Palazzo
Banking was frowned upon by the
church during the middle ages, but by the 15th century it was
an accepted practice. In Florence, banking and trade were the
basis of a strong economy. With money comes power. The nobles
were soon ousted by the banking families such as the Medici,
the Strozzi, the Rucellai and the Pitti whose commercial empires
spread through Europe. In Florence these families built palazzos
like this one from which to rule.
The palazzo form is square with
a high first floor where the carriages and horses of friends
could enter. The second floor was the public area where the
family would greet and entertain their guests. The third and
top floor was reserved for the bed chambers. The square shape
is always crowned by a large cornice.
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Palazzo Strozzi
1489 - 1539
Here again is the classic palazzo design of large
first floor with a huge entranceway for carriages, a more elaborate
second floor with regularized windows, and a more refined third
floor capped with a large cornice.
The interior of the palazzo has elegant tiered
columns while the exterior has uniformly rusticated blocks The
entrance has a Florentine arch with heavy voussoirs. The cornice
projects 7 feet (2.1m) from the building. Underneath it is a
astragal frieze. An astragal is a molding that is convex, and
resembles a string of beads.
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Italianate
in Ontario
So, how do you recognize an Italianate building?
When you spot a friend from a distance, you recollect not
the colour of the eye or the small lines around the lip,
but the overall silhouette. Eatons College Street in Toronto,
the former Right House in Hamilton, the Dominion Building
in Halifax, now the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, all have
the silhouette of a Renaissance palazzo. They have a three
or four story façade with a huge cornice held up
by decorative brackets. This silhouette is the signature
feature of the Italianate.
The original owners of Italianate homes would
often have been third or fourth generation Canadians, probably
descended from United Empire Loyalists. The Loyalists were
refugees. They left the newly formed United States because
they disagreed with fundamental policies of the new republic,
one of them being slavery. Many of the Loyalists left beautiful
properties, large homes and good lives with only the belongings
they could fit on their backs or in a wagon. They would
have been pleased to see their descendants living in comfort.
In addition, they would have been happy to see that their
descendants had maintained the same moral principles that
forced their own migration.
In some of the large Italianate houses from Sarnia to Wolfville,
there are small rooms in the basement with no windows and
no external egress. These were not wine cellars, though
they are often used
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as such now. They were rooms that could be neither
accessed nor detected from the outside, so no escaping light
or heat could betray the precious contents within. These
were rooms used to house people escaping in the Underground
Railway. Few records were kept, there was no website, no
listing in the Yellow Pages, but a peculiarly detailed room,
with a hidden entrance and possibly an undetected air source
is usually a room set up for escaping slaves.
Unique to Ontario is a design for a two story
square residence with projecting eaves and ornate cornice
brackets promoted by The Canada Farmer journal
in 1865. This residence provided a classical alternative
to the Gothic Cottage. Italianate
residences often have a frontispiece,
large sash windows, quoins,
and ornate detailing on the windows and roof brackets. Classical
elements are used, but in a secondary role.
Also important are the many Italianate commercial
buildings found on almost any street in Ontario. The next
time you are stopped at a stoplight, or someone else is
driving, take note of the lovely cresting and elegant window
surrounds, all cast iron, that were built in the Italianate
style.
All buildings below are in Ontario.
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Bloomfield
This is one of many Italianate
houses built according to the plans set out in The Canadian
Farmer 1865. People wanted a large, many- bedroomed house
that had some interesting detailing. A two story rectangular
building with a mild hip roof, a projecting
frontispiece, and generous eaves
with ornate cornice brackets was
the basis of the style. There was no pattern book for
details or any main architect promoting the style; this was
simply a fashion that took hold. As this building currently
a fine restaurant, we have the opportunity to see the interior,
unlike the case with many Italianate buildings,
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Picton
Picton is only 14 kilometers up the road from
Bloomfield. This is probably the same builder. The front verandah
is different, and there are bay windows, but the footprint is
the same.
Once you recognize this style of house, you will
see it everywhere. The reason is that it was one of a handful
of house styles circulated through the province in a popular
magazine called The Canada Farmer.
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Canada
Farmer 1865
This image is taken from the April 15 1865 issue
of Canada Farmer magazine, now thankfully digitized by CIHM.
It shows the elevation for a Two Story Farm House. Plans are
shown below.
The design was printed in response to a request
from a reader. The writer provides the plans with this salutation
"Having received the desired information,
we have had plans prepared which we trust will meet the case,
or at least form a useful study for the intending builder and
his good lady, who will of course have the chief voice in the
affair" p. 116
Some things don't change.
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Canada
Farmer 1865
Wedged between information on the new, improved
milking stool and how to cultivate Concord grapes, are the plans
for the most prevalent design within the Italianate category.
Note that there are enough bedrooms for a large extended family
and servants. This central hall plan was the basis for most
residences prior to the ground breaking work of the Arts and
Crafts movement who built rooms according to access to sunlight
and interior space.
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Foxbar
- Dundas
Like many buildings in the Hamilton area, Foxbar
is the product of Scottish stone masons. Above the door is a
set of paired, round-headed windows with shutters, the same
motif seen on a door at Mornington (below). The cornice is generous
and equipped with ornate brackets.
This lucky property was originally owned by two
wealthy families and then sold to the Reigel Home, a foundation
for severely handicapped children.
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Foxbar - Dundas
Restoration of historic properties is a daunting,
though rewarding, task. It is often difficult to find woodwork
or iron work that matches the quality of that done in the 19th
century. With bathrooms, however, you are fairly free to make
as many changes as necessary because there were no bathrooms
per se in 19th century houses. A bath 'tub' was placed in the
kitchen close to the stove and water was drawn form a well and
boiled on the stove, then used to fill the bath. In more affluent
houses, the tubs were transferred to private parlors or even
the bedroom area, but they were seldom a permanent fixture.
Lady Recalmier
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Foxbar - Dundas
Whatever genius was in charge of the refurbishing
the property to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers decided
to cover the original wood floors and wainscoting with plastic
finishes rather than replace them or have them accidentally
ruined.
The current owners, Liz and John Heersink were
able to restore the gorgeous wood finishes to their original
glory. The front hallway is a masterpiece of tasteful design.
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Foxbar - Dundas
Whatever genius was in charge of the refurbishing
the property to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers decided
to cover the original wood floors and wainscoting with plastic
finishes rather than replace them or have them accidentally
ruined.
The current owners, Liz and John Heersink were
able to restore the gorgeous wood finishes to their original
glory. The front hallway is a masterpiece of tasteful design.
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Foxbar - Dundas
Even the scroll decorations on the staircase have
been lovingly refinished. The rest of the house is similarly
restored.
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Foxbar - Dundas
Another scroll is found on the mantel in the library.
Flanked by built-in bookcases, the fireplace is incorporated
into the room primarily for warmth, but is an important design
feature.
Interestingly, the marble is actually a faux marble
finish! This is exactly the type of finish used today in many
restoration projects, and some new homes as well. It is traditional,
but it has certainly stood the test of time.
This room, found on the north west corner of the
house, backs onto a south facing parlour that has no fireplace.
There are two ducts in the ceiling that provided warm air from
this fireplace to enter the parlor.
There is no disguising the fact that the owners
of Foxbar know what they are doing when it comes to antique
furnishings and details. John Heersink takes this one step further.
Here is a man who spends his spare time tirelessly wandering
through antique shops and garage sales in search of fine craftsmanship
fallen on bad times.
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Foxbar - Dundas
In a windowless room in his basement can be found
a selection of leaded windows, lunettes and handcrafted doors
waiting to be placed in a good home. These are refugees of the
Home Improvement Craze. Heersink has ingeniously placed some
of these elements in unexpected places throughout Foxbar. For
example, two leaded glass picturesque' windows were salvaged
from a renovation and placed in a hallway to add light to the
coat closet. Heaven has a special place for such people.
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Mornington
- Stratford
Many of the owners of historic properties in Ontario
open them up to distinguished guests as an excuse for properly
restoring them. A plastic door pediment might be acceptable
from the street, but if you expect people to pay to stay, you
must restore the wooden one so that it is indistinguishable
from the original.
Brian and Susan Fox have done just that at Mornington.
Both the exterior and all of the interior finishings are as
accurate as they could make them. This takes some doing. Any
architectural elements that are left suspended in the process
are quickly placed in a new context.
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Mornington - Stratford
Like most brick buildings found west of Cambridge
Ontario all the way to London and beyond, the house is made
of yellow brick. This is a particularly beautiful brick made
with clay rich in lime.
The door of the house has been completely altered:
a broken pediment supported by fluted pilasters crowns a segmental
arch opening. The original single door was replaced by two doors,
thus eliminating the side lights. Other than that the door façade
is relatively unchanged. The weather marks forming a line across
the front show where an extensive veranda once was.
Instead of a frontispiece, the door is accentuated
by two pilasters of plain brick. Bricks are also used to provide
a dentiled frieze under the cornice. It is also evident that
most of the support modillions have been removed. Those that
remain are classic scroll shaped.
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Mornington - Stratford
The staircase on this house is much simpler than
that found at Foxbar, but the newel post and bottom return are
almost identical. It is a perfect perch for the ferocious guard
dog.
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Mornington - Stratford
This beautiful paneled door with paired, round-headed
arches is taken from a pantry and used on the upstairs bathroom.
It wasn't placed there originally because the bathroom did not
exist, but one can quite comfortably assume that the original
owner's wife would have approved.
The two panels with rounded tops seems to be a
common motif. The bathrooms at Foxbar have the same design as
does the central window found on the Oakville house below.
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Mornington - Stratford
Great pains have been taken to make sure that
all remaining detailing is well preserved and in good working
order. This original sash window is in perfect order. The owners
did not succumb to the fake loooking products of the dreaded
vinyl replacement salesman.
Anyone enthusiastic about saving architecture
can do no better than give such establishments their custom.
It is not self indulgence. It is a service to the community.
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Stratford
This grand residence of the 1860s was the residence
of the local doctor ********** *******. He built a relatively
humble building, still standing next door, and then with his
increasing affluence, created this Italianate home to house
his growing family.
The house has the basic rectangular plan with
a frontispiece and a well- restored
verandah. The front door and curved
door surround are absolutely
spectacular. Atop the entrance is a balustraded balcony.
Eyebrow window cornices and large
cornice brackets on exaggerated
eaves balance the lower level extravagance.
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Erindale
The Hammond House was built
in 1866 by Oliver Hammond and his wife Sarah Ann Carpenter.
It is a vernacular example of the house of an affluent farmer
as outlined in The Canadian Farmer (1865). Like the Bloomfield
example, this is a symmetrical plan with a large frontispiece,
but rather than being rectangular, this has a Gothic-like gable
with ornate vergeboarding. Most
of the detailing on the frontispiece is new, including the door
and upper window, but it has been done with great sensitivity
to the original design.
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Erindale Ontario
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Cobourg
The most outstanding feature of this classic Italianate
house is the fanlight on the door
of the second floor balcony. Above
it is a lunette on the third floor
within the gable and under the generous
eaves. Modillions hold the roof
cornice in place and add character to the overall design.
The front portico is held in place
by Corinthian columns and an unadorned
architrave. Above it is an iron
railing on the balcony. There is a
band of dentils above the second story
. The house is painted in discreet colours that reflect the
period.
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Simcoe
Here is another example with a few changes. There
are side dormers in the hip
roof, the cornice is not as large
as in the above example, and the cornice
brackets are paired. These are not the original windows,
but the shape is the same, and they complement the keystone
and voussoirs of the flat arch. The
sill is small and refined. On the lower level are paired
bay windows with small cornices.
The most outstanding feature of this house is
the large, circular portico with Ionic
columns, a curving architrave,
and a set of sturdy red stairs.
The house is beautifully situated at the top of
a hill on a large, well-kept lawn.
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St.
Catherines
Situated on the ridge of the first Welland Canal
is the Merritt House, built in 1860 by William Hamilton Merritt,
one of the founders of the canal. It was originally a single
family home, but, over the years was a military convalescent
home, a brewery and an inn. Currently it is the home of CKTB
radio station. The house also has the distinction of being haunted.
http://www.haunted hamilton.com has that story.
The house follows the Italianate plan without
the frontispiece; the pedimented first floor windows, roundel
and large roof brackets are pure Italianate.
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Mount Vernon
This beautiful house is situated outside of town
in a large fielded area. The walls are constructed with local
field stone kept in good plumb with oversized concrete quoins,
lintels and sills.
The cornice follows an undulating line over the
three bas and is adorned with dentils and paired modillions.
The window over the central bay is a Venetian arch. The ground
floor has a central door flanked by two French Doors.
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Ancaster
This formal and symmetrical composition follows
the Canadian Farmer prototype to the letter. The central
frontispiece has a large broken
pediment with paired cornice brackets.
The second-storey central window is round-headed
and multi-paned. The door has a handsome transom
and two ornate side lights. The front façade
windows are six-over-six sash with shutters.
It is a shame that all historic buildings are
not as beautifully kept as this one.
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Dundas
This formal and symmetrical composition follows
the Canadian Farmer prototype to the letter. The central
frontispiece has a large broken
pediment with paired cornice brackets.
The second-storey central window is round-headed
and multi-paned. The door has a handsome transom
and two ornate side lights. The front façade
windows are six-over-six sash with shutters.
It is a shame that all historic buildings are
not as beautifully kept as this one.
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Ancaster
This formal and symmetrical composition follows
the Canadian Farmer prototype to the letter. The central
frontispiece has a large broken
pediment with paired cornice brackets.
The second-storey central window is round-headed
and multi-paned. The door has a handsome transom
and two ornate side lights. The front façade
windows are six-over-six sash with shutters.
It is a shame that all historic buildings are
not as beautifully kept as this one.
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Troy
This formal and symmetrical composition follows
the Canadian Farmer prototype to the letter. The central
frontispiece has a large broken
pediment with paired cornice brackets.
The second-storey central window is round-headed
and multi-paned. The door has a handsome transom
and two ornate side lights. The front façade
windows are six-over-six sash with shutters.
It is a shame that all historic buildings are
not as beautifully kept as this one.
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Simcoe
The Italianate style was
not so much concerned with imitating a recognized style as embellishing
a building with exaggerated features such as the window cornices
and the roof cornice and brackets
in this example. The second storey windows have ornate curved
hood molds with label
stops. The first floor has segmental
cornices over the windows and a lunette
with an exaggerated molding over
the door. The side porch is ornately decorated and includes
a keystone. All of these details were
made in wrought iron. The plan of this house is straight- forward:
a rectangular main house with a rectangular bay and a rectangular
side entrance.
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Hamilton
The Italianate style was
not so much concerned with imitating a recognized style as embellishing
a building with exaggerated features such as the window cornices
and the roof cornice and brackets
in this example. The second storey windows have ornate curved
hood molds with label
stops. The first floor has segmental
cornices over the windows and a lunette
with an exaggerated molding over
the door. The side porch is ornately decorated and includes
a keystone. All of these details were
made in wrought iron. The plan of this house is straight- forward:
a rectangular main house with a rectangular bay and a rectangular
side entrance.
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Mount
Vernon
This is similar to the Bloomfield residence in
that it is a simple center plan of common bond red brick.
Instead of the frontispiece, there is a long,
ornate front verandah and a large cornice with paired modillions.
Both houses have sash windows with green shutters.
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Bowmanville
This is the Fisher-Jury
home, built for David Fisher in 1847. It was originally built
as a Regency cottage, but in 1861
the windows were changed and the second storey was built transforming
the building into Italianate. As well as generous eaves, there
is a belvedere. The original Regency
verandah was expanded to provide a
terrace for the second storey.
If you recognize the house,
it may be because it was in the "Wind at my Back"
series as Ma Bailey's home.
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Kitchener
The plan of this house
is a little more complicated than the above examples, but it
is still a relatively simple rectilinear plan with Italianate
detailing. The paired cornice brackets
are the most obvious embellishment. There is a broken
pediment on the front bay within the tympanum
of which is a lunette.
The cornice follows the gable
with cornice returns and large brackets.
The windows are simple sash
windows with brick lintels. Over
the door there is a porch with a second floor
balcony.
The overall impression of this building is much
more restrained than the previous example, but it is none the
less a Classical as opposed
to Gothic adaptation of a country house.
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Oakville
This house of 1887
is an interesting adaptation of Italianate onto a basic Ontario
Farmhouse floor plan. The twin windows on the front bay have
semi-circular arches on the top level
and ornate cornices. The top window
has a pediment while the bottom
simply has an oversized cornice. The front bay has vergeboarding
and the windows are shuttered. The
verandah is original with ornate capital
detailing. Above the verandah is a door. If there was no balcony
for the door, the building would be considered technically unfinished
and taxes would reflect this. This may have been the case here.
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Oakville Ontario
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Commercial
Italianate in Ontario
Cast iron producers lead the way into the Italianate
style with a wide variety of unbelievably heavy door and
window surrounds that reflected the quasi-Italian feeling
of the Italian palazzo. These, along with the large and
ornate cornice, also of cast iron, set the design parameters
for the style.
The three storey building set the precedent
for downtown commercial buildings as can be seen in Eaton's
College Street in Toronto, the Right House in Hamilton,
and many more.
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The desired effect, opulent excess, was the
perfect quality to promote commerce. This ebullient, bordering
on Baroque, detailing was then applied to residential properties
with great success, much more success than many of the new
homes today that are an unhappy assembly of generally unrelated
architectural elements, applied like wallpaper, then forced
into a cohesive unit by large quantities of beige paint.
The difference here is that the design was shaped by the
facade, not the interior space.
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Here is an example of an Italianate commercial
block. The features of this building are certainly exaggerated,
and they are even more remarkable when you realize that they
are all cast-iron. The cornice alone
must weigh as much as a small building. The window
surrounds are oversized with a multiplicity of Italianate
details, various pediment shapes,
brackets, agraffes,
pilasters, and ornate moldings.
This is obviously a mixed- use building; on the
street level are stores and there are apartments on the upper
two levels. The building is divided into bays, the two commercial
with three windows, and the central, smaller, bay for apartment
access.
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Dundas Ontario
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Here is an example of an Italianate commercial
block. The features of this building are certainly exaggerated,
and they are even more remarkable when you realize that they
are all cast-iron. The cornice alone
must weigh as much as a small building. The window
surrounds are oversized with a multiplicity of Italianate
details, various pediment shapes,
brackets, agraffes,
pilasters, and ornate moldings.
This is obviously a mixed- use building; on the
street level are stores and there are apartments on the upper
two levels. The building is divided into bays, the two commercial
with three windows, and the central, smaller, bay for apartment
access.
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Dundas Ontario
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Here is an example of an Italianate commercial
block. The features of this building are certainly exaggerated,
and they are even more remarkable when you realize that they
are all cast-iron. The cornice alone
must weigh as much as a small building. The window
surrounds are oversized with a multiplicity of Italianate
details, various pediment shapes,
brackets, agraffes,
pilasters, and ornate moldings.
This is obviously a mixed- use building; on the
street level are stores and there are apartments on the upper
two levels. The building is divided into bays, the two commercial
with three windows, and the central, smaller, bay for apartment
access.
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Dundas Ontario
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Here is an example of an Italianate commercial
block. The features of this building are certainly exaggerated,
and they are even more remarkable when you realize that they
are all cast-iron. The cornice alone
must weigh as much as a small building. The window
surrounds are oversized with a multiplicity of Italianate
details, various pediment shapes,
brackets, agraffes,
pilasters, and ornate moldings.
This is obviously a mixed- use building; on the
street level are stores and there are apartments on the upper
two levels. The building is divided into bays, the two commercial
with three windows, and the central, smaller, bay for apartment
access.
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Here is another mixed use Italianate commercial
block. Instead of caste iron here, the ornament on the cornice
is added by brick patterning. As in the Dundas building, the
access to the upper floors is in the center of the building's
main floor.
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This building follows the original palazzo design.
The lower floor has been remodelled over time but the upper
two floors have completely different window styles. The cornice
is very ornate with lovely corbels.
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Here is another mixed use Italianate commercial
block. Instead of caste iron here, the ornament on the cornice
is added by brick patterning. As in the Dundas building, the
access to the upper floors is in the center of the building's
main floor.
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Italianate Extra
Reading
Books
Blumenson, John. Ontario
Architecture A Guide to Styles and Terms.
1978
Boorstin, Daniel,
The Creators, Random
House, New York, 1992
Brotton, Jerry,
The Renaissance Bazaar,
USA: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Green, Patricia and Maurice H., Wray, Sylvia
and Robert, from West Flamborough's
storied past, The Waterdown East-Flamborough Heritage
Society, 2003
MacRae, Marion, and
Anthony Adamson. The
Ancestral Roof: Domestic Architecture of Upper Canada.
Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1963.
Pendergrast, Mark
. Mirror
Mirror, A History of the Human Love Affair with Reflection.
Basic Books, New York, 2003
For
information on Italianatel architecture in specific areas
within Ontario there are some very good books listed under
the About page.
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Films
Shenandoe - Jimmy
Stewart
(This is an American movie, but it illustrates the hardships
of living in a rural setting, trying to build a homestead,
in times of war).
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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