Give me your jumbled masses...

"The boxes, damn it!" 

Grandma, The American Dream, Edward Albee 1961

Please don't get me wrong. I love this stuff as much as the next guy, maybe more — but yes, boxes for boxes' sake. Let's stop pretending there's any serious reason why a house should look this way.

I realize that this snow and slush can make anything look like the prelude to a warm bath and a razor blade, but 291 and 293 Lyon North are actually quite dashing in summer.  According to Google Street View, #293 (on your right) went up some time before April 2014 while 291 was likely completed over the summer of 2016.

Each house replaced a perfunctory brick-on-wood two-storey abode, both original to the site and both built (from what I can glean) very close to 1900. You can see them here — Goad (1902) listed 293 as a one-and-half because of its Mansard roof-line.

I say "houses" but these are multi-unit rental buildings. As described online, #291 consists of ten (yes, ten) units while the number in 293 is not presently specified.

388 Albert Street

The Albert/Lyon/Slater/Bay block (#261 per Goad, sheet 44) was roughly half built-upon by 1878 — with small-to-medium houses, most of wood, a few brick-on-wood. The original #388 was a wooden one-and-a-half, almost certainly front-gabled. It had a rear summer kitchen with rear sheds attached. Ten years later Goad would depict the same house as a two-storey, with sheds reaching back to the rear property line.

By 1912, Goad shows the house in its present configuration — a two-and-a-half-storey gambrel with a two-storey front bay window and two-storey flat-roofed rear extension, all brick-veneered. The boxy front room is a later, cringe-worthy add-on. It's likely that the present house incorporates the original 19th Century structure.

The A.S. Woodburn Directory for 1875 (pg. 19) notes "Sparks George, laborer" at this address — was he related to Nicholas? By 1884, Woodburn lists "Sparks Abraham, of Sparks & Edey, carpenters and builders". They sound like they could do renos.

The 1875 date gives the house (in whatever form) an occupancy history of at least 143 years. It's now one of only three buildings (all domestic) left on an otherwise empty block. Like they say, "Watch this space" — it just might do tricks.

See Good Eats here.