Behind the Garden Suburb: Scandal, Speculation, and Unease in Memorial Park
About this Event
Behind the Garden Suburb: Scandal, Speculation, and Unease in Memorial Park
Jane’s Walk - One hour guided walking tour
Windsor-Essex Jane's Walk Fundraiser - $25/per person
Saturday, October 24 from 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Host: Kathryn Marenco (Marenco Architects)
Join Kathryn on a guided walking tour through the more unsettling realities of South Walkerville's interwar period: the neighbourhood as a carefully marketed suburban ideal, contrasted with Depression-era instability, speculative land sales, restrictive covenants, mysterious disappearances, public scandals, prohibition-era tensions, and the ways private lives sometimes unraveled behind very composed architectural façades.
Starting and Ending location:
Memorial Park Gates (where Hall Ave intersects with Ypres Ave) at Optimist Memorial Park
About the host:
Kathryn Marenco grew up in Windsor’s Memorial Park development and returned to the city in 2023 after many years in Toronto. Now an architect and principal of Marenco Architects Inc., she brings a professional interest in housing, heritage, adaptive reuse, and city-building to a neighbourhood she first knew as a child. An avid cyclist and attentive observer of streets and places, Kathryn is drawn to the stories, both celebrated and uncomfortable, that shape how communities understand themselves.
Event type:
Jane’s Walk - One hour guided walking tour
About the Fundraiser, Spooky Jane's Walk:
Spooky Jane’s Walk returns in October with candlelit tours, historic cemeteries, true terrible tales, and eerie neighbourhood events in Kingsville, Windsor, and Amherstburg.
Spooky Jane’s Walk is our annual fundraiser for the Jane’s Walk Windsor-Essex Festival, which brings more than 60 free community walks and events to the region each spring. Learn more at WindsorJanesWalk.ca.
Accessibility notes:
- No dogs, please
- Adult-focused content
- The route will be challenging where we leave the paved path in the park and walk through the wood-chip paths of the interior park to the neighbourhood.
- In the neighbourhood, there is a portion of the walk where there is no sidewalk, where the group will be walking down the road. Assistance will be needed to walk in a linear fashion for safety.
- Public bathroom available near starting location
- Approximately 1.5 km of walking.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
CAD 27.96
