7011 Ash Street

Likely constructed around 1912, the house at 7011 Ash Street evokes a sense of place reminiscent of a time in Richmond's history when the construction of modest farmhouses and the aspirations of the middle class were creating new and distinct neighbourhoods in Richmond. First owned by real estate companies, and then by a farming family until 1940, the house reflects the purchase of land and construction of houses on a speculative basis during the building boom before World War I.

Originally located on a prominent corner lot in the Town Centre area of Richmond, the house reflects the historical pre-World War I small lot residential subdivision occurring in parts of the municipality. Better transportation routes, along with coordinated dyking and drainage systems, allowed the development of the interior of Lulu Island, and the new location of civic facilities in the Town Centre area were influential in bringing more people to this area of Richmond.

Now becoming rare, the house is a good representative example of a Craftsman bungalow, a housing type both compact and convenient, that became popular in Richmond in the first part of the twentieth century, a time when the Arts and Crafts movement was making good design available to the middle class. The single storey, rectangular form of the building reflects these Craftsman origins. Its original location on a larger corner lot reflects the early settlement patterns in this area, the social status of its owners, and the transition from farming to residential land use.