May 7, 2012

The West End: Emergence of the commercial village

Clearly, David Banks finds historic photos as fascinating as I do.

He sent an image that reveals dramatically how certain residential streets in the West End – the ones the streetcars went down – transitioned to commercial when property owners built retail space in their front yards (no zoning back then!), incrementally creating the commercial villages we love today and that so well serve the residents from three blocks on either side:

North side of Davie between Thurlow and Bute (map here

As David notes: “One of the two houses west of the Davie Renovatory is still there, also with a business, likely the reason the house survives”

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