Building Styles

Kingston

The Frontenac County Courthouse in Kingston Ontario is an example of the Classical Revival civic architecture that was prevalent in the 19th century in Canada, the United States and Europe.

The giant order Ionic columns and the huge pedimented portico with the county coat of arms in the tympanum are standard features of the design.

This portico rests on a Greek stylobate - a continuous base on which columns are placed - imposing front stairs, leading up to the ornate and impressive doorway. We are meant to be given an idea of the importance of the city structure and a generous dose of civic pride.

The building is made of local stone. The windows on the bottom layer are all corniced, and the upper level windows have discrete and aesthetically pleasing stone window surrounds.

Picton

The Court House in Picton illustrates the use of Doric columns, the more severe, less ornate column, for the more serious business of law keeping.

The temple front is attached to a fairly plain Georgian style building with a large double front door with elliptical fanlight and a similar design on the window above. The building is capped with an ornate cupola.

Merrickville

This house is essentially Georgian in inspiration, but the Greek Doric order portico places it firmly in the Classical Revival category. If you look more closely, you can see that the architrave between the abacus and the pediment has a strong double horizontal accent that is copied across the front of the building. (Move your cursor across the image and hotpoints will be highlighted.)

Every detail of this building is perfect. Understated elegance and quiet simplicity in a dwelling is what the style was all about.

Orono

Here is another gorgeous little house is in the middle of a huge well-kept field in Orono.

The pedimented portico is added to a relatively plain vernacular building made from local field stone. Because the "temple front" is so pronounced and so symmetrical, it is Classical Revival rather than Neoclassical. The windows have a simple jack arch, but the door is quite ornate with a transom and sidelights within a Classical frame. The television antenna came later, but it is tastefully placed to balance the original chimney.

Dundas

Cut stone is used on the veneer of this three bay house in Dundas. The hip roof is ornamented with dentil blocks along the sill. There are also concrete sills on the windows. The original four over 4 sash windows have been covered by aluminum outside windows.

The arrangement of all the features is formal and solid. The application of the details follows academic rules that evolved through the Palladian Classicism practiced in England and in the United States during the 18th century. The result is a sturdy, impressive building made from vernacular materials that, after over 100 years, remains dignified.

Dundas detail

The screen door obscures a beautiful panel door, but the portico is still intact. The portico is made in the austere Doric order. Fluted columns with a discrete echinus and abacus hold a very plain architrave complete with metopes, triglyphs, and guttae. The cornice is also simple but substantial.

The Doric engaged pilasters holding the portico on the building side are also fluted but otherwise unadorned and very imposing. The Georgian style was one of substance and solidity. These proportions would be replaced by more delicate and light details in the Neo-Classical era that directly followed this era.

Kerby House 1835

The beauty of the Classical Revival style can be seen in the detailing of the doors and windows. This detail shows a simple fanlight over a six panel door. Simple carved pilasters have plain capitals and no base. The building is built from local stone.

It is interesting to note that all of this is done by hand with no electrical power either for cutting or lighting. Now that we have power tools, comfortable work places, and excellent lighting, this detailing can't be found.

Crysler Hall

From the time of the ancient Greeks, the high Doric columns and imposing pediment were meant to impress. This mixture of elements was originally used for temples, thus the term "temple front". It is entirely appropriate for this house, built for John Pliny Crysler in 1846.

For anyone with an interest in Canadian architecture, Upper Canada Village is an excellent place to start. There are a great many beautifully preserved buildings representing many of the styles from 1700 through 1850. A quiet footpath allows access to all.

Crysler Hall

Door Detail

The entrance is a standard six panel door with a rectangular transome and side lights. There is some metal detailing on the top corners, but the wood trim is sturdy and almost plain, the columns on the temple front are where the classical detailing can be found.

The house was built by John Cliny Crysler, the local member of parliament for Dundas County in the 1850s. The house was built on the banks of the St. Lawrence River just west of the famed battlefeild that was the site of the Battle of Crysler's Farm in 1813, a British victory that saved Montreal from probableinvasion and capture by American forces.

Cobourg

Classical Revival buildings are often based on Greek temple floor plans even if they don't have a "temple front". This residence, now a bed and breakfast, has a partial temple plan with a lunette in the tympanum of the gable front.

The cornices and cornice returns are pronounced, and all are made of brick painted white to look like stone. The sash windows are unusually tall, with equally tall shutters, and the front entrance is unusually wide. The façade has been very carefully maintained in its original state. On buildings such as this, the number of chimneys, in this case three, is a key to both the age of the building and the wealth of the original owners.

Cobourg

This building, designed by Edward Crane in 1841, was originally built as the Academy of the Methodist Church, one of the first degree-granting universities in Canada.

The portico is made in the austere Doric order which, at the top of a hill at the end of a long street, offers a brilliantly imposing presence . The portico is a full three storeys. The pediment is repeated on both wings, symmetry being a requirement of the Classical Revival style. On the top are a cupola and a lantern. Everything is white.

Ancaster

The Ancaster Town Hall is famous for many reasons, not the least of which is that Karen Kain took some of her first ballet lessons here.

Like many of the buildings on the main street of Ancaster, it is made from local stone gathered on the escarpment. It is a rectilinear building with a campanile. The front portico has a barrel vault and is supported by clustered Doric columns. The architrave is simple on both front and sides.

Within the gable end of the front entrance is a roundel with a floral patterned window. The side windows are very high and round -headed. The front door is extraordinarily high and multi-panelled. The cornice has discrete cornice returns. All of the detailing is, of course, white.

Hamilton

This extraordinary house has a set of clustered, giant order Ionic columns with a full entablature on the front portico. The architrave and cornice detailing are carried around the house.

The ground floor level has a series of lunettes with large keystones and discrete window surrounds over French doors that open onto the large terrace and side porticos. There is a balcony over the central door. The roof is clay tile.

Mount Fairview 1847

The most striking feature of really good architecture, regardless of the style, is the attention paid to the site. Mount Fairview is a brilliant example of this.

The land for Mount Fairview was purchased from the Widow Morden in 1847. Hugh and Jane Moore then built this home on the top of Cotton Mill Hill to take advantage of the view in every direction. There are lookouts and verandahs on every side, and a promenade deck on the top level with an enclosed belvedere. The view, then and now, is spectacular.

Mount Fairview 1847

Mount Fairview is built in the Classical Revival or Greek Revival style. The enormous giant order Ionic columns across the front have scroll capitals with front and back volutes and an egg and dart echinus.

The entablature has discreet dentils and a plain architrave. The cornice is nicely proportioned.

The white columns are beautifully restored and shown to great advantage in front of a soft ochre background.

Glencairn and Willowbank in Queenston have similar giant order, front columns with a second floor balcony. (soon to be on the Classical Revival page)

Mount Fairview 1847

Skill without fanfare is the fashion statement of the front hallway.

Queenston

Very similar to Fairview is this wonderful private residence currently being restored in Queenston Ontario. Like many homes of the time, it was owned by a prominent business person and situated just slightly outside of town on top of a hill with a wonderful panoramic view of the countryside.

The main façade of the building faces onto the lawn. There are giant order Ionic columns on the temple front design of the portico. The door is simple with a straight transome and sidelights open onto a central hall. Paired French doors allow access from two large salons.

Dundas

Dundas has the distinction of having the shortest highway in North America and the longest running hotel in Ontario, the Collins Hotel.

The most astonishing feature of this building is clearly the front portico with the four fluted, Doric columns. Above them are the triglyphs and metopes found on a traditional Doric entablature. Above this is a discrete cornice.

The roof has a series of dormers with Florentine pediments. There are two floors to the hotel, the second of which has a balcony running the full length of the building. On the ground level there are shops.