Rose City Roots · Timeline · Chapter 10 of 11

Booms and Busts

1929 TO TODAY

Depression, war, a tornado and a trade deal. The years that broke and rebuilt Windsor's economy.

Timeline

1931 to 1935 The Border Cities default. East Windsor defaults in 1931, Sandwich and Windsor in 1932 and Walkerville in 1934. A provincial finance commission takes control, and the crisis leads to the 1935 amalgamation (Kulisek and Price, 1988). Sources: Urban History Review · DOI record
1939 to 1945 The wartime boom. Factories turn to war work. See Windsor War Chest. Sources: Windsor News · Library and Archives Canada
17 June 1946 The Windsor-Tecumseh tornado. An F4 tornado kills 17 people. We remember them here, and it is not a Lost Windsor story. Sources: Windsor Public Library · Canadian Disaster Database
16 January 1965 The Auto Pact. The Canada-U.S. Automotive Products Agreement. Hansard records 20 new Windsor-area parts plants and about 5,000 jobs between 1964 and 1971. Sources: Canadian Encyclopedia · Hansard (LiPaD)

Disaster and resilience

Windsor-Tecumseh tornado

17 June 1946; F4; 17 people killed Disaster and resilience

Already on this timeline. This card keeps the disaster in view as a resilience story, not a spectacle. NFB and archival storm films exist; rights vary, so this preview stays text-led. Tie: Windsor-Tecumseh disaster of record.

Sources: Windsor Public Library · Canadian Disaster Database · live Booms and Busts entry

Essex railway station, 2026 — Crisco 1492. Essex railway station, 4 October 2026. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. Modern station view; not a 1907 blast photo.

Essex explosion, 1907

10 August 1907 Disaster and resilience

A boxcar of nitroglycerin bound for Detroit River dredging exploded at Essex station. Two railwaymen were killed and the town was heavily damaged; the station survived. Cross-link the separate Disaster and resilience preview for the full chapter; this card keeps the 1907 event on Booms and Busts.

Sources: Windsor Star local history feature on the Essex station · Town of Essex local history page

Windsor Curling Club tornado, 1974

3 April 1974, about 8:09 PM; F3 Disaster and resilience

An F3 tornado tore apart the Windsor Curling Club. Eight people died that night and a ninth later; about 30 were hurt. Sits beside the 1946 Windsor-Tecumseh tornado card. Cross-link the Disaster and resilience preview. Windsor Star archive photos are copyrighted; free Commons storm still not found.

Sources: CBC Windsor · Windsor Public Library

Lost buildings

Hotels, a mid-century city hall, and the theatres that came down. The Capitol still stands, so it is here as contrast, not as a loss. Bob-Lo and Kenilworth already have Lost Windsor stories; this chapter points to them instead of telling those nights again. Palace and Vanity are deepened on Film, Stages and Songs.

1935 souvenir sheet with views of the Norton Palmer Hotel, the Post Office, the Prince Edward Hotel, and the Medical Arts Building — 1935 souvenir views of Windsor: Hotel Norton Palmer, the Post Office (Dominion Public Building, later the Paul Martin Building), the Prince Edward Hotel, and the Medical Arts Building. SWODA / Leddy Library; Dominion Series View Book, 1935. Public domain.

Labelled Post Office, Windsor, from the 1935 souvenir sheet. The Dominion Public Building, later the Paul Martin Building. SWODA / Leddy Library; Dominion Series View Book, 1935. Public domain.

Labelled Medical Arts Building from the 1935 souvenir sheet. SWODA / Leddy Library; Dominion Series View Book, 1935. Public domain.

Prince Edward Hotel

Opened 1922; closed 1967; demolished 1976 Lost buildings

Locals called it the Prince Eddie. Architects Esenwein and Johnson of Buffalo, with Albert McPhail as associate, designed it for the United Hotel Company. It stood opposite the tunnel exit on Ouellette. It closed in 1967 after heavy debt and came down in 1976; a low-rise bank building followed on the site.

Sources: International Metropolis hotel history · period United Hotel accounts · Star farewell editorial of 20 December 1975, as quoted in later summaries

Prince Edward Hotel, labelled panel from the 1935 souvenir sheet — Labelled Prince Edward Hotel panel from the 1935 Dominion Series souvenir sheet. SWODA / Leddy Library; Dominion Series View Book, 1935. Public domain.

Prince Edward Hotel postcard, about 1925. SWODA / Leddy Library. Public domain.

Prince Edward Hotel, wider street view, about 1925 — Prince Edward Hotel postcard, about 1925, a wider street view. SWODA / Leddy Library. Public domain.

Norton Palmer Hotel

Opened 1927 at Park and Pelissier; closed 1974; demolished late 1970s Lost buildings

A second downtown hotel of the Border Cities boom, at Park and Pelissier. It closed in 1974. Demolition is recorded as late 1970s in museum and local notes; the exact year is still unconfirmed this pass. Victoria Park Place apartments stand on the site.

Sources: SWODA / Museum Windsor catalog notes · local secondary demolition accounts (exact year flagged)

Hotel Norton Palmer, labelled panel from the 1935 souvenir sheet — Labelled Hotel Norton Palmer panel from the 1935 Dominion Series souvenir sheet. SWODA / Leddy Library; Dominion Series View Book, 1935. Public domain.

Postcard of Windsor's 1956 City Hall, the mid-century building later demolished — Third City Hall, 1956. SWODA node 811. Public domain.

The 1956 City Hall

Opened 1956; demolished 2019 Lost buildings / City Hall

Construction began in 1955 on a mid-century hall that opened in 1956 at about $2.1 million. People nicknamed it the Sunoco Station for its tile colours; that was a nickname, not a formal name. The site had been Central Public School until the city bought it in 1904 and used it as city hall. The present City Hall opened to the public on 22 May 2018 (grand opening 26 May 2018). The 1956 building came down in 2019. This is an architecture and memory card, not a live politics argument. More building photos sit on City Hall.

Sources: SWODA postcard · Windsor Star Henderson column and 2019 demolition coverage (secondary) · City opening announcements

Windsor City Hall, the 2018 building that replaced the 1956 hall, photographed in 2020 — PMT 92. Windsor City Hall, July 2020. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. The present hall, not the 1956 building.

What replaced it

Present City Hall, opened May 2018 Lost buildings / City Hall

The 2018 hall is what stands on Civic Square now. It is shown here only as the building that replaced the 1956 hall, not as a lost one. A 1913 civic view is on the City Hall chapter for place context before the mid-century hall.

Sources: Commons File:Windsor City Hall ON July 2020.jpg · City opening dates as on the 1956 card

Capitol Theatre exterior in Windsor, still standing in 2025 — Chris Woodrich. Capitol Theatre, 22 June 2025. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Capitol Theatre (still standing)

Opened 30 December 1920; saved, not lost Contrast, not a loss

Thomas W. Lamb designed the house for vaudeville and silent film. It opened on 30 December 1920 and is still at work as a live theatre, home to the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, WIFF and Media City. A 1990 demolition permit was fought off; restoration was completed in 1995. Do not file the Capitol among the lost buildings. The fuller theatre story, with historic interiors, is on Film, Stages and Songs.

Sources: Capitol Theatre official history · Cinema Treasures · Windsor Star 100th-anniversary feature · live Film tab

Ouellette Avenue looking north, about 1925, with the vertical Palace Theatre sign on the right, beside the Heintzman building. This is a street view of the original house, not the 1987 rebuild. The Mandarin Gardens sign is in the left foreground. SWODA / Leddy Library; Mike Skreptak Collection, Black Binder 3. Public domain.

Palace Theatre (two buildings)

Original Allen / Palace, then a 1987 rebuild; closed January 2012 Cross-link to Film

Two buildings, one site: the original Allen / Palace and a later rebuild. The deeper card, including the mid-1980s demolition and 1987 reopening, is on Film, Stages and Songs. This chapter does not retell that theatre biography.

Sources: live Film, Stages and Songs Palace card · CBC News, 5 January 2012 · Cinema Treasures

Vanity Theatre

Opened 1936 or 1937 at 673 Ouellette; demolished April 2016 Cross-link to Film

The Art Deco house is gone. Address, close year, and the April 2016 demolition are deepened on Film, Stages and Songs, which already holds the Vanity card.

Sources: live Film, Stages and Songs Vanity card · Cinema Treasures #25669

The steamer Columbia, about 1905, one of the boats that ran to Bob-Lo Island. This is the steamer, not a photograph of the island park. Photographer unknown, from the National Register of Historic Places file. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Bob-Lo Island (already told)

Amusement park 1898 to 1993 Cross-link

The island park and the steamers Columbia and Ste. Claire already have a Lost Windsor story. Read that card rather than a second version here.

Sources: Lost Windsor: Bob-Lo Island

Kenilworth Park postcard, about 1930 — Kenilworth Park, about 1930, a postcard already used on the Sports chapter. Man o' War race photographs stay on hold until the frame is verified. Post Card & Greeting Card Co. Mike Skreptak Collection, Southwestern Ontario Digital Archive, Leddy Library. Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Kenilworth Park (already told)

Racetrack 1916 to 1935 Cross-link

Man o' War's last race was run here on 12 October 1920. The Lost Windsor story holds that night. Sports also points to the same track under Tracks before arenas.

Sources: Lost Windsor: Kenilworth Park · Sports

Bob-Lo Island

Colour photographs from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's DOCUMERICA project, made in June 1973 by Joe Clark. Bob-Lo Island, in the Detroit River at Amherstburg, operated as an amusement park from 1898 to 1993. A Lost Windsor story already covers the park's close. These frames show the steamers and the grounds twenty years before that close.