Three men in front of Bishop Philander Smith House, c.1907
Description
- Creator
- Unknown, Photographer
- Media Type
- Image
- Item Type
- Postcards
- Description
- A black and white photograph of three men standing in front of Bishop Philander Smith's house circa 1907.
- Notes
- This house was located at 33 Queen Street at the north east corner of Cassels Road and Queen Street. The house was built in 1857 for Bishop Philander Smith of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada to replace a former home destroyed by fire. This was the first brick house in Brooklin and it was destroyed by fire in 1928. The Whitby and Port Perry Railway shown in this photograph ran along Queen Street.
Whitby’s house numbering system was provided by Rev. Dr. James Roy Van Wyck (1877-1941), a retired Presbyterian minister. Van Wyck provided this service to the town, free of charge, during the Great Depression. By the summer of 1935, Whitby had a population of about 4,000 people and a house numbering system was needed. Prior to 1935, residences and businesses were listed in the telephone book with the street on which they were located. As well, there was no need for a house numbering system since all mail was picked up by local residents from the town post office. Under Van Wyck’s system, each block was numbered by a hundred. For instance, the first block south of Dundas on Brock Street was the 100 block; the second, the 200 block, and so on. Buildings on the west side of the street were given even numbers, while buildings on the east side were given odd numbers. On streets running east and west, even numbers were given on the north side while odd numbers were provided on the south. Van Wyck was careful to assign numbers for vacant lots between existing homes. Assigned house and business address numbers were published in the Whitby Gazette and Chronicle and a postcard was mailed to each residence in 1935 with the assigned house number and asking residents to please place this assigned number at their front door. Brooklin was given a house numbering system in the late 1960s or early 1970s, while Ashburn, Myrtle and Myrtle Station received a house numbering system in the 1980s or 1990s. - Date of Original
- c.1907
- Dimensions
-
Width: 4 cm
Height: 3.5 cm
- Image Dimensions
-
Image Width: 4cm
Image Height: 3.5cm
- Subject(s)
- Local identifier
- 25-000-212
- Collection
- Whitby Online Historic Photographs Collection
- Language of Item
- English
- Geographic Coverage
-
-
Ontario, Canada
Latitude: 43.883333 Longitude: -78.933333
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- Copyright Statement
- Public domain: Copyright has expired according to Canadian copyright law. No restrictions on use.
- Recommended Citation
- Three men in front of Bishop Philander Smith House, c.1907, Photographer Unknown. Whitby Archives 25-000-212.
- Reproduction Notes
- Scanned from a copy negative.
- Contact
- Whitby Public LibraryEmail:archives@whitbylibrary.ca
Website:
Agency street/mail address:405 Dundas Street West, Whitby, Ontario L1N 6A1
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