Working in the Dunroving neighborhood at about the same time as Edward Lavallee were the Aksila brothers. They developed Old Brook Drive, which would eventually connect with Lavallee's Aylesbury Road. Old Brook Drive led south from Moreland Street, an area the Aksilas also developed. They chose to build exclusively Tudors in this neighborhood, all during the 1940s. Several lots at the southern end of Old Brook Drive were not sold until the 1950s and 1960s; these houses were not built by the Aksilas, and differ greatly in style from their Tudors. The Tudors vary greatly in their massing and styles, but all have half-timbering and bricks laid with scattered stone or slate.

Brothers Ames and Anton Aksila were involved in the family business of carpentry. Their father, Mati, had arrived in the U. S. from Finland in 1894, settling in Worcester thereafter. Mati's children, including Ames and Anton, are all listed as carpenters or builders in various Worcester city directories from the first half of the 20th century. There are also numerous entries for real estate trusts owned by the Aksilas at the Worcester County Registry of Deeds, suggesting they were very busy with their real estate and building business.

The Aksilas worked not only on Old Brook Drive and Moreland Street, but also just to the south, on Jamesbury Drive and Knollwood Drive. An ad from a Worcester city directory in the 1950s shows Ames Aksila and the house the brothers built at 2 Jamesbury Drive. The neighborhood is notable because it has a conservative synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel. The synagogue's campus buildings were constructed in 1959 not by the Aksilas, but by R. L. Whipple Co., a Worcester firm that did work in the Dunroving area.

*A city directory ad from the 1950s showing 2 Jamesbury Drive*

This coming Wednesday, April 30, I will be giving a talk on the Dunroving development, its history, and its buildings. Free and open to the public at Preservation Worcester (10 Cedar St., Worcester) at 5:30 pm.