Cornwall Homes - Updates From the Neighbourhood (Part 1)

I currently have about a dozen folders of photos to write about on the blog and I've been falling behind on the majority of them because they are either a jumble of mixed-up photos, or the renovations are only partially done on the homes in question. Some of the houses are well under way, while others have been dragging, or the owners ran out of money or patience on their projects (which I know is the case for one of these homes).

I thought I would start with updates on a very grand home that is just a few blocks away. This is the Rectory for St. Columban's Church.

I was walking by the house on my way home from the bank, and I noticed a recent "renovation" that had been done on the house. Apparently sometime not too long ago, they went and replaced all the lattice work on the wrap-around veranda. It looked OK at first glance, but something was nagging me about it and I knew that they went and changed something about it, and that it didn't "look right".

Here's the current (replaced) lattice work (which hasn't been painted yet):







The house is an extremely ornate Gothic building (and I'll bet that it once had a slate roof as well). This huge plain expanse of lattice just doesn't look good. When I got home and dug up some old photos, I immediately saw what was missing:



The lattice used to have large Tudor style strap "beams" running in a pattern across it. While this is a fairly small and simple detail, it made the lattice appear more "anchored" and it had the appearance of being load bearing. It's possible they might add this detail back in before painting, but I doubt it. :(

Unfortunately the sad news doesn't end there. The second bit of this post is regarding the loss of 3 mature trees at the other end of the block.

During the reconstruction of the sewers, water lines, road, and sidewalks on my street, I noticed several trees marked with an "X".



One of these (the farthest down) wasn't too large, but the other two were massive maples.



Unfortunately I never got better shots than the ones above. The trees were chopped down and gone before I knew it. I have NO IDEA why they were removed, since they did not appear to be in the way of the sidewalks or sewer lines.

This entire corner of the street now looks incredibly bare. The red/white house had the smaller tree while the two large ones stood on the property with the large Victorian (which is hacked-up into 4 or 5 apartments).



More soon!