Building Styles by Building Element

Balcony

Kingston

A balcony is a platform built out from and only accessible from an upper story room or corridor.

In this example, the street level is a porch, the upper level is a balcony.

balconies are often found on apartment complexes and condominiums. Each unit would have its own balcony.

Balconette

Hamilton

A balconette, also called a Juliet balcony, is a very small platform built out from and only accessible from an upper story room or corridor.

Balconette's are usually found by French doors or large windows that overlap a courtyard or patio. They must have a strong, usually iron, railing to protect people from falling out.

Deck

Dundas

The term deck comes from ship building. Any platform built onto a vessel, sea or air borne, is a deck. In Canada, decks are part of the suburban vernacular. They are usually made of weatherproof wood planks, and they usually hold a bar-b-que. The term ‘deck' for residences is rarely used in Europe.

This is clearly not a deck, but I've got one in mind.....

Patio

Toronto

A patio is a roofless courtyard containing plants, furniture and water features, paved with stone or brick, either within a building or atrium or adjacent to it.

Patios are found around pools. Patios are also found adjacent to restaurants and cafes. There is a distinct difference between 'deck chairs' and 'patio furniture'. The deck chairs would be larger, more rustic. The patio chairs would be more refined.

Portal

Toronto

Strictly speaking a portal is any doorway, gateway or entrance to an area, but most portals are large and impressive.

The term portal means a secured entranceway, used in Harry Potter, science fiction movies and computer software as much as in building.

A portal is a large door with a formidable door surround to discourage enemies. it usually has a 'receiving chamber' on the other side where the visitor can be inspected before being given full entry to the building.

Portico

Hamilton

A portico is the decorated, columnated opening to an important building, either residential or civic, designed in a classical style.

This portico on Dundurn Castle in Hamilton has a temple front with four columns done in the Roman Doric style. (The columns have small bases, not found in the original greek Doric).

Terrace

Flamborough

A terrace is an outdoor living area that extends directly from the door level and is also level or almost level with the ground around it.

Terraces can descend to become a parterre: terribly elegant, terribly upper class, terribly golf course.

The term terrace is also used in England to describe a series of houses with a regular facade that descned down a slope. A Georgian terrace is a well respected home style.

Verandah

Wellington

A veranda is a covered porch that encloses one or more sides of a residence. In Queen Anne style buildings, such as this one, the veranda usually wraps around the building from front to back.

Queen Anne homes were built for affluent people who had a strong single family unit as well as an extended family, aunts, cousins, parents, as wel as a few servants. The veranda provided an outdoor living space during the summer months.

Vernacular

Wendat Village - Midland

Having an area that allows the inhabitants some protection when stepping out of the door is a fairly obvious development.

For hanging wet clothes, or offering a screen between you and would-be attackers, the porch is a useful addition to any residence.

Log Houses and early cottages had porches that also allowed the inhabitants to escape the heat from indoors, and provide a protected living space where food, wine and the occasional beer might be found.

Vernacular

Cedar Springs

Log House.

Loyalist

Fairview

The Loyalists who arrived in the late 18th century were used to a refined colonial existence in New York or Pennsylvania. They were hardy, opinionated souls, but they appreciated the finer things in life and made an effort to provide gorgeous two story porches in the American Colonial style then popular. This Colonial style is found in Australia, New Zealand, and Africa as well. On these porches you could expect to be offered strawberry cordial and cucumber sandwiches.

Loyalist

Niagara - on - the - Lake

Niagara was the original colonial style.

French Regime

Ottawa

The French Regime is a farmhouse style with deeply pitched roofs and large second floor balconies. A trip along the St. Lawrence will reveal one beautiful town after another in this style. The Second Empire is the opulent style of Paris 1880. They are both all about Bordeaux and fine cheese.

Georgian

Clarkson

Georgian style buildings were also built during the Loyalist years and for many decades thereafter. The detailing on these places is reminiscent of the detailing you find on wooden ships. The shipbuilders would spend the summers around the harbors and the winters as guests in large Georgian homes. They would repay this hospitality with wood porches, fascias and other detailing. Georgian porches are symmetrical, as are the buildings, and there is often a second storey balcony for breakfast tea, biscuits and apple butter.

Benares - Clarkson

From the front.

Georgian

Clarkson - detail

post and bracket detail.

Regency High Style

Woodlawn Inn

Cobourg

This is a stunning patio. The Inn itself is wonderful.

Regency - High Style

Cobourg

Woodlawn Inn has the finest Regency doorway in the province.

Regency

Odessa

Regency Cottages all had fine porches and verandahs. Due to the upkeep, many have been removed. This one is particularly fine.

Regency meets --Neo-Classical

Kingston

Architectural historians have listed this as Classical Revival, neo-Classical or Regency.

It is a mixture of a few styles, but a seriously beautiful building with both a porch and a balcony.

Upper Canada Farmhouse

Alton

While Regency was the style for the wealthy and military personnel, the rest of the population were mostly, by necessity, farmers. Their porches were built not so much for socializing as for utility. The fit neatly into the L-shape of the building, uniting the kitchen or larder with the main living area. Here is where the peas were shucked and the butter churned.

Upper Canada Farmhouse

Alton

In most farm houses, the porch was where the seaonal workers and extended family would gather after a day's work.

Upper Canada Farmhouse

Fergus

Anyone interested in stone building would be well advised to visit Fergus and Alora where many buildings are still inexcellent condition and thankfully free of 'renovation'.

This one is a beauty.

Upper Canada Farmhouse

Hastings

Wood farmhouses with large verandas can also be found in abundance. This one has seen decades of good stories and fine foods I'm sure.

Classical Revival

Willowbank - Queenston

By the mid-18th century, the war of the styles had begun. Half the world was designing in the classical styles, the other half was Gothic. Those who
preferred the classical, sometimes called Greek Revival, were doing so in grand style as can be seen in Willowbank where a complete temple front with quasi-octostyle columns can be found. On less opulent homes, classical detailing on doors and windows added a touch of gentility. In both cases, attention to copying the actual Greek orders, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, was paramount. In the High Style of Willowbank, proportions were key.

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 oversized porches of the Classical Revival need a lawn to be properly appreciated.

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.

Gothic Revival

Dundas

Gothic homes brought the "sitting porch" down to ground level so that the owner could be in touch with his or her natural surroundings. Arches would be pointed, detailing of carved trefoils, vines and flowers, or Gothic heads and figures would be found throughout.

Gothic Revival

Madoc

Gothic Revival homes are not known for large porches. They are, however, known for fine wood detailing such as is found on this porch. The quatrefoil and lancet arch on the small fron porch place it securely in the Gothic Revival style.

Italianate

Picton

By the 1880s, Ontario had become quite opulent, and people were aiming at building homes that reflected their social position and education. Every type of European influence was put into a house style. The most popular was the Italianate, reflective of affluence and commercial success. Italianate is the most prevalent style of the 19th century, and reflects the most widely diverse set of details. On many rural homes, the front porch was the place to watch the world go by. On the town homes, the front porch was the finishing touch on the front of the house, a place to display your wealth and prestige, the architectural equivalent of the starched lace and ribbons found on Victorian clothing.

Italianate

Picton

Italianate

Mount Vernon

This is similar to the Picton examples in that it is a a very ornate, heavy, wood porch on a red brick building.

I

Italianate

Mount Vernon

detail.

Italianate

Goderich

TAnother fine example of Italianate.

Italianate

Troy

This is a small porch, but similar to the rest.

Italianate Oakville

This house of 1887 is an interesting adaptation of Italianate onto a basic Ontario Farmhouse floor plan.

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.

Regency meets Italianate

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.

Queen Anne Revival

Hastings

The Queen Anne style is frankly nothing without the meandering verandah. Large Victorian households, in a variety of styles, generally offered shelter to an extended family. To escape the crowd of the family and find some private time, homes built in the late 1800's had dormers, turrets and porches that wrapped around the entire home. Ornamental wood lace and hanging baskets decorated the spaces where Polyanna could be found socializing, doing jig saw puzzles or learning to knit.

Queen Anne

Hastings

These two houses are side by side and probably built by two brothers or sisters.

Stick House

Brockville

The Stick style or Eastlake style of architecture is a variation on the Queen Anne. It is popular along the east coast of the USA and found intermittantly in Ontario.

Picturesque

Kingston

Large home owners wanted an entrance through a substantial garden where guests could be properly received. Copies of European rural mansions with great rooms and entrance halls can be found across the province. Many of these places are now hotels or private clubs.

It is a shame that all historic buildings are not as beautifully kept as this one.

Chateau

Casa Loma Toronto

Casa Loma's history is as extravagant, as extraordinary and as full of surprises as the building itself. It was started in 1911 by millionaire Sir Henry Pellatt and Canadian architect E. J. Lennox. The land was called Casa Loma or "house on the hill" by its previous owner.

It is not a strictly Chateau style building, but a conglomerate of many romantic castles from the past. The soaring battlements and elaborate machicolations could be of either French or English origin.

There is a covered porch that opens up onto a patio. Further terraces open out in many other directions.

Colonial Revival

Claramont Inn Picton

By 1890, people were looking back nostalgically to the early colonialists with their scads of servants and, to them, simpler life. This bounteous lifestyle found beautiful expression in the mansions built in the southern states by French and Spanish colonists. High style colonial porches usually consisted of a large portico, supported by at least four columns and boasting an impressive entablature.

Colonial Revival

Claramont Inn Picton

The columns were Giant Order, rising through two stories.

A balconnette could be found on the second floor, protected by the oversized portico. This is where Scarlett O'Hara could look out over the fields in search of Rhett Butler, but still be sure not to get her lily-white skin touched by the sun.

Colonial Revival

Cobourg

This is part Colonial revival and part Queen Anne. In any case, it has a wonderful balcony with a spectacular view. The fish scale shingles in the background really help make it unique.

Second Empire

Niagara-on-the-Lake

Inspired by French design was the Second Empire style with its Mansard roofs and ornate dormers. This is a much later style than the French Regime which was a very early, 18th century style brought up from Lower Canada. The Second Empire was the late 19th early 20th century.

Victorian

Markham

The Victorian period is the broad name for most of the above styles. If it doesn't fit into any of the styles discussed, a building from the 19th century can usually be called Victorian as long as it has decorative woodwork. The best example of decorative woodwork in the province is found in Markham. There should be a plaque on the side of this building honoring first the original craftsmen, then a list in chronological order of the crafts men and women who have taken the time to strip off the old paint and redo it in proper style. Why aren't there awards for this stuff? Who cares about the Oscars, we should celebrate this dedication to restoration.

Markham

The most frequently asked question by readers of ontarioarchitecture.com is "I am restoring a Victorian house. How can I find out what the original porch looked like?"

The footprint or layout of the houses are fairly standard. The materials would be whatever brick could be made locally, or if stone was readily available, that would be used. The magic was in the local fine woodcrafters.

Victorian

Brockville

Along the banks of the St. Lawrence by the Thousand Islands can be found a great many incredibly beautiful homes. This one is a Victorian Villa. It is very much like and Italian Villa with the central tower, but the surrounding veranda and Victorian detailing are not terribly Italianate.

Victorian

Wellington

The

Victorian

Burritts Rapids

This is a beautifully kept building.

Victorian detail

Burritts Rapids

Detail

Victorian

Waterdown

Also well kept.

Victorian

Strabane

Wonderful woodworking.

Arts and Crafts

London

Advancing into the twentieth century came the Arts and Crafts movement. This harkened back to medieval times and the emphasis on craftsmanship and individuality, something never missing in Ontario porches. The design, however, is a bit more sleek and streamlined, and the supports are heavier, more substantial. Screened in porches became more popular as screens became available. These porches are very good places to relax with a good book on a rainy afternoon. They are also perfect for cocktail parties.

Arts and Crafts

Brockville

This

Edwardian

Ottawa

Following the reign of Queen Victoria, Edward took the throne and during his short nine year reign brought a light, cheerful note to the world. The heavy mouldings and ornate exuberance of the Victorian style was replaced by a much lighter touch influenced by Art Nouveau and Art Deco.

In residential design, the single family home began to be popular, and the style most prevalent was the Bungalow. These one to one and a half storey buildings had verandahs stretching across the full front of the building. The posts were heavy with little decoration, and the space was adequate for a couch or even small swinging chair in addition to the usual wooden chairs. Many bungalows are now used for student residences. It is not unusual to go to a university party and never get past the beer cooler on the front porch.

Bungalow

Ancaster

The Bungalow was the last style that embraced the front porch as an outdoor living space. Cars had arrived, trains took people from the suburbs into the city to work, small ‘bedroom' communities started to grow, and people no longer wanted to be part of their own neighborhoods. Their worlds were bigger, their lives were bigger, and they wanted privacy from the street that was all too accessible for anyone concerned. Where once there would be ten or twelve people living in a house, now there were four or six.

Bungalow

Tweed

The welcome visitor who helped alleviate the drudgery of the many household tasks such as canning, churning butter and cleaning dishes with water heated on the stove was now in the way as modern conveniences freed the modern family for activities such as afternoon bridge games, movies and bowling. The end of the rural era was also the end of a way of life centered on the welcoming front porch, a cold or hot beverage waiting for the weary traveler, and the promise of the towns gossip to be shared under the spreading eaves of the front porch.

Balustrade

A railing system, generally around a balcony or on a second level, consisting of balusters and a top rail.

Bracket

Orono

Any parts flying out from these either for decoration or support were called brackets.

column

Dundas

Columns are vertical supports that confrom to the classical orders, Doric, Ionic, Composite, Corinthian, Tuscan, or any variation on these.

gingerbread

Paris

Gingerbread is decorative woodworking that surrounds the porch or gables.

newel

Upper Canada Village

A newel is the central column or post in a curved or circular staircase around which the steps wind. A newel can have a decorative finish at the top.

This stylized urn design gracing the top of the balustrade pedestal is an ornament used in Classical Antiquity and borrowed during the Renaissance as a decorative element.

post

Paris

A post is a vertical support for a porch. Generally of wood, the post does not conform to any classical column proportions.

railing

A protective barrier around a vertical drop or along the edge of a terrace or balcony. See also balustrade.

spandrel

Paris

Spandrels are either turned or sawed work that extend from one post to another.