JUNE 25, 2010: A field trip in search of Windsor’s lost and forgotten suburbs
The construction of new suburbs on Windsor’s periphery continues as if the recession never hit while vacancies continue to rise in the downtown core. While it has become common place to see vacant buildings downtown, the history of Windsor’s suburbs is also beset by cycles of big dreams, disappointments and eventual abandonment (or re-purposing), and there are a number of failed development projects during the course of the 20th century that haunt the suburbs as well. The Border Bookmobile took a field trip to search for the remains of a proposed large-scale development that was slated for the Brighton Beach/Black Oak Park area in the 1920s (then the town of Ojibway).
On the trail to Brighton Beach
Now preserved as one of the region’s few protected natural areas, this land was once slated to be the next Gary, Indiana (Canadian Steel Corporation) across from its American counterpart at Zug Island. The map below shows the planned density of the neighborhood which seems to have been designed as a kind of worker’s town on the other side of the tracks from a massive steel production facility. The only streets that were partially developed are those running up from the river, parallel to the boundary line of Sandwich town.
Early 20th Century planned industrial complex and garden city
The remains of a few roads that were cleared in the 1920s are still visible now and it is possible to find traces of streets that were never fully developed. Chappus Street is particularly interesting as its northern end is blocked off and much of the former roadway is lined by prairie grass, while its southern end has been developed in distinct phases (1950s and 1990s: see below). This bank of partially completed roadways (Chappus, Healy and Page Streets) has been earmarked for another mega-project, the Detroit International River Crossing (also known as DRIC) a new bridge connecting Michigan and Ontario’s major highways which is slated for construction in the near future.
Old Chappus Street
Healy Street
Plans for this development failed in the 1930s as the Great Depression hit, and the area (now encompassing Brighton Beach) has been developed in fits and starts. The southern sections of these streets, across the highly trafficked Ojibway Parkway, were developed in the 1950s and 1990s. These blocks are now vacant and have been annexed by the Ontario provincial government to build its multi-lane highway and customs plaza for the new bridge.
new homes soon to be gone
abandoned garden gnome
SEPTEMBER 23, 2009: Open Corridor Festival
In conjunction with the Open Corridor Festival, the Border Bookmobile made its first appearance on the lawn of the University of Windsor’s School of Visual Arts. The Bookmobile was parked adjacent to Huron Church Road on what was once considered the world’s busiest international ‘trade corridor’ (or truck route if you prefer). Bookmobile readers were immersed in the noise of the Windsor border with six lanes of truck traffic traveling to and from the Ambassador Bridge. We had initially attempted to set up by the side of the road, but the wind from passing trucks blew the papers everywhere and nearly took the awning off the van, so we had to move everything twenty feet in from the busy road.
The library travels in book bins which makes it relatively portable. Here’s a small sampling of the collection below. The titles will eventually be uploaded to the website for future borrowers.
One of the Bookmobile’s first visitors was Mark Bartlett, Head of the CAW Environmental Council. Mark arrived as we were in the process of moving away from the road, so the books and other paraphernalia were scattered all over the lawn. However, Mark was more interested in checking out our fine 1993 Plymouth van to see if it was one that he had built when he worked at Chrysler in the early 1990s.
Eventually we got set up away from the wind and a dedicated cohort of Bookmobile readers began to form.
We attempted to establish a subject index that was color coded from orange to grey. This scheme was loosely based upon the security alert colors that we see when crossing the border (or at airports).
Inspired by the bookmobiles of the past, the Border Bookmobile has its own stamp used both in the color coding scheme and to mark the books as part of the circulating collection.
