The house located at 39 Drury St. (at the southeast corner of Drury and Thomas Streets) was built pre-1900 in the Ontario Vernacular Cottage style. Bob (“Red”) Armstrong, a bachelor, once lived here. Jim Webb eventually bought the property and rented the structure to Victor Hunter (a carpenter) and his family. Frank Park (a handyman) kept his horse in the small barn on the property. Charles Hounsome (a railway section man) also lived here at one time. Lloyd Houston (a butcher) and his wife Jean lived here after the wars. The one-storey, three-bay cottage has a shallow-pitched, gable roof, a symmetrical façade, and a rectangular plan with a centre hall. A box hall was typical for this style. The simple entrance has a single door set into a rectangular opening. It opens directly into the house from grade level and there is no porch (or weather protection) to shelter the entrance. The windows have low floor to ceiling heights. There are double-hung, 2/2 windows on either side of the entrance that appear to be original. They are set into simple, rectangular openings with plain, wood frames and sills. Wood frame construction is covered with vinyl siding. The original cladding was wood. The house has a parged, stone foundation. There is a single, brick masonry chimney at the centre of house. According to the 2000 inventory, this simple cottage probably had few decorative details originally. It also notes that the concrete block chimney on the exterior south wall is a later addition. (1, 2, 3)
The mid-block building located at 43 and 45 Drury St. was built in the Neoclassical Duplex style in the 1860-1880’s. Leonard Saint bought the building in 1909 from Mrs. Garrett (mother of E. Garrett who owned the Bradford Witness newspaper). Len was in the building trade and he was a brick layer, a plasterer, and a cement worker in Bradford. In 1911, he moved the building twenty feet back from the street, raised it, and put in a cellar as well as a parged, stone foundation. He also added two rear kitchens. There was a garage on the back lot facing Elizabeth Street. The south side of the house was rented to various people. The building stayed in the Saint family until the 1980’s. The two-storey, four-bay, semi-detached house has a simple form with separated, side-hall entrances in the formal, symmetrical façade. It has a shallow-pitched, gable roof and gable end chimneys. The upper portion of the original, wood-panelled doors is glazed and has multiple lights at the top. This is reminiscent of the transom found in a more ‘’upscale” home of this period. There are large window openings with high floor to ceiling heights. Large, 6/6 wood sash windows at the ground floor are original. The upper-floor window openings align with the ground-floor openings and the windows have plain wood frames and sills. Wood frame construction is covered with vinyl siding. The original cladding was stucco on wood lath. According to the 2000 inventory, this building is a modest example of workers’ housing. It also notes that it is in good condition with some original details remaining. (1, 2, 3)
The mid-block building once located at 49 Drury St. was built in the neoclassical style around 1880. James Currie (a retired farmer, businessman, carpenter and noted gardener) and his wife lived here many years ago. Gilbert Lukes, his wife, and some of his family also lived here at one time. The two-storey, rectangular building had a symmetrical façade, a centre hall plan, and a medium-pitched, gable roof. It had large window openings with high floor to ceiling heights. The large, 2/2 double-hung, wood windows had wood lug sills. Aluminum storm windows were modern additions. The house had symmetrically-placed chimneys at both ends of the roof. The metal roof had minimal eaves projection. There were decorative brick dentils at the cornices and stepped brick corbels at the projecting, end gable walls (firewall-type construction). The building had solid, brick construction. At one time the house had a woodshed (with a toilet inside), a chicken run, and a chicken house attached to the barn (with a horse and cow stable), car garage (and loft above) on the laneway. The house was demolished in June, 1997. (1, 2, 3)
This one-storey, frame building is located on the west side at 50 Drury Street. It originally had a back kitchen that was at a lower level than the front of the house. There was also a big garden at the rear of the house at one time. It was the home of Bill Sutherland, his sister Ethel, and Mrs. Sutherland. Bill was a station agent and telegrapher for the C.N.R. in Bradford. He cycled to his job every day and never used a car. Bill was also a noted athlete and lacrosse player for a number of years. He was a member of the championship lacrosse team. (1, 2)
This structure was originally a shed located on property owned by Tom Saint. It was moved to its current site at 25 Bingham St. (south of Centre Street) onto property owned by George “Duke” Lowe. After the shed was restored as a house, Duke married Mrs. Storey. Their four children (Clara, George, Dorothy and Betty) joined Mrs. Storey’s previous children (Charlie, Jack, Roy and Harvey). It later became the home of Ted and Clara Brockwell for a number of years after WWII. (1, 2)
The one-storey house once located on the west side at 44 Drury St. had stucco cladding originally. Many years ago it was the home of Fred McKay, his wife, and son (Bruce). Fred was a retired farmer. He had noted gardens (asparagus, strawberries, raspberries) on a number of lots around town. Fred worked for Thompson Fisher in the old skating rink. He also ran the pool room and sold gramophones over the Campbell’s drugstore on Holland Street. Chris Wren and his family lived here years later. Chris was a store merchant (from Mabel) and a painter and paper hanger. The house was demolished (in the 1990’s?) to make an exit and sewer connection from Joe Magani’s grocery store to Drury Street. (1, 2)
The Pringle House is located mid-block on the east side at 99 Barrie Street. It was the home of Walter Pringle, owner and manager of the first Dominion store (on Holland St.) in the 1930’s. The 1½-storey, two-bay ‘bungalow’ was built in the Arts and Crafts style. The construction of this house (and six others) was begun in 1912 by Lieutenant George Stoddart. When Stoddart went overseas during WWI, the projects were completed by builder Art Saint. The house has a simple form with an asymmetrical façade and a rectilinear plan. It has a bell-cast roof on the centre dormer and a steeply-pitched, truncated gable roof that extends down to reduce the scale of the building. This roof also covers the raised porch and is supported on wood half posts on brick piers. The porch has a simple, wood handrail and baluster. Wood lattice encloses the underside of the porch. A wide band of windows across the front of the dormer emphasizes the horizontal lines and the massing of the house. The building has wide window openings with low floor to ceiling heights. Ground-floor and basement windows and the front door are set into segmented, arched openings with concrete sills. Second-storey windows are offset from the ground-floor windows and have plain, wood sills and trim. The mix of exterior cladding materials and the wood fascia band (expressing the line of the floor structure between the ground and second floors) is common to this style. There are returned eaves at the porch roof. The house has wood frame construction with brick masonry cladding, painted wood shingles on the dormer, and a painted, concrete foundation. The front ground-floor and second-floor windows are not original. According to the 2000 inventory, the house is in good condition with many original features that have been maintained well. (1, 2, 3)
The house located at 59 Drury St. was considered to be new when this photo was taken in 1995. Bill Aitkens (Aitken?) had a horse stable on the property many years ago. (1, 2)
Although currently being used as a parking lot, there was originally at least one house on this property located at the corner of Drury and Thomas Streets. George, Mell (Mel?), and Davey John had a one-storey, frame stucco house here. Margaret "Maggie" MacDonald was the housekeeper and cook for the family. George was a handyman. He worked for Jack Spencer and Ben Collings fleshing and marsh haying. Mell (Mel?) was a day worker, gardener, handyman, and wood cutter. Davey John was a machinist and bearing lead (?) specialist. He was also a noted storyteller. Behind the house was a woodshed, back porch, chicken run, and chicken house. There was a garden next to the fence of the Queen’s Hotel. There were sheds from the hotel along the west side of the property. Pigs were fed with slops from the hotel. There was a two-storey barn with a loft, horse stables, and car garage facing Elizabeth Street. The house later became the home of Frank Cook, son Norman, and mother (Olive Whiteside). He was a labourer, small truck driver (picking up garbage), and a gravel (grave?) digger. Len and Aida Gardner and family moved into the house years later. They then moved into an apartment when the house was demolished. (1, 2)
This house is located at 62 Frederick Street. The section of this street from Moore Street to Barrie Street was originally known as Letitia St., and was named after Letitia Magee (a land speculator in the 1830’s). The name was later changed to Frederick St. to avoid confusion during emergency calls. (1, 2)
