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Salisbury
This private home in Salisbury
England, built with a view of the cathedral, illustrates the
balance and symmetry of the style.
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Salisbury
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Twickenham
A similar building in Twickenham,
close to London, was the home of a wealthy businessman. The
house faces the River Thames with a access to the river and,
no doubt, a pleasure boat or two. This house and its neighbours
was the symbol of elegant living.
Balance, symmetry, and imposing
grandeur are the visual style.
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Twickenham England
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Upper
Saint Lawrence River
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The many rivers and tributaries leading to the
St. Lawrence provided beautiful settings and adequate transportation
for farmers hoping to make a good living in the new land.
Smaller outreaches like Burrits Rapids were off the main
thoroughfares, and thus less vulnerable to attach from the
Yankees on the south side of the River. Choice lots, whether
on the St. Lawrence or its many tributaries, were always
accessible by water.
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The houses here were mostly made of stone, but
wood and brick can also be found, particularly in the subsequent
Neo-Classical style.
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Maitland
Georgian features of this
simple stone house in Maitland include sash
windows, symmetrical five bays, half-round
fanlight over the door, and a gable
roof with two chimneys. The windows have simple jack
arches, and the door has a half-round arch with cut-stone
voussoirs. There is a simple stone
band under the second floor windows and a simple cornice.
For anyone interested in Georgian
or stone building, a trip to Maitland will be worth it. There
are many original stone buildings as well as a stone tower overlooking
the St. Lawrence River.
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Maitland Ontario
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Burritts
Rapids
Here is another classic
five bay Georgian house with a high gable
roof and two chimneys. This could
be a later Georgian house judging from the sash
windows that are six-over six meaning that the glass panes are
larger than in earlier houses. Also the door
has a very ornate fanlight, still
half-round, but certainly more intricate than earlier examples.
Around the fanlight is an impressive
arch made from cut-stone
voussoirs and over the windows are the usual jack arches.
The house is situated on the bank of the Rideau River with a
beautiful view over the water, another feature often found in
Georgian homes.
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Burritts Rapids Ontario
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Shores
of Lake Ontario
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All along the oast of
Lake Ontario small communities were popping up. The escarpment
provided a good source of stone and relatively easy access
to a major waterway provided glass and other building materials
from England and later from the United States. Field stone
and quarried limestone are both used on the Georgian buildings
in this area.
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Clarkson
Like many Georgian houses
the Benares house of 1856 had a splendid verandah.
The house has the usual sash windows
and sturdy front door with transom
and sidelights. In addition, it has a
frontispiece with a pediment.
The verandah, the second floor balcony,
and the roof cornice and modillions
are decorative accents indicating an affluent owner.
Benares is now a period
museum open to the public. The grounds are impressive and there
is a large modern museum and exhibition space on the property.
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Clarkson Ontario
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Waterdown
Here is another beautifully maintained Georgian
house made in vernacular materials. The stone would have come
from the Niagara Escarpment, Waterdown is just on the edge.
The finish is called "ashlar", a term for stone cut
so that the finish is smooth with minimal joints. The door surround
is restrained and elegant with a simple square transom and side
lights.
Like many Georgian buildings, it is situated brilliantly,
on the crest of a hill overlooking a valley.
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Waterdown Ontario
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Springdale 1810
This house was built in or before 1810 by Hector
McKay. It was bought by Joseph Webster in 1819 and remained
in his family until the twentieth century.
The front of the house is composed of dressed
stone while the back is rubble. Like the others in this area,
it has six over six sash windows, a wooden door with side lights
and a square transom. The door surround is simple but elegant.
There are large stone lintels and
well preserved shutters on the windows
. The austere lines of the house earned it the designation of
Wilderness Georgian.
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Springdale
This door
detail illustrates how carefully the owners have preserved the
original wood. The reveals are paneled
as are the door and base panels. The agraffe
above the door is a simple foliage pattern. There are large
quoins along the edge of the door made
of the same limestone, but in larger blocks than the rest of
the façade.
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Port
Credit
The Cotton House built
by Robert Cotton about 1856 is a good example of a clapboard
Georgian. The façade is symmetrical
with shuttered six-over-six sash
windows and an elegant transom
and side lights around the door. Two chimneys
indicate that there were two fireplaces.
The house was originally part of a large estate.
Robert Cotton was a Justice of the Peace, a businessman who
ran, among other things, the Port Credit General Store, and
a member of the local government The house remains a private
residence.
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Port Credit Ontario
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Port
Hope
This is an urban carriage
house probably not used as a residence for at least part of
its lifespan. There are two separate entrances
on either side of a carriageway. The horse and buggies or horses
would have been driven through the carriageway and tethered
at the rear of the building.
The windows are 12-over -12
sash, the detailing is all white and there are simple transoms
over the doors with no side lights. The carriageway is simply
framed with a pseudo three-centered arch, a type of arch popular
in the Elizabethan period. There is no cornice
detailing or ornament of any kind.
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Port Hope Ontario
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Simcoe
This old Georgian home is now the Museum in Simcoe.
It is also a two-storey brick building with six-over-six
sash windows and shutters, two
chimneys, and a sturdy cornice.
The front entrance
has a large transom with two sidelights.
The front door is new, and the front entrance may be newer than
the building.
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Simcoe Ontario
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Westfield
Village
This beautifully restored georgian store front
in Westfield has a false-front,
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Westfield Village Ontario
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Niagara
and Area
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One of the interesting
features of the early buildings in Ontario is the difference
in building materials. Where Hamilton area is mostly stone,
Niagara is almost exclusively wood. This was partly due
to the origins of the population. Loyalists made up a major
portion of the Niagara residents while British immigrants
moved more into the Hamilton area.
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The war of 1812 destroyed a huge
portion of early Niagara, but there is still enough left
in the Georgian style to make it a significant area of study.
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Niagara-on-the-Lake
In Niagara-on-the-Lake the houses are made with
a wood siding veneer more often than with stone or brick. This
house was probably rebuilt after the War of 1812, but the original
12-over -12 windows and symmetrical bays
remain as in the original. The front door detail is very simple
with a cornice and rectangular side
lights. The amount of window area on the façade
is more than in the original Georgian designs, but, again, may
have been modified after the 1812 war.
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Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario
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Niagara-on the-Lake
Georgian doors are very
sturdy and quite simple. This two-fielded panel door has a strong
central knocker. The door handle
was added much later; a Georgian gentleman's door was always
opened from within. The lady of the house or a maid-servant
always in the house to take care of any visitors.
The transom
and sidelights are quite plain and made from original small
panes of glass. Above the door is a simple classical cornice
and entablature, and the sides
are framed in sturdy unfluted pilasters.
Like many Georgian houses, the door detailing is white.
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Door
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Handle Detail
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Details from Niagara-on-the-Lake
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North
- Western Ontario
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The people who settled
west of lake Ontario were the type of hardy adventurous
individuals that make good movie footage. For
settlers like Ermatinger, there were no boundaries, either
on geography or on what could be accomplished in one lifetime.
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The building material here, again,
is stone, but it is a completely different quality of stone.
Fieldstone made of quartz and other glacier deposit stones
not limestone from the escarpment.
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Sault
Ste. Marie
This is the oldest stone
building northwest of Toronto. It was built in 1813 for Charles
Oakes Ermatinger, a fur trader, merchant, and Justice of the
Peace.
Typical of the style are the
two chimneys, the 12-over -12 sash
windows, the low pitched roof, and the
relatively plain door. Wooden window shutters
and a pedimented portico
complete the picture. It was constructed from vernacular
materials - mostly river stone. The shutters would have been
closed in the winter to keep out the cold.
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Sault Ste. Marie Ontario
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Sault Ste. Marie
Built in 1865, "Upton" was the home
of Wemyss Simpson, the last Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay
Company in Sault Ste. Marie. It was subsequently purchased by
"Heritage Sault Ste. Marie" and converted into three
condominiums. The restored Regency Style
verandah is typical of Georgian homes,
but not many have been maintained; wood is less durable than
stone. The six-over-six sash windows,
quoins, and low hip
roof are typical of the style.
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Sault Ste. Marie Ontario
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Georgian
Extra Reading and Films
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Books
Austen, Jane, Emma,
any
Austen, Jane, Persuasion,
any
Austen, Jane, Pride
and Prejudice, any
Austen, Jane, Sense
and Sensability, any
Blumenson, John. Ontario
Architecture A Guide to Styles and Terms.
1978.
Cruickshank, Tom, and John de Visser,
Old
Toronto Houses,Toronto: Firefly Books,
2003.
Cruickshank, Tom, and John de Visser,
Old
Ontario Houses,Toronto: Firefly Books,
2000.
MacRae, Marion,
and Anthony Adamson. The
Ancestral Roof: Domestic Architecture of Upper Canada.
Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1963.
For
information on Georgian architecture in specific areas
within Ontario there are some very good books listed
under the About page.
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Films
Becoming Jane
- Anne Hathaway
The Madness of King
George 1994
"His Majesty was all powerful and
all knowing. But he wasn't quite all there."
Persuasion,
(1995) (2007)
Pride and Prejudice,
(1995) (2005)
Sense and Sensability,
(1995) (2008)
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