Monday, January 5, 2009

Niagara Falls Then and Now: Victoria and Wilmott; Queen and Ontario

below: May 19, 1948 - looking at the west side of Victoria Ave. - the gabled house seen at the left side of photo is on the north-west corner of Victoria Ave. and Wilmott St. There is another dormered house beside it, and then an A&P supermarket. An era has come to an end - workers are removing the streetcar tracks from Victoria Ave.

above: same view - at left there is now a Bank of Commerce building built on the north-west corner of Victoria Ave. and Wilmott St. The dormered house in middle is the same, and beside it is the A&P market. The streetcar tracks are gone.
above: Same view on Jan.5, 2009 - looking at the same north-west corner of Victoria Ave. and Wilmott St. The bank building on the corner has been converted to a shoe store, its tall vertical windows cut in half to allow for another internal floor. The neighbouring house and the supermarket that once stood here beside it have both been demolished, making room for a parking lot and vacant lot.
above: Jan.5, 2009, looking at the south-west corner of Victoria Ave. and Wilmott St. - interestingly, the two houses on the south-west corner are mirror images in style to the two demolished houses which had stood on the north-west corner (as can be seen by comparing to the first photo at the top).
Although these two houses as seen today have had commercial additions popped onto their fronts, they are a reflection of the houses which had stood on the other corner. Each corner house was of the same four-square form with the full-width gables facing both streets, and the second houses in from each corner both had the same form with the same hipped third-floor dormer - symmetrical bookends on Victoria Ave. flanking both sides of Wilmott St. Nice!
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below: Looking at the north-east corner of Queen St. and Ontario Ave. ca. 1920. Seen at the left rear, facing Ontario Ave., is M.H. Buckley's Furniture Store; the house at front stood on the corner facing Queen St. and was used as a fish market at the time. This house was demolished in 1922. (NFLA)


above: same view, Jan.5, 2009 - the former Buckley's Furniture Store building is still seen at the rear left, and is now an office; and a Bank of Montreal building now occupies the corner. The edge of the same building next door to the east (to the right of photo) can be seen in both shots.

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