Bay and Nepean demo, part 5: 355 Nepean Street

Today's post is the fifth in a series of posts on the houses demolished at Bay and Nepean. In the previous post in the series, I documented 357-359 Nepean Street.

Today we'll look at 355 Nepean Street, the second of the two houses on Nepean demolished in this group, and the last of the five profiled in this series (the sixth part of the series will come in a few weeks when the site is landscaped).

In this late November 2007 view of Nepean Street from Bay Street, the first two buildings are not being demolished, as they were not aquired by Richcraft. The next two houses are demolished.

Like so:

355 Nepean was a nice, red-brick single-family house. It appeared to be in impeccable condition, even after years of being empty. It was up close to its neighbour at 347-349 Nepean, which looked shorter and stubbier in contrast.

Its demolition was in progress on March 18. Here part of the side wall was still up, kitchen cupboards dangling from the wall. This side wall was so close to the neighbouring house, that the side-wall windows next door had been bricked up.

A couple days later, the rubble was still being cleared away. Here's a good shot of 357-359 Nepean, no longer overshadowed by its former neighbour.

355 Nepean had a small front porch, accessed from the driveway, on which sat a wood-and-wrought-iron bench. The bench had certainly seen better days, but surprisingly by late November 2007 it was still there.

By late May 2009 the bench had been removed, as had the screen wall behind it. The french door had lost a few of its panes.

And of course little of the porch was left after demolition. From this angle we see Queen Elizabeth Towers, foreshadowing the tall building to eventually be built on the site.

Along the side of the house, this small window at foundation level was barred up and some of the panes broken. More panes would be broken the following winter.

The back of the house was still in very good repair in late May 2009, so much so that it had largely avoided graffiti artists. The piles of dirt under the rear porch had been a recent addition.

The porch itself was a nice piece of architecture. I believe it was tall enough for cars to be parked underneath it.

A picnic bench had been built into the porch. A clever inclusion, I thought. There was also a second porch above the second balcony. This would definitely have been a wonderful house for spending time outside.

Completing the nature theme were vines completely enshrouding the front and side of the house. Obviously they've overgrown since the house was last occupied, but I couldn't help but be reminded of "Jumanji" by this scene.

That about rounds it up for the review of the houses. The next post in the series won't be for some weeks, when the landscaping is finished on the site.

In the meantime, check out the rest of the posts in this series, or some of the other series of posts under the label Tours.