A London woman who lived in the same house in the Carling Heights neighborhood of the city for 101 years before selling it last fall has been recognized by her long property administration.
Last week, Annie Biddle received a recommendation from Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and the Heritage London Foundation during the 2025 London Heritage Awards at the London Museum.
“Annie Biddle did not propose to preserve a heritage building,” says the recommendation, “but in an era in which the average owner remains five to seven years, he worried about a residence that, under his administration, aged in a heritage house, which is something strange and extraordinary.”
Biddle had lived in the house, located at 66 Boullee St., since 1923. In September, he sold his lifelong house for $ 400,000, according to Housesigma.
“It was quite shock when I moved, you know, because I had been in that little house during all those years,” he recently told CBC News. “You hate to leave it, but there comes a point where you need help, and you can’t expect people to get entrifent and go out all the time.”
Biddle nomination came from a community member after she was profiled in September in London Free Press, Susan Bentley, president of the London Heritage Awards Committee, said.
“It seemed an extraordinary achievement and situation, so we only wanted to recognize it,” Bentley said. Biddle attended the awards ceremony in person, along with several family members.
“It was a great emotion,” Biddle said. “However, I had to have to get up and pronounce a speech, and I am not good to do it.”
When some think of the heritage awards, mansions and “important buildings” often come to mind, he said. “But, everyone’s house is important for them … while living in the house, he aged in a heritage house, in a way.”
Biddle was 13 months old when his parents, John and Mary, moved home, built what was a new postwar subdivision.
Census records show Biddle’s father, who emigrated from England when he was a child in 1907, and the mother married in 1921 when the two were just over 20 years old. Annie arrived the following year, followed by two more daughters in the coming years.
Growing up, Biddle says his father worked for the railroad, as well as most men in the street. She and the other children of the neighborhood played and went to school together, and says that the street, like others in London, did not pave and became muddy in spring.
“The times were difficult. When I was a small child, we didn’t have many things … wages were not as if they were today,” he said. “My dad had a brother, he lived in the west, and he went down a year of vacation, and worked on the railroad. Well, he gave each of us the children $ 1. we thought we had a million dollars.”
Biddle stayed at home because “he had no other place to go,” and says it was difficult to see the neighborhood changing over time. “Suddenly, it’s Kaput.”
After her sisters moved, she says she also stayed to help after her mother suffered a stroke at 58 years. “He really did it over the years. Of course, he was there to help, and my father had also retired at age 65.” Mary died in 1981, just for her 80th birthday, and John in 1988.
Since he moved, Biddle has been living with his niece, Catherine, and says he misses the old place to some extent. “I would like to go see what people have done with him. However, they probably wouldn’t appreciate it coming.”
One thing that is most strange is your sunny room.
“I could sit there and see the world,” he said. “I wish I had it when my mother and dad were still alive. They would have enjoyed sitting there.”
