A GLANCE AT THE PHOTOGRAPH

CREDITS:
Oakville Historical Society Collection, No. 336.
“Dundas & Colborne, North East Corner, 1912.”

As “A Corner on Colborne St.,” this photo appears on
page 17 of George A. Griffin’s Oakville Past and Present
(Oakville: Griffin & Griffin, Publishers, 1912).

QUICK COMMENTS:
This photo taken about 1912 includes elements of the past and signs of things to come. Street trees planted in the latter part of the 19th century (possibly under one of the provincial tree-planting acts) create welcome shade and filter some of the dust stirred up by the speeding automobile. The intersection of Colborne and Dundas streets (eventually renamed Lakeshore and Trafalgar) is one of the most important in town. A Ford dealership and a gas station are nearby. The Toronto-Hamilton Highway Commission will pave Colborne through Oakville in 1915-1916 and officially open the inter-city highway in 1917. Sidewalks, hydrants, and new, taller hydro poles are already installed and more construction materials are piled and ready.

The solid new house on this corner lot belongs to Dr. Jebb, a dentist. His office is in his home, so there are two entrances, one facing each street. Plants in containers flank the steps to both doorways. A striped canvas awning–seen on better homes since the 1880s–shades the large, south-facing front window. A clinging vine will soon reach the small windows near the rear corner. A lawn, punctuated only by a small urn on a slender pedestal, surrounds the house. At the east edge of the property is a wall of greenery. This could be a well-pruned hedge, a vine covering the one-storey building beyond, or both.

In 1975, the Toronto Dominion Bank constructed the building now on this corner.


A SERIES OF QUESTIONS:
When were the street trees planted?
Was the planting of roadside and street trees initiated by the Town or by individuals?
In what year was the house constructed?