On December 31, 1965, the town had 33,000 residents
- a day later that number was down to 6,000.
Who says the best is always in the past? For Essex
County’s Lasalle, glory days are being experienced right now.
With its 25th anniversary being celebrated this June, the
town is looking back on its history in Essex County and
celebrating its enthusiasm for the future.
Along with enjoying the ranking of the second safest
municipality in the country according to Stats Canada, Lasalle
also has the highest amount of tree coverage in the county,
allowing it to qualify as a “natural heritage area.” And if you
want to explore it a little more thoroughly, an intricate 37 km
network of biking trails weaves through the county, away from
the busy-ness of urban life.
“The trails can get you from neighbourhood to
neighbourhood to keep you off the roads,” said Dawn Hadre,
Lasalle’s corporate communication and promotions officer.
“People recognize (us) as a safe, good community.”
But none of this is bestowed on a spoiled child unable to
appreciate its sudden good fortune. With the third biggest
population - and the most impressive considering its size - in
comparison to the rest of the county’s towns, Lasalle’s present
incarnation has developed almost entirely just in the last 30
years. It might be hard to believe that in 1981 the town was
able to issue only one building permit for the construction of a
new home.
Building would eventually be the staple of a rural
township that hadn’t seen any extensive growth since
Rene-Robert Cavalier de Lasalle first established a French
colony in the region in the mid-1700s. Sharing the region
below Windsor with Walkerville and Sandwich West, the town
experienced one problem after another, declaring bankruptcy
in both the 1930s and in 1959.
After giving up its status as a town, it chose to
amalgamate with Sandwich West. Windsor however had other
plans, annexing most of the space surrounding it. On
December 31, 1965, the town had 33,000 residents- a day later
that number was down to 6,000.
“We were literally selling properties
to pay our telephone bill,” said Mayor
Ken Antaya. The transition caused the
town to lose 60 per cent of its land mass.
In just 30 years, LaSalle
has become a vibrant,
thriving community.
Above: the LaSalle
cenotaph
Left: the new Town Hall
Complex encompassing
administrative offices and
library