A view of Saint John's old north end

Saint John's old north end is on the cusp of a majortransformation as developers are buying up buildings and trying to turn around the neighbourhood.

From the 1700s until the mid-1960s, the old north end wasa thriving commercial district but over the years the buildings have emptied and been replaced with boarded up structures.

A man walks along a section of the old north end.

The neighbourhood was once full ofyoung families, but many of those people have moved away.

• FEATURE:This is Main Street: Rise and fall of a once thriving commercial district

ThisAlbert Street building has been hit by graffiti as other houses have been boarded up

Northend residents have maintained community pride, despite challenges that have cropped up in the neighbourhood over the years.

Former Saint John mayor Ivan Court said he once considered many of the homes in the old north end as "basically mansions."

But over time, those mansions were abandoned or damaged by fires or other vandals.

The decline of the old north end has been linked to an aging group of citizens and how many homes were demolished to make room for the Harbour Bridge in 1968.

• Saint John's north end poised for transformation

Many of the homes that line Saint John's gritty north end are now abandoned with only passing links to a time when the area was full of life.

Developers are now purchasing many of these boarded up buildings, with the intention of renovating the ones that can be saved and demolishing the others.

Victoria Street in Saint John's old north end is starting to see developers come in and take over buildings that have been abandoned.

Bridget McGale and Catherine Sidney have restored the 146-year-old home, Tapley Manor, in the old north end.

• PROFILE:The secret of Saint John'sTapleyManor: a north end love story

McGale and Sidney's historic home hasa panoramic view of the St. John River.

Over the past decades, the couple have painstakingly renovated every room of the big old house, which was originally built by the tugboat magnate Archibald Tapley in 1870.

Andrew Grady and his family are fixing up old buildings in Saint John's old north end.

Grady has run into difficulty financing some of his projects because banks are unwilling to financially back projects in the old north end.

• PROFILE:Saint John man overcomes barriers to renovate north end homes

The abandoned buildings that now dot Saint John's north end are now home to feral cats that are making themselves at home.

Daniel Gable, 36, a musician and former tree planter, left British Columbia and purchased a house on Victoria Street for $8,000.

• PROFILE:Saint John's old north end: Canada's cheap real estate destination