Windsor Day One

Windsor the First Day
If you will recall I came to Windsor on Sunday afternoon and spent the first evening with George and John at dinner and that was about all. Today was sightseeing and visiting the old places that I lived and went to school.
First I went to see the apartment on now Riverside Dr. (it used to be called Sandwich St.) and then to John and Mary’s for coffee. Then John and I went to sightseeing out to the real wealthy areas along Riverside Dr. on the Detroit River. The brick and stone homes are enormous and very well kept up. Then we stopped at Assumption and Parent Streets to see the first apartment that I lived in when I was born here and then on to Dawson St. where the first home that we lived in was. Later driving by now King Edward Grade School which was where I went to elementary school and then to the old Walker Estate which in my time was the library. Later we toured around to Grace Hospital where my sister graduated from nursing.
I will try to tell these events in some order:
1. The Dawson home: Well I remembered the street number (540) but the numbers were changed in 1969 so that did not help us. I thought I had the right home but was unsure about it or another one on the previous block. The problem was an empty lot which was not where it should have been. SO talking to a neighbor she mentioned another neighbor who was 85 years old and had lived there forever. Off I went to the Mershbacks home and knocked on the door. Well Peter not only remembered my father and the home but had worked with him at the Godfritson plant (more on that later) as a machinist and they had driven to work together many years ago. What a find and he reminisced and told me stories of the family and how he and my father were friends when dad had come from as he said Yorkton, SK. So down the block I went to the correct home and sure enough the brickwork on the front porch was unmistakable and the sewing room over the carport was still there. I will go back when the people are home and see if I can see the inside.
2. The Riverside Apartment: Well it is still there but the bridge is gone on the front of the road in front of the home and Hiram Walker’s has built something between it and the Detroit River but it had not changed in all these years even though the old estate next door is gone and a modern building is in its place. I contacted the residents inside and photographed the old kitchen and dining room and even the view out the front window of the river.
3. The Godfridson Building or Peabody Building: This was where my dad (Roland) worked for many years before going to Reimer Express Lines to work. First as a machinist and then as an upholsterer. The building is still there and standing but is no longer occupied.
4. King Edward Elementary School: This was where I went to school and the school looks just the same from the outside as it did when I attended it. The school was however torn down and rebuilt but the exterior of the building was maintained to look exactly as it had when I attended school there. Still the school in the center of the lot with the girls playground on one side and the boys playground on the other side of the school structure. I could not help but going inside and looking. The hallways look the same except the old wooden floors are not cement and tile. The principals office which was very small is now a computer room, and the old wooden stairways are now steel.
I ran into the principal and she was most kind in giving me a copy of the booklet made for the school reunion in 2006. Remember that this was the 100th year reunion of this school, and no I was not in the first class. She also gave me a copy of the graduating classes of 1959. Imagine 41 students, I was in a really large school. My name did not appear in that roster because I believe that I may have left that school before graduation and been Toronto then although I did not attend grade school in Toronto.
The school now is known as King Edward Elementary School although in my day we called it Victoria School.
5 The Walker Estate or Willistead Park: The Walker family (Hiram Walker Distillery ) were the patrons of Walkerville which bore the family name. They donated the money for St. Mary’s Church, the school I went to and the park and library which I went to were the original family home. The park and the original home occupied about 4 city blocks and the carriage house was larger than any home I have lived in fact the gate house was about the size of my home. The home is no longer used as a library but I understand that they give tours there on Saturdays so maybe Bev and I can go back there this weekend.
6 Grace Hospital; Well after dinner at Mary and John’s we went for a ride and passed Grace Hospital where my sister Pearl went to nursing school, here husband Bob was an accountant and his brother John who was my host also retired as a hospital administrator and Mary John and Bob’s mother also worked. The hospital, an original Salvation Army Hospital, is now closed but the buildings are still standing and I photographed the front of the nursing school dormitory for my sister. Well it must be after curfew because the doors are closed and forget about climbing in one of the windows because they are all boarded up on the first floor.
Stay tuned for more exciting adventures into nostalgia tomorrow.
1 Peter and his wife dad's old working friend
2 King Edward Grade School
3 St Mary's Church built by the Walkers
4 Waker Home
5 Willistead Park the Walker estate