Found - The last matchsticks of Old Hull

Built as working-class homes in the wake of a great fire, Laurent R-Cardinal explores the fraught balance between saving the history of these turn-of-the-century homes and the needs of a growing metropolis

- Laurent R-Cardinal

PRESSURE IS MOUNTING IN OLD HULL. As an effect of gentrification, many iconic so-called matchstick houses are getting knocked down to make way for denser residential buildings. While the streets of Vieux-Hull are still for the most part lined with these distinctive maison dite allumettes, certain areas are now - or will soon be devoid of this history.

With their proximity to Ottawa's downtown core, these lots in Hull appeal to developers. Some recent projects were built close to interprovincial bridges, such as Heafey's VIU projects or Boulet's Le Vibe buildings.

The matchstick houses still standing today were built primarily at the turn of the 20th century to accommodate large working-class families, says Michelle Guitard, a historian who authored a book on Hull residential architecture. Many of these houses were erected to replace those destroyed in fires, namely the Great Hull Fire of 1900. That incident reduced to ashes more than 1,300 buildings - about 40 percent of Hull's territory.