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A shiny new waterfront attraction — the heart of which is 107 years old — is now open to the public and has been named after a former mayor “instrumental” to the riverfront’s preservation.
With hundreds gathered for the grand unveiling of Windsor’s restored Streetcar No. 351 on Thursday, Mayor Drew Dilkens announced that the land near the foot of Caron Avenue would be known as Michael D. Hurst Legacy Park.
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Hurst, who served as Windsor’s mayor from 1992 to 2003, was choked up as he introduced the members of his family who joined him for Thursday’s celebration.
“There is no more meaningful tribute one can receive than a tribute from one’s community,” Hurst said.
During a closed-door meeting in 2023, city council voted to name the new site after Hurst, who Dilkens said was “instrumental in the assembling, the development, the completion, the preservation, and the programming of the riverfront.”
Known as the Legacy Beacon, the new glass-front building houses the historic 50-foot, 24,000-pound streetcar that once transported passengers along Windsor roadways but was hidden inside a cottage in Belle River for decades.
At times controversial for its location and rising price, the Legacy Beacon project “has survived the test of three city councils, and it has been like crawling through glass” to get it built, Dilkens said.
“There’s been lots of debate on how best to move forward with this project, but we couldn’t let the last of Windsor streetcars disappear out of reach.”
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The new building houses washrooms and an eatery that serves hot and cold drinks, alcohol, ice cream, and other foods, including deep-fried pickles, poutine, chicken tenders, and charcuterie boards.
Its main attraction is the meticulously restored Streetcar No. 351, built by the Cincinnati Car Company in Cincinnati, OH., in 1918 and later purchased and brought to Windsor for the Sandwich, Windsor and Amherstburg Railway line.
Windsor was the first city in Canada to have a public electric street railway.
When Windsor switched to buses in 1938, streetcars were retired and sold off. Car 351 was converted into a fishing bait shop in Belle River.
In 1954, the streetcar was moved to a residential property in the same municipality, and a cottage was built around it.
Until roughly a decade ago, the iconic piece of Windsor’s transit history was mostly hidden from sight and rotting away on a lot in Belle River.
In 2007, local railway historian Bernie Drouillard and a friend set out to find the streetcar they’d heard was in the municipality. They rediscovered No. 351 while turning around in a driveway, but they left the streetcar untouched.
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“Those people lived in a car that was only seven feet wide. That was their kitchen,” said Drouillard on Thursday, recalling his discovery.
“This has been a dream for us. It took from 2007 to today to see the final finished product.”
Two Windsor entrepreneurs had streetcars on the brain a few years after Drouillard’s find, which he kept quiet. Van Niforos, owner of the Penalty Box restaurant, and business partner, the late George Sofos, were renovating University Avenue’s former streetcar barn, which once housed the Junction restaurant.
The duo planned to open a new restaurant inside one of the buildings on the site and to pay homage to the city’s transit history.
Niforos and Sofos reached out to Drouillard and learned of his find. They purchased the streetcar, dismantled the house built around it, and brought it to Windsor in 2015. They planned to restore it and feature it at their new restaurant, but when their plans changed, they donated it to the city.
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Craftsmen with RM Auto Restoration in Blenheim spent months reconstructing thousands of parts for car No. 351, most of them out of wood.
Hundreds of visitors walked through the deep-red streetcar for the first time on Thursday. Housed indoors and protected from the elements, the vehicle contains bell-shaped lights, small bench seats, and some century-old advertisements.
Dilkens noted that all of the screws in the trolley’s wooden floor are turned so their heads face the same way.
“The attention to detail is second to none,” he told the Star as visitors streamed inside.
The Legacy Beacon — the structure built to house the streetcar alongside bathrooms and a cafe — has been mired in controversy over its location and price. Between council’s approval of the project in 2020 and the start of construction in 2023, its cost rose from $7.4 million to $10.3 million. Its waterfront location also changed from the foot of Askin Avenue to the foot of Caron Avenue after a resident successfully appealed the former over its height to Ontario’s Local Planning Appeal Tribunal.
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Streetcar 351 on display
Thursday’s event kicked off a four-day opening celebration for Windsor’s newest waterfront gathering space.
From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday to Sunday, Museum Windsor staff will be on site for informative tours of Streetcar No. 351 and the associated historical exhibition. The concession vendor and patio will open for business each of those days from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Also until Sunday, visitors can take self-guided tours of the streetcar and its display from 5-9 p.m., with live music from local entertainers.
On Saturday and Sunday, from 1-3 p.m., there will be on-site family entertainment for all ages.
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