Just a few blocks east of the unveiled Cambridge corner store signs, is a house that always gives me pleasure to walk past. It is at the corner of Lisgar and Bay. Note the bricked up store windows, the too-small replacement window, the missing corner door, the old painted signage on the brickwork.
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Someday I am sure someone will “improve” this house with a coat of paint or (shudder) aluminum siding. And then the story it tells will be lost. This house is like a friend on the street, a very old friend, showing what life used to be like when the grocery store was always a block away and never called a “super” market. While I will keep my Loblaws, I would like to keep this old friend too.
The crumbling building across the street from it was once a warehouse for storing pianos and other large items going to or coming from the train station. There’s a funny backwards “S” symbol on the side facing Lisgar that might mean something, but I have no idea what.
I love walking through the old downtown neighbourhoods and coming across these old corner stores. It’s amazing how painted signs have fallen by the wayside.