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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Walkerville, Voted Best Old House Neighborhood in Canada. Find out why!

This past week 'This Old House' magazine, recognized Walkerville as one of the 'Best Old House' neighborhood in Canada.  For its April edition, This Old House picked Olde Walkerville as one of 10 Canadian neighbourhoods in its best old house neighbourhood list that uncovered 61 vibrant neighbourhoods from coast-to-coast where you’ll find one-of-a-kind houses.   
 
 Olde Walkerville began back in the 1850s, when Hiram Walker established the Canadian Club whisky distillery on several hundred acres of land on the Canadian side of the Detroit River.

The town was built to house his workers, where he surrounded his distillery with a company town inspired by the British garden-city movement, which included wide streets, open spaces, and bountiful vegetation.

For those of you visiting or passing by, depending on the direction of the wind that day you can still smell the sweet scent of Mr. Walker's whisky in the air. To view a video from
Chris Holt of the Olde Walkerville Residence Association, click here.

Walkerville was chosen because it's one of the last intact company towns that are based on the garden city movement. You can 'walk' to specialty shops and restaurants on Wyandotte Street or you can stroll on tree-lined streets past Tudor Revival mansions and brick row houses.

The Houses
Elegant houses of 3,500-plus square feet—built for company management—include Tudor Revivals, Edwardians, and Romanesque Revivals. More modest Arts and Crafts dwellings, constructed for Walker's laborers, are equally well preserved. Blocks of seemingly uniform rowhouses and semidetached houses are set off by decorative brickwork, varying parapets, and front or end gables. Prices range from $150,000 to as much as a million.



  
Why Buy Here?
A 15-acre park surrounding Willistead Manor and a small but thriving business area three blocks south make the 20-minute walk to Windsor's center almost unnecessary. And a revitalized commitment to self-sustainability and lots of green space assure that Olde Walkerville is a perfect place to enjoy nature's splendor, minus the suburban chore of driving everywhere. "The homes don't stay long on the market because there's not many gems like Walkerville anymore," says Chris Holt of the Walkerville Residents Association.




2 comments:

  1. I think the home are very unique looking, not like a series of manufactured or mass produced homes. You mention The Old House, but do you know if any of the HGTV programs have worked on any Walkerville homes?

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    1. Great Post! The houses are beautiful and full of character! I love the history that surrounds the town! It is very interesting. During my undergrad in interior design I took a historic preservation class and this town would have been perfect to study!

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