Addison-Hall Horse Breeding Farm, Life Left Behind To Demolish

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:56:59 +0000

It was a beautiful September evening and I was at the hill on Leslie Street catching a last glimpse of the sunset. I am not sure if I spent more time photographing sunset that evening or rather observing.

I was in the middle of field so who knows what critters were crawling around me or on me, regardless I always tend to bring something home anyway, so I am used to.

Addison-Hall Farm, 15775 Leslie Street, Aurora ON

Once beautiful farm land landscapes on Leslie Street are now being transformed into residential areas. So what’s the fascination with the view on the hill. Regardless of transformation the sunset will always be the same, but it will not look the same because of all the developments around.

Sometimes I ask myself where all these people coming from. Perhaps someone had the same question sixteen years ago when I moved to Aurora.

Addison-Hall Farm, 15775 Leslie Street, Aurora ON

On the same evening I discovered that the Addison-Hall Farm on 15775 Leslie Street was going to be flatten, flatten eventually. It wasn’t yet but the walls were slowly coming down. With a help from a friend I got on the site. The adventure began.

Addison-Hall Farm, 15775 Leslie Street, Aurora ON

We can’t possibly preserve everything physically, but we can in photos, and this is what I do.

I spent many September days on the site and photographed the Addison-Hall farm from different angles and inside out, whatever was left each day. All the good recoverable mainly wood and metal materials were stripped from the barn for re-use.

Addison-Hall Farm, 15775 Leslie Street, Aurora ON

Unfortunately I missed when the main barn was still standing, but I do have some photographs of the barn and the horses from few summers ago when I was driving to photograph now the new restored Petch Log house. As of today the farm house is still standing, but its days are numbered.

The main green barn is now almost flatten and the second near by barn with horse stalls has a roof off. The site is now going under main demolishing.

Addison-Hall Farm, 15775 Leslie Street, Aurora ON

In the place like that you will never know what you can find and I didn’t know what to expect. I learned my ghostly lesson not to take anything from the old sites, just photos.

Who knew, but there was an apartment inside the main barn and probably been there since 1960s. It was one floor apartment – bedrooms, kitchen, washroom, living room and office, accessible from the back mainly. When I came inside first time it felt like someone left life behind, just like that – they just left and didn’t bother taking anything with them.

There was way too much personal stuff scattered all over – mainly family photographs, letters, postcards and other articles. We even found property mortgage papers. I guess all that meant to go down with the site, not wanted.

Addison-Hall Farm, 15775 Leslie Street, Aurora ON

It was definitely a horse breeding farm. Once you see what was in the barn and at the apartment, one can easily figure that out. Lots and lots of information about the horses, boxes of log filled with records and boxes of x-ray negatives.

Thousands and thousands of horse related records, brochures and books. And all that meant to go down with the demolition, it was left behind.

Addison-Hall Farm, 15775 Leslie Street, Aurora ON

I fell in love with the land all around the farm house and the barns. On the hill overlooking Aurora, beautiful landscape all around. It wasn’t just a horse farm, surrounded with beautiful trees, it was a bird sanctuary as well. Every turn I made something was chirping beside me.

Partially I think I got to re-live my childhood, and may be this is why I get drawn to places such that. This is how it was and this will be gone too very soon.

Addison-Hall Farm, 15775 Leslie Street, Aurora ON

And here is something interesting, the farm was once owned by Dennis Mills, I don’t know anything about him, but may be you do. The Addison-Hall farm was the Thoroughbred horse farm, if you interested to know more.

I have seen and captured enough.

Addison-Hall Farm, 15775 Leslie Street, Aurora ON

Living in Aurora, Town of Aurora, Ontario » 15775 Leslie Street

Addison-Hall Horse Breeding Farm, Life Left Behind To Demolish