The Matchcover Storyteller

Ya gotta love any establishment that has celebrated its centennial and Windsor, Ontario’s Giovanni Caboto Club is one of them.  Its hundredth anniversary was in February 2025 and it capped that year with a gala centennial banquet in November.

Back in the day however, it was at the end of 1924 that 10 Windsor men wanted to hold a New Years Eve dance; they did it at St. Joseph’s Separate School.  The event’s success propelled them to actually organize in January 1925 as the Borders Cities Italian Club.  It became a social success and a contributor to Windsor’s well-being; the first donation was $47.12 to the Goodfellows Club of Windsor.  The club formally incorporated in 1927 and has given millions to countless charities in the Windsor-Essex region of southwestern Ontario.  It is the largest and oldest Italian Club in the region and today its facilities host more than 2,000 separate events a year.

The club outgrew St. Joe’s by 1934 and bought its own building on Wyandotte Street.   Today, that historic building hosts the Street Help Homeless Shelter.  In 1949 the club built its own larger home where it has expanded a couple of times and thrives to this day,.

So who was Giovanni Caboto?  I suspect that like me, you were taught his English name John Cabot.  The name is Anglicized because it was for England’s King Henry VII that he sailed and became the first voyager to reach North America since the Vikings centuries’ earlier.  (Remember, Columbus reached islands of the West Indies!)   Cabot was the first to report the then-stunning richness of the cod fishery off the shores of Newfoundland.  (and yes, he too believed he had really reached Asia.)

St.; Joseph’s Separate School underwent an 8-room expansion in 1928 but could not ultimately survive centralization.  It disappeared in the mid- to late-20th century.

This 20-strike rear striker from Eddy Match is the only one I’ve seen.   But maybe you’d like the “Cooking with Giovanni Caboto: Regional Italian Cuisine” cookbook.  With 200 recipes, it came out in 2012.