Old Sandwich Towne (Windsor, Ontario)

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Sandwich Towne was first settled in 1749 as a French agricultural settlement, making it the oldest continually inhabited settlement in Canada west of Montreal. Many buildings and houses date to the mid-19th century. The neighbourhood is bounded by Detroit Street and Rosedale Boulevard along the northern edge, by the Essex Terminal Railway to the east and south, and the Detroit River to the west. The Windmill in Mill Park is a replica of an original Windmill. This neighbourhood was also the site of the Battle of Windsor which took place in 1837. This neighbourhood is very proud of its rich and diverse history, having murals on many buildings' sides that show people, events, and buildings of the past, such as Ms. B. McKewan Arnold, the great-niece of the famous Benedict Arnold, founding a hospital/nursing station in Sandwich, and of how slaves fled from the southern United States and the Confederate States to freedom in Sandwich through the Underground Railroad before slavery was abolished.

Sandwich was officially established in 1797 as a Town. Sandwich lasted as an independent town until 1935, when it was amalgamated with into Windsor.

When the town was annexed by the City of Windsor in 1935, its town limits extended as far east as between Partington and Bridge Avenues to the east and along Tecumseh Road as its southern edge.

In the summer of 2007, the neighbourhood of Sandwich was officially "connected" to the rest of the Windsor Bike Trail network, with bike lanes being extended along University Avenue (where it meets the Riverfront Trail/West Side Recreationway) to Sandwich Street, all the way to Prince Road, where it meets up with the College Avenue Recreationway, and is now among the most-connected neighbourhoods in terms of bike trails and bike lanes within it.

Recently, the residents of the neighbourhood have been voicing concern that their neighbourhood is being forgotten or neglected for other richer areas of the city (as it is the poorest neighbourhood in Windsor), with the closure of its only bank branch (a CIBC office, now vacant), and the loss of the local Shoppers Drug Mart, which concerns many in the area. [1]. Rexall has opened a store beside the former Shoppers Drug Mart.

However, the neighbourhood still maintains the former County Courthouse and municipal building and current community center,Mackenzie Hall (built in 1855) by Alexander MacKenzie, the second Prime Minister of Canada, the Duff-Baby House (built in 1798) and a multi-purpose building which houses General Brock Public School, a Windsor Police Department precinct, and a branch of the Windsor Public Library and all at its famous "Bedford Square" (intersection of Brock Street and Sandwich Street).