Come visit us at 3895 Tecumseh Rd East, Windsor, ON Canada
HISTORY
IN THE BEGINNING
Windsor Hobbies started off as a mail order train supply reseller out of the home of Fred & Olive Stainer in the early 70's. Fred was able to make his childhood dream come true in 1972 when he opened the first store front at 3843 Howard Ave (at Cabana) under the name Windsor Hobby Supply as seen in photo. In 1974 the store was incorporated and the name became Windsor Hobbies Ltd.
NEXT PHASE
Around 1979 the store was moved to Central Mall on Central & Tecumseh where many of our customers today remember frequenting when they were younger. This might be what you would call the "Hey Day" with a very large store square footage, a large variety of inventory and boasting a 21 foot long train layout. If you look closely at the picture shown you will see the train layout along the left side and all that spacious room, something we envy a bit today!
Some time around 1986 Windsor Hobbies Ltd was mainly liquidated of their inventory and closed it's doors to the public.
THE COME BACK
In the late '80's Windsor Hobbies Ltd. came back in a small way at Pickwick Plaza on Tecumseh near Lauzon Pkwy with a little section inside another business owed by Fred & Olive's son called Adventure World. By 1989 / 1990 Fred & Olive were again ready to open Windsor Hobbies Ltd. with it's own store front just down the road from their old stomping ground at Central Mall to where Windsor Hobbies still resides today.
3895 Tecumseh Rd E. , Windsor, ON
Over the years Fred & Olive's daughter Shirley took over the reins of the store and ran it with her husband Jerry. In this picture attached you will see Windsor Hobbies is celebrating 35 years so would mark it at 2005. Some people will probably also notice the old phone booth was still here at this time.
CURRENT PHASE 2.0
This brings us to the present ownership. In mid 2021, in the middle of a world pandemic I might add, We made a leap of faith to purchase this little store with so much local history. It started out as a mail order dealer for train enthusiasts', grew into a full hobby shop that morphed and changed with how & what they carried through the changing of interests in the hobby world. As Shirley was ready to retire she was going to close the doors in July 2021 whether it sold or not. We decided to take on Windsor Hobbies and keep it a good old fashion hobby store with a good selection of products and tools that cater to the construction hobby world. We hope you are happy with what we have done with Windsor Hobbies in trying to keep true to its history while adding a little of us to it. We look forward to "hobby-ing" with you all for years to come!