Fancy Billy

On April 12, 1907, carpenter John M. Locke took out a water permit for this house at 1746 William Street. He is listed as living there in 1908 with his wife, Martha. Locke worked as a carpenter for the Royal City Planing Mills and at the E.H. Heaps Sawmill, which was located at the bottom of Victoria Drive - a short walk away.

Locke was born in Prince Edward Island in 1871 and his wife, Martha Caimes, was born near Stratford, Ontario in 1867. 

A permit for a garage ($50) was issued on June 14, 1912. The house is a Colonial Revival style with a projecting front porch and a large dormer on the hipped roof. The dormer probably isn't part of the original design.

This 2 1/2 storey tall home at 1556 William Street is an elaborate version of the Gabled Vernacular Style. It has a closed front gable and the porch is attached to its rectangular main structure. The structure is more elaborate than others of this style because of the bay windows and balcony set on the porch roof.

It is listed as 1910 but no building permit has been found. The City Directories list the date of 1908 for this home with James Springer, a logger, living there in 1909, and Harry Christiansen, another logger, taking residence in 1910.

 
The strongly triangular front gable, saddlebag dormers and sleeping porch proclaim this house at 1544 William Street to be an Edwardian-Style house. The building permit is dated April 6, 1910 and was issued to Passage and Tomlin, a realtor/builder with offices located on Commercial Drive.

The original house was valued at $2,000 and is first shown on a map in 1911. It was listed vacant for that year and the next but in 1913, a missionary by the name of John Spencer moved in.

Thanks to the Grandview Heritage Blog for the information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Captains and Revival

Here's a different home for you to look at. This is a 2 1/2 storey, Colonial Revival house with a hipped roof and hipped front dormer. The front is unusual since it has a bay window and a formal entranceway with one oriel window beside it. Usually, this style of home would have an integral porch.

Frank L. Dixon was issued a building permit February 14, 1911 for a $3,500 dwelling house. A year before, on August 3, 1910, the same owner had a building license for a $100 stable on the same property.

The first residents of this address are Dixon and realtor Frank B. Maiken n 1912.

Now we are back to an example of the Gabled Vernacular Style of home - there seems to be a fair amount of these homes in the area. At least I seem to type the description often.

This house, as you can see, has deck over the porch and an unusual projecting gabled bay on the attic storey. On September 29, 1909, A.D. McQuarrie was issued a building permit with a value of $2,200.

The house is listed as new and vacant in the 1910 directory. However, in 1911 and 1912, 1749 Napier Street was occupied by a contractor, William Thorpe, his wife and daughter Laura who was a bookkeeper.

 
This next home is located at 1749 William Street. It is a rather large and elaborate version of the Gabled Vernacular Style, which has a closed front gable framing two bay windows on the second storey. A water permit for this location was given to H. P. (Horace Pulman) Newman on August 31, 1909 and a building permit for a $2,000 abode on September 14 of the same year. The 1910 directory lists the house as being vacant.

The first occupants of this home were the Captain of No. 5 Firehall, William J. (John) Jordan and his wife Margaret. Jordan was born in Brighton, England in 1862 and Margaret Welsh was born in Ireland in 1864. The senior Jordans lived here until 1934.

The Jordans had a daughter named Gladys who married William Rennie in the house in 1914. The Rennies are listed as residents of this address from 1916 to 1944.

In April of 1911, W. Jordan got a permit to build a $125 garage for the home.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into a few homes in my city. Thanks goes to the Grandview Heritage Blog for the information.

Have a great weekend and I hope you find the beauty around you.