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The mid-block building located at 61 Simcoe Road was built around 1850-1880 in the Classic Revival style. Emerson Glover and his wife and children (Betty, Wilma, Joe and Mary) moved to this house from Coulson’s Hill. He had Len Saint build a cement garage for the trucks he used in his general trucking business. There was a large garden at the back. Andy Simurda (a gardener) bought the house when the Glovers moved to Toronto. He also used the garage for his trucks and for vegetable storage. The garage was eventually demolished. In 1925, Billie Ward, his wife Evelyn, and children (Gwen and Connie) lived here. He worked for Spence Lumber Co. and was a master machinist as well as a clock maker. This structure later became the home of Gwen (Ward) Kilkenny for many years.
The 1½-storey, two-bay house has a rectangular, simplified, ‘temple’ plan with an off-centre entrance and a medium-pitched, gable roof. The pediment roof shape is facing the front and there is a central chimney. A hip roof on the grade-level, entrance-porch verandah is supported on wood half-posts on a solid, wood railing. The roof supports are not original. A door set into a plain, rectangular opening is also not original. There are small window openings with low floor to ceiling heights. A single, ground-floor window and the smaller, upper-floor windows are set into plain, rectangular openings. They are not original. The small, upper-floor windows are offset from the ground-floor openings. The house has 4” poured-in-place, concrete construction with vertical, metal siding. It was originally clad in stucco. According to the 2000 inventory, there are no original details remaining other than the building’s form. (1, 2, 3)

The mid-block building located at 47/49 Simcoe Road was built around 1830-1860 in the Neoclassical Duplex style. Originally, there was a long, one-storey, frame house located at this site. It had a verandah on the northwest side, a picket fence along the street, a large barn on the south side of the house, a garden at the back and it was the home of Lew McConkey Sr. (a grain and seed merchant), his wife, and son. Lew had an office on the north side of Holland Street. New owner Paul Sadlon had Len Saint build a garage and a storage building at the back. Paul and his wife were market gardeners. Their son owned Bruce Sadlon Motors. The house was later converted into two apartments. Jack Gibney and his wife (Sadie Copeland) and their three daughters (Doris, Joyce and Muriel) lived here at one time. He was a horse trainer and worked for Dick Crake for many years. Jack replaced Alfred Payne (a bachelor who lived at the Queen’s Hotel). The current duplex was built on the same property after the house was demolished. Harold Gwyn, owner of a plumbing and heating business, was the owner of this newer building at the time this photo was taken in 1996.
The two-storey, four-bay, semi-detached house has a rectangular plan, a formal, symmetrical façade, and a medium-pitched, gable roof that has a central chimney (not original). Slightly-raised, separated, side-hall entrances are located at either end of the façade. This gives greater privacy than paired entrances, but it places habitable rooms along the party wall. The doors are set into plain, rectangular openings and are not original. There are large window openings with low floor to ceiling heights. Equal-sized, ground-floor and second-floor windows (not original) with high sills are set into plain, rectangular openings. The openings have plain, wood frames and sills. Similar window openings above the entrance doors may have once existed and then been covered. The building has wood frame construction with vinyl siding (not original), a cut- stone foundation, and a basement. According to the 2000 inventory, few original details remain other than the building’s form. It also notes that the slightly-sagging roof suggests insufficient structural supports in the centre of each house. (1, 2, 3)

This two-storey, frame and cement-clad house is located south of the “Y” at 223 Simcoe Road. Mr. Bruce bought this house and the land (which extended south to the town limits and over the canal) many years ago. A marsh laneway ran east and there was a bridge across the canal for the road to the marsh. The lane circled the house and came out on Simcoe Road. There was a large barn east of the entrance to the property. It had a basement for animals and chickens. Albert Readman and his family (Mildred, Albert Jr., Olive, and Tom) lived in this house for a number of years. Mike Kasik (a market gardener) eventually bought the property. Len Saint built a cement garage and a storage building south of the house on the end of the bank and the lane. (1, 2)