the depression not hit.

[Danny]

Yes Danny, long story short, the steel industry was supposed to come here in a huge way. Windsor was going to be the "Pittsburgh" of Canada and a massive plant was to be built on land that is now the racetrack and Ojibway Park going up to the river. It would employ many, many thousands of people - hence the streets platted out here. Of course the Depression and WW2 happened which killed that idea and the city remained reliant on a single industry. They laid some of the streets out that used to be much more visible and all that remains are quickly disappearing curbs, fire hydrants and street signs with shacks scattered around here and there.

People built homes out there anyway and made a small subdivision for themselves, but an F4 tornado ripped most of those homes apart in 1946. As I said, all that remains out there are dead end streets to nowhere, piles of dirt blocking old roads and thousands of deer.

That is one heck of a map, MikeM, btw.

With a street grid like that, Windsor could annex all of Sandwich TWP. and Ojibway TWP.Then Windsor population could reached over 500,000 by 1940, 700,000 by 1950, 900,000 by 1960. Then it would dropped to 780,456 by 1980 following Detroit's demise and the auto industry follies. Then, Windsor would rebound up to 897,675 by 2000 and 907,099 by 2010. Downtown Windsor would have competed Downtown Detroit's buildings by erecting a 80 story glass covered skyscraper bigger then Rennaisance Center. That would make Mayor Coleman Young Jealous.

[windsor_shane]

thanks for the info guys... i've seen the old ojibway maps.. i get frusterated when i see such a nice layout of streets and think what that could have been... im sure now it will suffer the fate of the cul-de-sac much like the majority of windsor.

blackmath... perhalps you could PM me with your old address.. i know it may be a long shot.. but i may own the house you grew up in! let me know... oh and.. if you have any old photos of the block.. id love to see them!

[windsor_shane]

MikeM.. do you have more of that map??

[MikeM]

I've got the whole thing but it would never fit on screen. What part do you want to see?

[Magnatomicflux]

I wouldn't mind seeing anything following the railways. Particularly the ETR.

[Pam]

What was the name of the rock n roll bar that was on Walker near Wyandotte back in the 80's. I think they had some big name bands in there.

Coronation Tavern? I never went there but heard about it.