Thursday, 26 July 2018

507 Cooper Street


Well, we said we needed rain, didn't we?

Goad (1888, sheet 55) depicts 507 Cooper (at the NE corner of Lyon) as a two-storey wooden house with a one-and-a-half storey summer kitchen and a pair of one-storey sheds, one of which we see here at the left.

The Might Directory for the same year shows recent construction on this block of Cooper but doesn't yet list 507, so a build-date of circa 1888 is a good guess. The first occupant who I can confirm was a Mr. Edouard U. Bourcier (Might 1901). He worked as a salesman for Bryson, Graham and Co., a department store on Sparks Street. If you're curious about Bryson Graham, you can read a history of the store here.

A "circa" date of 1888 would make 2018 this house's 130th "circa-birthday". Not bad for a humble wooden building. Many (most?) examples of clapboard siding in this city have been either covered or replaced with aluminum or vinyl. I didn't get around to poking #507 to see whether such is the case here, though the width of the siding strips would likely be a dead giveaway for someone who actually knows about these things.

Later:
I poked it. IT'S WOOD. I don't know if it's the original exterior but it's actual wood, under multiple layers of paint.