Top 3 Abandoned Places In Windsor

There are so many abandoned places in Windsor! This is a list of the top three abandoned places in Windsor. Browse through all abandoned places in Windsor

1. St. Jules Catholic Primary School

Designed by Windsor architects Pennington and Boyde, St. Jules primary school was opened in 1925. Thirty five years later in 1960 an addition and gymnasium were added. In operation until 2017 when the school was closed and the students merged into the new St Theresa of Calcutta School. Today the school sits vacant and abandoned, used briefly for Police training. Some people have made their way inside but it's pretty well sealed now with large cement blocks covering most entry points. I was fortunate enough to be invited to tour the school with a group of former students. Listening to some of the stories of being whooped by the nuns here made me glad I wasn't a student 60 or 70 years ago. It seemed every one of them had a story or two like this too. Given free roam for about an hour I made a mad dash to document every corner possible. The immediate future of the building is to sit vacant as it is but inevitably it will be demo'd and the property used to build housing.

2. Windsor Dragway

The Windsor Dragway opened in 1968 and closed at the end of the 1971 season. The overgrown drag strip is still there with trees growing through the gaurd rails. The concession stands are still there, although they are in pretty rough shape.

3. Grace Hospital

An old 250 bed hospital, currently in the works of being demolished and reconstructed.

From miohmio:

I took these photos April of last year and promptly forgot I had them. I was cruising through some great places on here which reminded me of my visit and I thought before I forget again, I'd better share these shots. I wish I could have gotten inside, but the neighbour across the road with whom I spoke said it's pretty empty but dangerous inside and there are frequently young kids/teens in there fooling around and she's always concerned about them getting injured. She mentioned the elevators were removed and it's a 5 or 6 floor drop to the basement. She couldn't tell me enough how badly she and her neighbours wanted this building either renovated or gone. They'd been told so many times over the years that something would be done with it, only to hear that plans fell through. Now they just look forward to it finally being gone. Here's a little history about the hospital, if anyone has anything to add, please do.

Salvation Army Grace Hospital:

In 1918 the Salvation Army purchased the former Ellis home at Crawford and London Streets responding to a need for more hospital beds in Windsor. The Grace Hospital was originally supposed to be a maternity hospital, like others the Salvation Army had founded in Canada, but the need for more beds was so great that the plans were changed and Windsor soon had its second general hospital.

The original building (the former Ellis home) only had a capacity for 28 beds and so in 1922 a second wing was built to increase the capacity to 122 beds. Over the years a South Wing in 1942 and a North Wing in 1945 were constructed. A fire destroyed a large portion of the hospital on June 6, 1960 and approval was obtained to build a new five story high air conditioned wing which officially opened in September 1966. After this wing was built all that remained of the original Ellis home was its central door.

An additional expansion and renovation project was approved in February 1980 and the West Wing was officially opened in March 1985.

Due to government cutbacks, Grace Hospital merged with Hotel Dieu Hospital (on Ouellette St. in downtown Windsor) a few years prior to closing its doors for good on February 1, 2004. Grace Hospital was sold that year for a reported $800,000 and was to be converted into a long term care 256 bed facility. The contractor hired by the provincial government to develop the facility was millions of dollars in debt so the facility never materialized. It sat empty, deteriorating and has become such a troublesome eyesore for the citizens of this community for so very long now. It is finally, slowly being demolished. There was a fire on the roof on May 17th of this year which resulted in no injuries. They are still in the process of taking this discarded relic down.

Update July 28 2013 - This place is no more than a hole in the ground now. Even the debris has been cleaned up. So sad, R.I.P. Grace Hospital