Beach Pictures

Fred Briggs

Beach History Moderator
May 27, 2004
64
0
6
86
Stoney Creek
hamiltonbeachcommunity.com
#5
Heart House #1117

The pink house seems to me to be much longer, and there are 5 openings across the front of the verandah, while the old Heart House (a.k.a. Sweetheart House) had only three, including the round arch in front of the front door. I couldn't imagine anyone tearing off that famous distinctive verandah and rebuilding it differently. Unfortunately, the trees hide the second storey so it's difficult to compare the roof lines, upper windows, etc., so I went looking in my collection for other pictures of the Heart House. I found the first picture below (Houses2.jpg) which shows the Heart House and the house immediately south of it, in a book called the 1903 Carnival Souvenir. Yes, that's very old!
The second picture (Winter-Horse-Sleigh small.jpg) is also very old, but not as old, as you can see from the size of the tree which has grown up near the telephone pole. The Heart House shows just a little at the left edge of this picture. The house to the south (right) of it is common to both pictures, and note the sloping tree in both pictures. In the second picture the trees on the lot to the south have been cleared and another house has been built on it, and there appears to be a laneway or short street between the latter two houses. This might make it possible to identify one of those three houses now, to determine where the Heart House was, if it's gone now.
But then we have your evidence of the pen and ink drawing of the house labeled "Heart House".
I thought I had seen a set of those pictures in the Gallery earlier, so I went looking for it, without result. But in looking I found again the pictures of Beach homes in the 1980's. I searched all through the pictures looking for the pink house and Heart House.
On Page 8, the picture only identified as 80109_G.jpg is the pink house, the house shown in the drawing and identified on it as 935, 955, or 985 (I can't quite make it out on my computer). Please note the very different roof line of this picture and the drawing, when compared to the old pictures of Heart House. That is a radical change, and even when major renovations are made, the chimney is very seldom changed or moved!
It wasn't until I got to the last page, Page 12, that I found the 2 pictures of the Heart House! They are both identified as 1117. The first one (#175) appears to be painted pink, but when you look at the snow you can see that the picture needs to be rebalance to make the snow (and house) white. In the second picture (#176), the house is clearly white, and please look carefully at the roof line and the chimney. It even has the same chimney pot on top! This isn't a case of someone adding the famous verandah to their house -- this is it! This house seems to have very few changes by the 1980's, except for the lattice work around the upstairs porch, which is no longer round.
Now it should be possible to visit that street corner and get the correct house address for the pink house, which has no identification except 80109_G.
Bit by bit, we'll get them all, won't we!
By the way, I have noticed something very strange. While going back to review these pictures while writing this, I noticed that the picture you click on to get into the folder of 1980's houses, is picture #175, the "pink" version of the Heart House. I can't believe that it was already that picture when I first visited the site, and I didn't recognize the Heart House! Yet when I view another picture and then leave the Gallery and come back, it's still the Heart House! Was it right there in front of us all, all the time?
Fred Briggs
 
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Fred Briggs

Beach History Moderator
May 27, 2004
64
0
6
86
Stoney Creek
hamiltonbeachcommunity.com
#6
Sorry for my slowness on the uptake. I see now that you already told me that the pen and ink drawings were in the History Section. I have found them, thanks.
Also, after posting the last message I see that we already know the house numbers of Heart House (1117) and the Pink House (935). No visit is necessary, except to go and see if the Heart House is still there!
Fred Briggs
 

scotto

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 15, 2004
6,985
218
63
The Beach Strip
#8
Which is the real Heart House

Fred Briggs said:
scotto
There is a misleading caption on the last picture, "Tree down on Heart House". Heart House is shown on Page 3, Row 3, Centre picture, house on the left. (#38) You're closer than I am to doublecheck this.
Fred
I checked with the present owners of 935 Beach Blvd. and they believe that their house is the one and only Heart House. I also remember seeing it in one of the Beach books, The Sand Strip. So I checked with Dorothy Turcotte, the book's author and she was told by past owner Doris Fraser that it was the Heart House. I don't know where else we can check, if anyone has other information on this subject, please pass it along.
Scotto
 
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