Twins are not new

One often reads criticisms of the homes in new developments. A big one is that homes can look alike. So? I can point to quite a number of neighbourhoods through out London where sometimes six or more homes have been built all the same: cookie cutter homes.

Yesterday I featured two homes that were quite similar. Today I am posting two twin homes in the same neighbourhood. There are lots of things to criticize when it comes to new homes, and I have to admit that in recent years popping up similar homes side by side and row after row takes the building of similar homes to an arguably ridiculous extreme, but the idea of building identical twin homes is not new. And sometimes, as in the past, it worked.

A century-plus-ten home in North London

These two homes sit side by side in North London. They look quite similar at first glance. It makes one wonder if the homes shared the same builder. The home on the left is a heritage home with plaque beside the front door. It declares that the home dates from 1911 and that its first owner was Alfred Ironside who farmed some acreage outside London and then moved into the city to work as a cattle dealer.

The Home Alone style home in London

There is a fabulous, architecturally designed neighbourhood in Detroit known as the Historic Boston-Edison Neighbourhood. This handsome home in North London has always reminded me of some of the homes found in that iconic Detroit development. It also brings to mind the Chicago home in Home Alone but on a slightly less grand scale. Do you agree?

More yellow brick homes in London than elsewhere in Ontario

This clay brick home in North London features the area's much loved yellow brick which was made from the rich, limestone-saturated but iron-deficient clay found throughout Perth and Middlesex Counties. It was manufactured locally and used in most building construction in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Reportedly, London has the highest concentration of yellow brick homes of any place in the province.

Note the interesting pattern in the brick below the eavestrough. And notice all the upgrades that this home has enjoyed over the years. Lighting, shutters, front door, stone porch and steps plus a carefully done rear addition. The homes in North London are aging very gracefully.

From the days when a one garage was a luxury

 

When I was a boy the immediate neighbourhood where I lived had almost no homes with an attached garage. Even carports were rare. We did have alleys and some homes had a garage accessed from the alley behind the home.

This home in North London must have been a rare beauty when it was new. It had an attached garage,  set back a little and not built in the later garage-forward style. The front door was impressive in a quiet way with its cut ston and thick wood trim. I would not be surprised if the wood door with large, black hinges is either the original or a replacement door with the look of the original.

This is a home that has lost none of its eloquent demeanour over the passing decades. Nor has its neighbourhood, for that matter.

A small North London Home

At one time, North London was THE neighbourhood. It held onto its number one position in the neighbourhood pecking order for decades. It still rates quite high in the neighbourhood sweepstakes even today. Many of the homes are beautiful. Oh, some are small and others are quite large but almost all have personality to spare.  

At one time both millionaires and people of much lesser means lived in the same neighbourhood. Clearly, this was never a millionaire's home. But in the coming days I will post some much pictures of much larger, grander homes. Today, homes are grouped together by value. Not so in the distant past.

A colourful, beautiful memory

The man and his wife used to sell lilies. Lovely lilies. They had a small farm but they didn't raise one of the usual cash crops. They grew lilies.

The farm was very popular and folks came from hundreds of miles to visit their acres of lily beds and place orders for their favourite blooms, many of which were unique or at least rare.

But time marches on and a few years ago the couple got too old to continue and they retired. The lily beds were emptied of flowers and today the land is devoid of lilies. And yet, the memories linger and come to life in the thousands and thousands of beautiful blooms in flower beds across the province.