Most of the houses in the area were built between the 1890s and the beginning of the First World War. They were constructed quickly and with little variation in layout. Their façades were differentiated by the application of mass-produced items; wooden fretwork, stained-glass panels, turned balusters and pressed tin (intended for interior ceilings – this "new" product occasionally appears on the gable ends of some villas). The most important feature was the bay window—hence the name "Bay Villa"—an important feature which marked the owner as middle class. The new inhabitants tended to be young couples, mostly white-collar workers such as clerks and office workers, teachers or skilled crafts-people. The adjacent area north of Richmond Road was probably similar. This was different from the nearby working-class area of Freeman's Bay or from the upper-middle-class area of Herne Bay.