Former Bennett's Tavern, July 1975

Description

Comments (0)

Creator

Brian Winter, Photographer

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Negatives

Description

A black and white photograph of a dwelling that has been converted into stores and shops. On the left hand side is a barber shop and on the right hand side of the photo is a store. There is a sign in the store window that says Mac's. There are traffic lights in front of the building.

Notes

This house at the north-east corner of Dundas Street and Euclid Street was built as early as 1828 at 408-410 Dundas Street West. From the 1830s until about 1860 it was operated as a tavern and hotel by Thomas Bennett, Thomas M. Scripture, and others. In the 1960s the lower floor was converted into stores. This building was demolished in April 1990.

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

July 1975

Dimensions

Width: 1 in
Height: 1 in

Subject(s)

Dwellings
Stores & shops
Taverns (Inns)

Personal Name(s)

Winter, Brian

Local identifier

A2013_004_034B

Collection

Whitby Online Historic Photographs Collection

Language of Item

English

Geographic Coverage

Whitby

Ontario, Canada

Latitude: 43.88342 Longitude: -78.93287

Copyright Statement

This item is protected by the Canadian Copyright Act and is intended for one-time use only. Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). It is your responsibility for obtaining these permissions.

Copyright Date