Great pics, as usual!
Quote:
Originally Posted by flar
The streets are still pretty much on a grid. The British generally surveyed and planned everything in straight lines. There was little left to chance in most of Ontario. If you find old winding roads or haphazard placement of buildings in Ontario, it is due to geography rather than organic development in most cases.
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In addition to this most subdivisions in that time period were platted out years before any substantial development took place. The first houses would be oriented to streets that were little more than dirt paths in the early years.
That being said, there are occasionally some telltale signs of these early houses, such as bigger setbacks and the occasional double lot. On the rare occasion you will get something that is oriented off the grid axis. For example:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...=19&iwloc=addr
Note the house setback and slightly off-kilter. It was built in 1870 while the surrounding houses were mainly built between 1910 and 1915.