Living my whole life in Southern Ontario, I had never heard of or seen a Gingerbread community in the area. Until now! These are the Painted Ladies Of Grimsby.
The history of the Grimsby beach cottages (The Painted Ladies) goes back to the 1800s and the Methodist Church. The Methodists used the area as a meeting point for worshiping and to camp on. By the late 1800s they replaced the tents with cottages.
The Methodist church declined in the early 1900s and an American businessman bought the land. He turned it into an amusement park that included a midway, a roller coaster, a dance hall, a casino, live theater productions. This ventured went bankrupt in the 1930s and the land where park was, now has a major highway on it (QEW 403).
Some of the original cottages have been destroyed by fires over the years but the owners of the ones that still remain, completely repairs and created one of the most unique communities that I have ever seen!
I was unsure how the residents would feel about me walking around taking photos of their homes but it quickly became clear that they were used to it. Small signs asking people to take photos from the road are in the yards of several houses and while taking the above photo. The owner of the one on the right came out and he started telling me about how people come by almost every 10 minutes to take pictures. He then highly recommended that I take a walk down the alley beside his house. Following that recommendation I found this.
These houses really are quite amazing! Unlike anything I have ever seen and I still have to make another trip to them. A night trip, because I have been told that the houses are lit up in colorful lights and honestly when there is so much color already, a little bit more is a must see!
