Beaver Lumber (2324 Walker Rd., Windsor, Ontario)

Recollections (1990s)

During the 1990s, I occasionally visited the Beaver Lumber store that was at 2324 Walker Rd. in Windsor, Ontario.

I remember the store being similar in style to Home Depot stores, with it contained within a warehouse-like building, but smaller. The Home Depot store at 655 Sydney Ave. was probably two to three times as large as the Beaver Lumber store.

It was larger than the typical Home Hardware stores I remember going to in the area at the time.

I’m not sure exactly when it closed, but I believe it would have been around 1999 or 2000. I don’t recall it being rebranded as a Home Hardware store after the acquisition.

Other Information

The Walker Rd. store is listed in some archived store lists from the Beaver Lumber website:

1997-01-16: “CLARENCE DUQUETTE” is listed as the franchisee/manager.
1998-04-16: “JEROME NOEL” is listed as the franchisee/manager. Other locations in the area at 1855 Manning Rd., Tecumseh and 700 Tecumseh Rd. W., Windsor are now listed.
2000-06-20: The 2324 Walker Rd., Windsor location is no longer listed.

The store is referenced in various places within the digitized Might Directories 1988 Windsor Ontario City Directory, such as:

A small ad at the bottom of the page: Similar ads exist on other pages. They mention “C. DUQUETTE BUILDING MATERIALS LTD.”.
A larger ad: Includes the store’s hours.
A business-type-based listing.
An address-based listing.
A name-based listing.

There was a “C. DUQUETTE BUILDING MATERIALS LTD.” (170310-2) Canadian federal corporation with a registered office address at 2324 Walker Rd., Windsor, Ontario. The corporation was dissolved in 1992, and the name was briefly “B. CROMPTON BUILDING MATERIALS LTD.” in 1984.

Clarence Josephat Duquette apparently passed away on September 13, 2017:

Reaume Funeral Home Inc. obituary: Some of the messages on the Tribute Wall mention Beaver Lumber.
Windsor Star obituary: Mentions him working for and eventually owning the Walker Rd. Beaver Lumber store.
Ancestry.com profile.

The June 2025 Google Street View imagery from Walker Rd. suggested that the building still existed then. A sign next to the driveway indicated that “2324 Walker Road” was the Chrysler “Vehicle Completion Centre”. A berm and trees along the edge of Walker Rd. mostly blocked the view of it from the street, and the property appeared to be surrounded by a chain-link fence.

Google Street View imagery from November 2023 showed the site from Ypres Ave., and a view from near Vimy Ave. was available from September 2017.