Most residents have maintained, restored, and renewed the heritage homes of this district, preserving the original architectural style. That is all to the good. Others, however, have transformed old houses into approximations of current styles, or indeed built new homes in styles popular today. These are also contributions to the neighbourhood. The little house and garage (above) near the corner of Erie and Ellis are probably a century old, but with creative reshaping and current colours, they look positively avant-garde.

About 2015, new residents replaced a decrepit house on River Road between Bampfield and Seneca, with a contemporary, modern eclectic bungalow. It is a beautiful home (below). Only a purist would complain that it does not suit the neighbourhood.

One would never guess that the attractive, very modern home (below) at the corner of Otter Street and River Road, is actually a duplex. Designed by a Buffalo architect and built in 1985, it is an obvious asset to a streetscape of much older homes in more traditional architectural styles.

After World War II, a couple of dozen small, storey-and-a-half bungalows were built on the west side of Ontario Avenue, backing onto the Michigan Central Railroad tracks. But now the tracks are gone, replaced by the Olympic Torch Trail. The location has become more desirable. So have many of the homes, enlarged and embellished. Compare the two below. The one at left is the original, unadorned, cookie-cutter, postwar box. The one at right is the same essential house but with a welcoming porch and a garden that could almost be called voluptuous.

Below is a similar comparison: a semi-detached on Ontario Avenue 30 or 40 years old, the right side inhabited by people who like a few shrubs and flowers, the left side by people who like lots and lots of them. The River Road Neighbourhood includes residents of both kinds, probably a larger proportion of the latter than in typical suburbs.

Among homes built in this district in the past 30 years, the one shown below near the corner of Eastwood Crescent and River Road is probably the most striking. Its grand, overpowering, Greek-Revival façade would have lots of company in Washington, DC, or on the acropolis in Athens, but there is not much comparable in Niagara Falls.

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