Windsor as it stands now was assembled from once-separate towns. The short accounts below are drawn from the City of Windsor's History of Windsor (text courtesy of Museum Windsor) and from chapters already on this exhibition. Historic street and neighbourhood photographs already published on those chapters stay there, so they are not repeated here. Follow the chapter links for the pictures and the longer record.
Sandwich
In 1797, after the purchase of the Huron Church Reserve, the town site of Sandwich was laid out as a British administrative headquarters. The City of Windsor calls this the first urban settlement in the area. Sandwich was incorporated as a town in 1858. It was one of the four municipalities joined to form the City of Windsor in 1935. The War of 1812, the French shore, and the Freedom Shore story all pass through this town. Sandwich and the New Border · Nations of the Strait · War on the River · Freedom Shore
Sources: City of Windsor, History of Windsor · City of Windsor, Former Municipal Boundaries poster
Windsor
The settlement around the ferry landing was known as the Ferry, Richmond or South Detroit before it agreed on the name Windsor in 1836. It became a village in 1854, a town in 1858, and a city on 14 April 1892. That Windsor of 1892 is the core that later absorbed its neighbours. Rails, Ferries and Crossings tells the ferry and railway side of that beginning.
Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia, Windsor · City of Windsor, History of Windsor · City of Windsor, Former Municipal Boundaries poster
Walkerville
East of the village of Windsor, a community the City calls "Walker Town" grew around Hiram Walker's distillery and flour mill. The City's boundaries poster dates the distillery to 1858 and the Town of Walkerville to 1890-1935. The town later supported other industries, including auto manufacturing. Walkerville voters balloted heavily against amalgamation in December 1934; the provincial Act still proceeded. Border Cities · Works and Wages
Sources: City of Windsor, History of Windsor · City of Windsor, Former Municipal Boundaries poster · City of Windsor (Amalgamation) Act, 1935, as already cited on this page
Ford City, later East Windsor
Ford City grew with the Ford plant. Gordon McGregor founded the Ford Motor Company of Canada on 17 August 1904 in the former Walkerville Wagon Works, just east of Walkerville. The City of Windsor says Ford City became a village in 1913 and a town in 1915, and that by 1928 its population totalled 16,000. Soon after, it was renamed East Windsor and incorporated as a city. It was one of the four partners in the 1935 amalgamation. Drouillard Road, the old town's main street, takes its name from a French farm family; the City's Ford City Walking Tour notes that François Drouillard donated land in 1884 for the parish of Notre Dame du Lac, later Our Lady of the Rosary. Works and Wages
Sources: City of Windsor, History of Windsor · City of Windsor, Ford City Walking Tour · Works and Wages (Ford of Canada, 17 August 1904)
Riverside
Riverside was not part of the 1935 Act. The City of Windsor says it was once part of Sandwich East Township, a primarily residential area east of Windsor, separated from the township in 1913 and made a town in 1921. The Windsor Public Library describes that incorporation as taking place in May 1921. The City notes that street names such as Belleperche and Lauzon honour early French settlers. Riverside joined Windsor in 1966, with Ojibway and parts of the Sandwich townships. A roadhouse from this shore, the Edgewater Thomas Inn, is already pictured on Rum Row.
Sources: City of Windsor, History of Windsor · Windsor Public Library, Riverside Reaches 100 · City of Windsor, Former Municipal Boundaries poster
Ojibway
The Town of Ojibway was incorporated in 1913. The City of Windsor says it was intended to be a company town for the Canadian Steel Corporation, and that the project never fully developed, for financial reasons. It became part of Windsor effective 1 January 1966. Today the area includes Ojibway Park and the Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve, which are treated on Natural Windsor. A longer account of the steel-town plan is on our desk story The steel town that never came.
Sources: City of Windsor, History of Windsor · Ontario Energy Board, Decision and Order EB-2007-0800 (former Town of Ojibway part of Windsor effective 1 January 1966)
A later annexation of land from the Town of Tecumseh, in 2003, created the city's present eastern edge. The 1935 and 1966 boundary changes, and the two Heritage Conservation Districts, remain documented in Names on the Map below.
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