Building Styles

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 storey 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,

Picton

Picton is only 14 kilometers up the road from Bloomfield. This is probably the same builder. The front veranda is different, and there are bay windows, but the footprint is the same.

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 frontispeice, there is a long, ornate front veranda and a large cornice with paired modillions.

Both houses have sash windows with green shutters.

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.

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.

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.

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 veranda 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.

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.

Most Italianate houses are found in rural Ontario in farming districts. This Simcoe version is no exception.

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.

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 veranda. 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.

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.

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 veranda is original with ornate capital detailing. Above the veranda is a door. If there was no balcony for the door, the building would be considerd technically unfinished and taxes would reflect this. This may have been the case here.

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 storey . The house is painted in discreet colours that reflect the period.

Dundas

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.

Picton

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.

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.