Then and Now: New Photo Book Looks at How Windsor Has Changed

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Each building has a story.

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Writer Andrew Foot and photographer Ian Virtue have taken it upon themselves to tell those stories with Windsor: Then and Now.

The new Biblioasis book juxtaposes historical images dating back to the early 20th century with photos of Windsor today to show how the city has evolved over the years.

“It’s interesting to be able to take the average building that you can walk through a couple of times a week and provide a historical perspective and tell the backstory of what it used to be,” said Foot, an architectural historian.

“It’s about taking a look at the sites that are perhaps familiar to the people they see every day, and perhaps other sites that they don’t quite think of in that kind of context.”

Windsor: Then and Now It’s Available Now , but there will be an official release on November 30 at Chapter Two Brewing Company.

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Foot’s words provide details and historical context, while a combination of historical images and Virtue photographs illustrate how much Windsor has changed.

The book documents the tremendous growth and progress Windsor has experienced over the past 170 years, but it also reviews what we have forgotten.

“Working on this book has allowed me to really understand how much we have lost,” Virtue wrote in the book’s foreword. “Not just the physical brick and mortar structures that have been demolished, Windsor faces a loss of identity. From trying to photograph the shadow of St. Mary’s Academy in what is now a subdivision, to standing in a Food Basics parking lot trying to judge where the Collegiate Institute used to be, Windsor is full of places that once helped define who we are. as a community “.

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Foot said Windsor has often sacrificed its heritage for the next big thing.

“Windsor is an interesting city from that point of view,” he said. “It has always had the ability to constantly regenerate and grow back. There is always a desire for something new here. “

One section of the book contrasts a photo of the Peace Beacon with an old photo of the Ritz Hotel, which once stood on the northwest corner of Ouellette Avenue and Riverside Drive.

Originally home to the Merchant’s Bank of Canada when it opened in 1883, the building was demolished in 1955 to make way for Dieppe Gardens.

“I think people would be surprised to learn that at some point we had buildings like that on the north side of Riverside Drive,” Foot said.

But the book also documents the massive growth and progress achieved as Windsor evolved from a fledgling village to a large city.

A 1950 photo taken at Ypres Avenue and Walker Road shows the intersection surrounded by empty fields. On the facing page is a modern take on the busy road “dwarfed” by the Windsor Assembly Plant.

“Always looking towards the new and the great, and the regrowth, I guess trying to show that it is a progressive city,” Foot said. “We have surely lost part of our history. But there is still a lot of that in many places. “

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