Photo from the collection of the Library of Congress
Happy Friday once again everyone, today’s old photo Friday comes from the collection of the Library of Congress, and the Detroit Publishing Company Archives.
Here’s the same view a century apart. The Queen Anne on the corner is still standing, although a bit different than she was was in 1910.
Do you suppose under all that siding the woodwork is still there? Or would it have been removed to put it up?
Ever notice on some of the sidewalks at intersections of Walkerville, the street name is imprinted on the sidewalk? It the original sidewalks too, not modern stuff. Some were accidently put back in place upside down though.:(
There’s one right on the south west corner in this streetview shot. I think all but the north east corner has one at this intersection.
Thanks Andrew!
Most houses still have the original woodclap siding underneath aluminum or vinyl. It is much easier to go nail over top than it is to remove the old wood.
My house has the original clapboard wood over the asphalt siding and in the next few years I will be pulling it off to restore the original siding. It even has the original paint!
What I absolutely love in pictures like this, is to see those trees and how they’ve aged! Amazing!
I really like the house with the Turret. You don’t see to many Queen Anne style homes in Windsor.
Is that a large iron fence I see on the right hand side of the picture? Almost reminds me of the fence that is around Willistead.
To CPC:That’s probably atleast the second generation of trees.There were a lot of American elms planted in Walkerville and the Dutch Elm disease epidemic swept through in the early 60’s.
I can’t get over how clean the street looks all the yards look well maintained
My favourite house with a turret is at Park and Caron, I believe the address is 393 Caron. Has there ever been a post about this house? And does it qualify as Queen Anne style? http://g.co/maps/mhfud
Kristen. It certainly is a Queen Anne style house. However the owners have muddled the housed. Back enclosing the front porch, painting the house in colours more akin to the tudor style and areas where it needs to have some major work.
Sadly once the owners part ways with the house I anticipate it becoming yet another rooming house. The city diesn’t and won’t fight them in the downtown area anymore…only in the suburbs and more affluent neighbourhoods.
I want to add that in fact instead of using our legal department to fight against the increasing use of rooming houses; the city actually uses their legal dep’t t fight the residents who have single family homes in the downtown neighbourhoods to actually allow rooming houses!
The question now is who fights for the neighbourhoods and the little guy? It sure isn’t Windsor!
I was told that this house was once the home of the Walkerville Clerk and that the entrance is actually called the “reception space’ on the blueprints. Apparently Henry Ford Sr held a meeting of sorts in this house regarding Ford City – but my resource is without historial proof. The house has retained a lot of its Victorian interior, the current owners have stayed true to the style and turned what was once a duplex back into a single family home.
About the apartment blocks across the street, I recall as a young girl that there was either one or two large homes on that lot. One might have been occupied by nuns as a statue of the Virgin Mary comes to mind. My recollection is hazy as this was a long time ago. Anyone else remember the old house(s)? Mansion would be a better description. I’m new to this site and have been enjoying it tremendously. I grew up in a more modest area of Walkerville, but was frequently in many of the lovely mansions. I still miss the library in Willistead and the coach house, where pottery and drawing classes were held.
The present apartments between Devonshire and Kildare are probably named for a house which stood on Devonshire and Tuscarora, called”Pentilly”. The house was supposedly left to an order of nuns by the late owner – possibly a Doctor Coyle, who was an eye, ear, nose and throat doc. As I recall, the sisters operated a business oriented school for young ladies. For some reason the order sold the property.I lived in the area, but we moved in 1946.
Kristen, my mother grew up in the house at Park and Caron. Her dad, my grandfather, turned it into a rooming house during the depression. She had many happy memories of that house, and frequently as an adult met people who had lived there and know and loved her father. Someone bought it and turned it back into a single family home in the seventies but much of the original charm was lost. Now of course the yard is…hmm how shall I say this?..busy. Very very busy. If you google ‘J.A. McKay House’ you can find a photo of the original house, although not from the best angle. It’s on the Municipal Heritage Register and the address is indeed 393 Caron Ave.
Cheers!
Stephen Fox, I’ve never heard a reference to the name Pentilly before. I currently live on Pentilly, in Tecumseh (formerly St. Clair Beach) but I will be moving soon. I’ve wondered where the name came from. I don’t know if the source is the same, since they are so far apart, but Pentilly Lane has been in St. Clair Beach for quite a while. It is the street that runs along the east boundary of Beach Grove Golf Course.