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Friday August 22nd, 2008 @ 2:28am

City News

Prince of Wales school, that ever apparent, historic brick structure that sits on the edge of campus, across from Harvey’s, and smack-dab in the middle of the site plan for the Center for Engineering Innovation is on the University’s list of Facility projects.  Project you ask?  This one is spelled with a D for Demolition.  Good thing or bad thing?  Let’s explore the Prince of Wales school.  Hit the jump for more…

The facade of Prince of Wales Public School, normally hidden from the street by volumes of traffic and several large trees.  Ivy has been creeping along since the school closed in the mid-90s.

Closer.. some wonderful graffiti lines the door.

A common view:  usually what students and visitors to the University see of the school.  Now instead of hosting school children, the school is a warehouse for surplus university furniture, items and a document or two.

The west elevation of Prince of Wales.

’round back, the school’s windows have been battered and bruised over the years by vandals and stray tennis balls from parking-lot hockey.

A damaged vertical window that stands above the rear doors.

The east elevation of the school, strangely there are more windows on this side than the west.

Atop the east end of the building is the badge of the Prince of Wales.  Three feathers atop a crown.

The school is used also to store outfits from the School of Dramatic Arts at the University.

Interesting graffiti at the rear of the building.

Lastly, a Windsor Board Of Education sign at the rear of the building.  This school never made it to the days of the Greater Essex County District School Board.

Prince of Wales is set to be demolished in the near future.  When that is exactly, I’m not sure.  Recently I noticed a few interior lights on at the wee hours of the night, which might suggest the University is removing most of the stuff they store there in preparation for demolition.

Construction related to the Center for Engineering Innovation should be starting anytime now that the University has decided afterall to locate the building on-campus.  A fine piece of architecture, Prince of Wales may be here today, but will be dust soon.

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  • anonymous

    The closure of Prince of Whales was announced in April of 1992, and Prince of Whales closed in June of 1993.

    At the time the Public School board said it has no plans to sell it to the University of Windsor, but shortly after the school closed the University took possession of the lands, demolished the playground and the two baseball diamonds that were still in use by little leagues from the west side and paved it over for parking, with NO warnings to the groups that used those diamonds.

    I attended Prince of Wales until I was in Grade 7 when it was announced it would close. There was really no warning that the school board was even considering the closure of the school.

    A community fight took place to try to save the building, but the public school board – who Ron Jones was a trustee on at the time – refused to hear the case. The school parents council had just finished a huge fundraising effort to build a new playground. That money was later used to have a reunion and school closing celebration in June of 1993. A three day event that brought hundreds of old students back to the school from all over Canada.

    The school had full enrolenment at the time it was closed, and even thought the school board wouldn’t say it at the time, we all knew the only reason it was being closed was to sell it to the University. Shortly after the school closed many families – like mine – moved out of the area, and that entire neighborhood has now been over run by student rental houses.

    Also, in answer to your comments on picture 8 on why there is more windows on the east side then the west elevation. The east section was added onto the original building. On the original section of the building all, the class rooms face south and north, and the west side wall with little windows, is where the stairs are. When the new section was added on all the class rooms were built with a east facing elevation. You can notice on the front pictures of the school, the far east side front is all brick wall. That is where the new addition was tacked on.

  • nootka

    it’s a complete tragedy that this building is being demolished. I cannot understand why it even needs to be torn down. can the university not use the extensive lands behind it and use the existing building for additional classrooms or other uses? another heritage site lost.

  • westerntragedy

    Aha! Thanks for the history. I couldn’t find a single sentence online about the history of the place. I was hoping the GECDSB site had some info on historic school sites, but nothing was to be found.

  • westerntragedy

    I know eh. “Adaptive reuse” isn’t in the vocabularies of any property owner in Windsor it seems :(

  • fleeting_image

    With such a beautiful facade it is a shame they can’t re-use-it.

    Of all the buildings and lots that need to be razed and demolished, they pick the nice ones. Why not re-use that old Wool-worth’s building over at Tecumseh and Lauzon? So much space there with parkin already availible.

    There are so many spots that could use rejuvination but they’re using historic buildings. Hell they could even turn it in to a loft apartment thing. That would be cool.

  • _linabeanz

    I think its a great idea. The future of Windsor lies in education – not in abandoned buildings used as storage.

    When the new Engineering building is opened I’ll welcome it with open arms!