An Amherstburg landmark is gone.
The Meadows -- built in 1923 -- has been demolished.
Former owner Wayne Jahn says the roadhouse sustained heavy water damage from a small fire three years ago.
"After months of looking at re-doing it and bringing it up to code it was not feasible," says Jahn. "It would have cost way too much money and the new owners thought the best thing to do would be to tear it down and start anew."
The Meadows in Amherstburg was damaged by fire in 2014 (Photo courtesy of Wayne Jahn)
Jahn bought The Meadows in 2006 and sold it last fall.
He says there was an old black binder containing recipes that dated back to the 1940s. Everything was homemade, including the tartar sauce used on their number-one seller, perch.
"The Meadows in its day was a very, very popular landmark. It was the oldest and most southern roadhouse in Canada. It had a lot of heritage," says Jahn.
The Meadows in Amherstburg was demolished March 7, 2017 (Photo courtesy of Wayne Jahn)
He says it breaks his heart to see the building torn down.
"The building is almost 100 years old. If those walls could talk, boy oh boy, the stories that would come out of there. Unbelievable," says Jahn.
He says legend has it the building had a ghost named Carter, who was part of a gang that was going to rob the business in the 1920s. Jahn says Carter decided not to go through with the robbery and was killed in the dining room by the gang members.
Jahn says many staff would see the ghost, dressed in a long black coat and wearing a black bowler hat.
The Meadows in Amherstburg is demolished March 7, 2017 (Photo courtesy of Wayne Jahn)
(With files from AM800's Teresinha Medeiros)