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Difference between revisions of "L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse"
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===History=== | ===History=== | ||
| − | The warehouse was built in 1906 by the Lewis Albert Armstrong and Sons Apple Exporting Company. | + | The warehouse was built in 1906 by the Lewis Albert Armstrong and Sons Apple Exporting Company. L. A. Armstrong (1861-1941) was a farmer from [[Falmouth]] with extensive orchards. He also had a second and smaller apple warehouse in Falmouth. His Windsort warehouse was a wooden second generation [[:Category:Apple Warehouses|apple warehouse]] built with wooden knees and iron tensioning rods.<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10220121891773845&set=gm.3497909433560500&type=3&theater&ifg=1 Richard Gordon Armstrong Facebook Comment, November 19, 2019]</ref> It had typical apple warehouse features: three track-side doors, roof and wall vents to ensure it remained frost-proof and a row of big windows for the packing room. It also had some unusual features: a row of small three-pane windows to illuminate the loft floor where empty barrels were stored and a manager and accountant's office that was integrated into the warehouses instead of being attached. For many decades it employed a seasonal packing crew every fall to pack apples delivered from Windsor area orchards which were loaded on boxcars for shipment to Halifax from September until April. One of two apple warehouses in downtown Windsor (along with the B. Sexton Warehouse to the west), its location across from the south end of the old [[Windsor Station]] platform ensured that it often appeared in the background of locomotive photos taken in Windsor. The warehouse became more noticeable in later years after the construction of Highway 101 when it became prominent in the view from the highway and overpass road near the Windsor downtown Tim Hortons. The warehouse became a factory outlet shop for the nearby Windsor Wear (Nova Scotia Textiles) mill in the 1990s. It became something of a Windsor icon in its final years due to large mural painted by artist Ken Spearing in 2003<ref>Artist information from Wayne Simon from Facebook Post in the Group "Abandoned Nova Scotia", Nov. 21, 2019: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217842088898791</ref> which depicted a railway scene and incorporated the warehouse windows into the artwork. The warehouse was acquired by the [[Windsor and Hantsport Railway]] who used the spur to park railway track maintenance box cars and track repair equipment. However, following the mothballing of the railway in 2011, the warehouse sat unused and unmaintained, racking up $95,766 in unpaid taxes owed by the Windsor and Hantsport Railway. The warehouse was purchased at a forced tax sale by the Town of Windsor with hopes that it would encourage commercial development by the river. The town judged that the warehouse was beyond repair and approved demolition in October 2019.<ref>[https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/provincial/windsor-approves-demolishing-former-windsor-wear-factory-outlet-building-370479/ Carole Morris-Underhill, "Windsor approves demolishing former Windsor Wear Factory Outlet building", ''Halifax Chronicle Herald'', Oct 31, 2019]</ref> It was demolished on November 19, 2019.<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10220121891773845&set=gm.3497909433560500&type=3&theater&ifg=1 John D. Wilson, Photo and Facebook post in the group "You Know You're from Windsor, Nova Scotia When you remember.." about demolition, November 19, 2019]</ref> |
==Gallery== | ==Gallery== | ||
Revision as of 20:05, 19 January 2020
L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse, Windsor
6 Water Street, Windsor, Nova Scotia, facing the Windsor Station platform
Mile 31.51 from Windsor Junction on the Halifax Subdivision
- Track Location: southern waterfront spur, loading doors 10, 11 and 12
- Insulated Apple Warehouse, wooden frame construction
- Capacity: 10,000 barrels of apples[1]
History
The warehouse was built in 1906 by the Lewis Albert Armstrong and Sons Apple Exporting Company. L. A. Armstrong (1861-1941) was a farmer from Falmouth with extensive orchards. He also had a second and smaller apple warehouse in Falmouth. His Windsort warehouse was a wooden second generation apple warehouse built with wooden knees and iron tensioning rods.[2] It had typical apple warehouse features: three track-side doors, roof and wall vents to ensure it remained frost-proof and a row of big windows for the packing room. It also had some unusual features: a row of small three-pane windows to illuminate the loft floor where empty barrels were stored and a manager and accountant's office that was integrated into the warehouses instead of being attached. For many decades it employed a seasonal packing crew every fall to pack apples delivered from Windsor area orchards which were loaded on boxcars for shipment to Halifax from September until April. One of two apple warehouses in downtown Windsor (along with the B. Sexton Warehouse to the west), its location across from the south end of the old Windsor Station platform ensured that it often appeared in the background of locomotive photos taken in Windsor. The warehouse became more noticeable in later years after the construction of Highway 101 when it became prominent in the view from the highway and overpass road near the Windsor downtown Tim Hortons. The warehouse became a factory outlet shop for the nearby Windsor Wear (Nova Scotia Textiles) mill in the 1990s. It became something of a Windsor icon in its final years due to large mural painted by artist Ken Spearing in 2003[3] which depicted a railway scene and incorporated the warehouse windows into the artwork. The warehouse was acquired by the Windsor and Hantsport Railway who used the spur to park railway track maintenance box cars and track repair equipment. However, following the mothballing of the railway in 2011, the warehouse sat unused and unmaintained, racking up $95,766 in unpaid taxes owed by the Windsor and Hantsport Railway. The warehouse was purchased at a forced tax sale by the Town of Windsor with hopes that it would encourage commercial development by the river. The town judged that the warehouse was beyond repair and approved demolition in October 2019.[4] It was demolished on November 19, 2019.[5]
Gallery
Locomotive No. 557 at Windsor with the L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse and insulated rail car loading apples in background, winter 1924.
Locomotive No. 540 at Windsor with the L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse with box car loading apples in background, 1938.
Locomotive No. 999 in Windsor with the L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse with outside braced boxcar loading in the background, circa 1950.
The new Windsor Station with the old freight shed in the centre and the L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse, Aug. 7, 1973.
Train No. 1 at Windsor Station with the L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse to left and the Avon River Causeway to right, Aug 17, 1977.
The L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse in Windsor, April 1979.
Windsor, with CPR Locomotive 8132 and freight train on the Avon River Causeway and a Southern Railroad boxcar parked at the L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse, Oct. 17, 1979.
The L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse in Windsor with WHRC Caboose 150, Feb. 28, 2005.
The L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse with its mural in Windsor, photographed by Wayne Simon, Mar. 14, 2017.
The L. A. Armstrong Apple Warehouse under demolition, photographed by John D. Wilson, Nov. 19, 2019.
References and Footnotes
- ↑ Dominion Atlantic Railway, DAR Chart of Apple and Produce Warehouses, February 23, 1927
- ↑ Richard Gordon Armstrong Facebook Comment, November 19, 2019
- ↑ Artist information from Wayne Simon from Facebook Post in the Group "Abandoned Nova Scotia", Nov. 21, 2019: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217842088898791
- ↑ Carole Morris-Underhill, "Windsor approves demolishing former Windsor Wear Factory Outlet building", Halifax Chronicle Herald, Oct 31, 2019
- ↑ John D. Wilson, Photo and Facebook post in the group "You Know You're from Windsor, Nova Scotia When you remember.." about demolition, November 19, 2019
