Neighbourhood watch

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/06/2019 (2550 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you’re on Instagram, you probably already know the social networking service has a whack of accounts devoted to inanimate objects, not the least of which include payphones, cheese curls and – our personal fave – a blue-and-white-checked overcoat.

Despite all that, we were still surprised to come across Houses of Wolseley (#housesofwolseley), an Instagram feed 100 per cent focused on family dwellings solely situated in a section of the city jokingly referred to as “the granola belt.”

“Hello, kitty, how are you this beautiful morning?” asks Aly Lenhardt, bending down to stroke the ears of a black feline stretched out on a sun-drenched sidewalk directly in front of an Evanson Street bungalow. Taking two steps away from the curb, Lenhardt raises her Canon Mark III camera to her right eye. After quickly double-checking for traffic, she casually snaps a dozen shots of the brown-and-white abode, whispering to her new, furry chum, “This is such a pretty house, it’s odd I haven’t noticed it before.”

Odd, indeed, when you consider that since November 2015, Lenhardt, the creative force behind Houses of Wolseley, has documented close to 170 homes in her neck of the woods, everything from sprawling, three-storey residences constructed in the 1910s and ’20s to modern-looking, boxy infills completed months, sometimes weeks ago.

While some of her followers are quick to complain whenever she posts a picture of a newer-looking home, leaving messages like, ‘Hey, that isn’t us,” or “Not in this neighborhood, please,” to her, that’s precisely what’s so great about Wolseley; that it is a perfect blend of old and new.

“And by that I don’t just mean houses,” she goes on, sneaking a glance left and right in search of other potential subjects. “I’m also referring to people who’ve been here since they were kids, living alongside relative newcomers like me.”

 

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Lenhardt grew up in Oakbank. After moving to Winnipeg at the age of 20, she bounced from apartment to apartment, primarily in Osborne Village and Crescentwood, while she studied graphic design at Red River College and later, photography at PrairieView School of Photography. In 2014, following stints living in a duplex on Camden Place and, after that, a flat on Wolseley Avenue, she put down permanent roots in that part of town named for British army officer Sir Garnet Wolseley, purchasing a home on Sherburn Street.

‘I’m a full-time photographer and what appealed to me most about (Wolseley) is the creativity of the neighborhood, which you can practically feel in the air when you’re walking down the street’–Lenhardt

“I’m a full-time photographer and what appealed to me most about (Wolseley) is the creativity of the neighborhood, which you can practically feel in the air when you’re walking down the street, admiring the boulevard gardens or all the cute, little libraries,” says the owner of Victoria Anne Photography, Victoria Anne being her middle names. “There are a lot of musicians living in the area, as everybody knows, but have you seen the Arctic mural (artist) Kal Barteski painted on garages in her back lane (Back Alley Arctic, between Ethelbert and Canora streets, south of Westminster)? It’s absolutely unbelievable.”

In the fall of 2015, Lenhardt was out for a stroll with her boyfriend, now fiancée, Sean and their dog, a boxer that answers to Ruca. While she was pointing out house after house, telling Sean to “get a load of that wild blue door,” and “what a wonderful shade of yellow” a light bulb went on in her head: why not use her camera skills to create an Instagram account wholly dedicated to “all these gorgeous, one-of-a-kind houses” she was passing, day in, day out?

Lenhardt posted her first pic, of a quaint A-frame, its front yard covered in a fresh blanket of snow, in November 2015. Not only did a long-time admirer of that particular domicile come out of the woodwork (“I have secretly been in love with this house for YEARS….waiting for a for sale sign!!!” read their post), so too did a person who once called that precise address home, writing “I was born in this house :).”

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHERBURN ST. #housesofwolseley #wolseley #winnipeg #wpgnow

A post shared by Houses of Wolseley / Winnipeg (@housesofwolseley) on Nov 28, 2015 at 10:46am PST

“That’s happened more than a few times; people who spot a home I took a picture of and comment either that they used to live there or were good friends with the family that did,” she says, nodding yes when asked if she owns a pair of Birkenstocks, another Wolseley-centric cliche. “But I think what I love most is people who follow me who aren’t from here, who write things like, “I am so moving to Winnipeg,” after spotting a house that really catches their eye.”

From the get-go, Lenhardt has had a few ground rules. First and foremost, whatever home she chronicles obviously has to lie within the 25-block radius bounded to the east by Maryland Street, to the west by Raglan Road, to the north by Portage Avenue and to the south by the Assiniboine River.

Professional camera

Second, she never specifically identifies thoroughfares homes are located on, using generic hashtags such as #onlyinthepeg, #beautifulhouseoldandnew and #fortheloveofwolseley, instead.

Finally – and this is important, she stresses, given a few copycat accounts have surfaced since she began her project — she only takes pictures with a professional camera.

“A lot of people think I use a cellphone but I take this very seriously. I try to have consistent lighting, I always make sure there are no trees in the way and I make sure to take multiple shots of each house, so I don’t get home and see what I took was slightly out of focus,” she explains, noting she’s a sucker for a red brick house and melts whenever a pooch is staring back at her from an enclosed porch, or a cat is patiently positioned by a front door, waiting to be ushered inside.

 

 

 

 

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#housesofwolseley

A post shared by Houses of Wolseley / Winnipeg (@housesofwolseley) on Mar 21, 2016 at 7:42pm PDT

To date, not a single soul has approached Lenhardt to ask what she’s up to when she’s standing in front of their home, zoom lens at the ready. Nor has anybody complained she’s invading their privacy, or that of their neighbours, by posting photos of their homes, sweet homes. Conversely, not only does she have a back order of requests — folks who’ve openly wondered what it takes to get their abode featured on Houses of Wolseley — she also hears from occupants hoping for a “do-over.” Every so often somebody will paint the exterior of their house, or add an accent or two, then ask her to take a new picture of their digs, now that it’s updated, she says. (She also fields a fair number of inquiries asking if such-and-such a house is for sale from people who mistake her Instagram site for a "real estate agent’s or something.")

Guessing she has snapped photos of "maybe a quarter" of the homes in Wolseley thus far, Lenhardt says there is another idea she’s been tossing around, directly related to her pet project.

‘But I think what I love most is people who follow me who aren’t from here, who write things like, “I am so moving to Winnipeg,” after spotting a house that really catches their eye’–Lenhardt

"What I’d eventually love to do is publish a coffee table book of some sort, filled with pictures of all these unique, interesting houses. I think it would appeal to lots of people, not just those who live in the area.”

As for the million-dollar question — will her own home be included in the pages of said tome — she laughs, stating sorry, the jury’s still out on that one.

“It’s not like I only shoot houses I think are in pristine condition or anything; it’s more the shape or individuality that draws me in. That said, even though we have done some renovations lately, I’ve always felt mine hasn’t been quite good enough to make the cut. So I guess my answer is you’ll just have to wait and see.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca