757 Beach Blvd.

[scotto]

Thanks to member Crawfish :tbu: who sent this one in. The before picture was taken back in 1981 and house hasn't change too much except for the new windows, some capping and a nice new garage in the back. Crawfish is still looking to see if he can find an older picture to share with us.
Scotto

 

[Crawfish]

Wow! Thanks for the update on the house, Scotto. It looks pretty good and the garage makes me very jealous.

 

[scotto]

Wow! Thanks for the update on the house, Scotto. It looks pretty good and the garage makes me very jealous.

Everyone should have a garage like that.
Thanks again for sending in the picture.

 

[Crawfish]

Trivia about 757

Permit me to bore you with a little piece of trivia about this property. My parents bought this house from the Fudge family around 1938-40. I was browsing through the Beach History Project yesterday and found that one of the first graduates into secondary from Beach Bungalow School was Dora Fudge. The project doesn't specify the year in which that took place but it was probably wasn't far from 1920. I am sure that the house was built before that so I think it is reasonable to assume that Dora Fudge lived at 757.

 

[Crawfish]

Another picture of 757

Here is another picture of 757 Beach Blvd. I think this one dates from around 1950. The picture isn't good enough to read the licence plate on the car in the neighbour's driveway but the car's vintage gives a clue. This was also before the new high tension hydro lines were strung along the lakeshore. The antennae mounted at the back of the house were for my Dad's amateur radio rig. He eventually moved them to a home-built tower in the back yard because the rotater (an old propeller pitch-change motor) used to make a terrible growl in the house and kept us kids awake while he was on the air. The picture also shows the old garage and behind that, a 'bath house' which I guess was built originally for guests from the city. We tore that down to make room for parking my first car (which I promptly got stuck in the soft sand).

 

[scotto]

Good post Crawfish! Just one question, I read in the 1943 Beach History Project by Beach Bungalow students that

"When they were removed to make room for the Hydro towers, the permanent Beach residents felt that their community was on the border of a better day. Unfortunately, however, some of the shacks were removed toward the boulevard,"
Could your picture be older???

 

[Crawfish]

I think the towers referred to in the Beach History Project are represented by the one you can see behind 757. The 'shacks' they referred to were probably constructed on the lakeshore between the tracks and the lake. There was a lot of commercial fishing done in the early days and I suspect that there may have been boathouses and fish huts littering the ground under where the hydro lines were to run. The picture I posted is definitely not far from 1950 as you can tell from the car in the neighbour's driveway and was taken after we occupied the house (in 1939) and after the antenna was erected ( I remember this taking place and I was born in 1938).

 

[scotto]

I think the towers referred to in the Beach History Project are represented by the one you can see behind 757.

Thanks Crawfish, I see that now. So there was an earlier set of towers that I didn't know about. :tbu:
Scotto

 

[Crawfish]

Yeah, the original towers were cut down after the big ones were erected. The concrete foundations may still be there though.

 

[Crawfish]

One more piece of trivia about 757. My sister reminded me (for the second time!!) that there used to be a poured concrete walk running from the back of the house to the garage and at the garage end of the walk was neatly inscribed--"Fudge 1907". This suggests that the house was built before 1907.

 

[scotto]

One more piece of trivia about 757. My sister reminded me (for the second time!!) that there used to be a poured concrete walk running from the back of the house to the garage and at the garage end of the walk was neatly inscribed--"Fudge 1907". This suggests that the house was built before 1907.

If it ever stops snowing, I will have a look.

 

[Crawfish]

Scotto: I think you might be wasting your time because, judging by the 'now' picture, that walkway is gone.

 

[scotto]

I will have a look anyway.

 

[scotto]

One more piece of trivia about 757. My sister reminded me (for the second time!!) that there used to be a poured concrete walk running from the back of the house to the garage and at the garage end of the walk was neatly inscribed--"Fudge 1907". This suggests that the house was built before 1907.

Crawfish;
I talked with present owner today (Dave) :tbu: and "Fudge 1907" was destroyed when the new garage was built. He also told me that he found many buried treasures when digging for the garage and the deck. This included many old coins from the late 1800's. Last note, Dave's parents bought the house off of your parents.

 

[Crawfish]

I am not surprised that he found a lot of buried treasure. I buried it before I left. LOL
When we tore down the old "bath house" we stopped at ground level and therefore anything that was there before it was built was untouched. Also, the garage originally had a pit for oil changes and the like and my Dad filled it in with sand from the beach before one of us little ones took a header into it. There could have been lots of stuff in there before it was filled in.