I moved to 397 Cummer Avenue when I was 4 years old in 1951. My father built our house under the VLA as did many other homeowners. Our subdivision as called the Riseborough Homeowners Association and I believe it won an award for being one on the best subdivisions in Canada for which each homeowner received a Mountain Ash tree to plant in their yard.

As children we were allowed to wander all over the neighbourhood and would hike or bike to old farm buildings and the Don River, never going near the railway tracks. The Bests had a dairy farm on Bayview and Riseborough and I am now neighbours with their daughter. Chassels had a farm at the corner of Bayview and Cummer and ran a Veterinary clinic for horses. The house next to it belonged to them and a relative, was a painter who painted with the Group of Seven, his name was Fred Brigden.

I also remember hearing St. John's Convalence Hospital chapel bells ring at 6 a.m., 12 noon and 6pm. The nuns would be out for walks and stop and chat with you.

Times have changed and our house was torn down a few years ago to make way for a bigger home. Luckily my daughter happened to be in the neighborhood and took some pictures just weeks before it was bulldozed.

Bev Whitbread