Cobourg is a town in Southern Ontario ninety-five kilometers (59 miles) east
of Toronto and 62 kilometers (39 miles) east of Oshawa. It is located along
Highway 401. To the south, Cobourg borders Lake Ontario.
The settlements that make up today’s Cobourg
were founded by United Empire Loyalists in 1798. The Town was originally a
group of smaller villages such as Amherst and Hardscrabble, which were later
named Hamilton. In 1808 it became the district town for the Newcastle District.
It was renamed Cobourg in 1818, in recognition of the marriage of Princess
Charlotte Augusta of Wales to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (who later
become King of Belgium).
By the 1830s Cobourg had become a regional
center, much due to its fine harbor on Lake Ontario. In 1835 the Upper Canada
Academy was established in Cobourg by Egerton Ryerson and the Wesleyan
Conference of Bishops. On July 1, 1837, Cobourg was officially incorporated as
a town. In 1841 the Upper Canada Academy’s name was changed to Victoria
College. In 1842 Victoria College was granted powers to confer degrees.
Cobourg retains its small-town atmosphere,
in part due to the downtown and surrounding residential area’s status as a
Heritage Conservation District. The downtown is a well-preserved example of a
traditional small-town main street. Victoria Hall, the town hall completed in
1860, is a National Historic Site of Canada. The oldest building in the town is
now open as the Sifton-Cook Heritage Centre and operated by the Cobourg Museum
Foundation.
Food processing is the largest
industry in Cobourg, and it is home to SABIC Innovative Plastics and Weetabix.
55 King Street West – Victoria Hall – 1860 – It is in the Palladian Neo-Classical architectural style with Corinthian capitals on the fluted columns and pilasters decorating the facade. The building is topped with a massive clock tower with Corinthian columns. On the first floor is a courtroom, and a concert hall on the second floor. Standing at the heart of the downtown is Victoria Hall, a building that now serves as the town hall, as well as home of the Art Gallery of Northumberland, the Cobourg Concert Hall, and an Old-Bailey-style courtroom that is now used as the Council chamber. Victoria Hall is a landmark known for its impressive stone work. Charles Thomas (1820-1867), an English-born master stone carver and building contractor, executed the fine stone carvings, including the bearded faced keystone over the main entrance into the building. Victoria Hall was officially opened in 1860 by the Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.177 King Street West – c. 1848 – Greek revival style town house with exterior corner blocks of wood dressed to resemble stone, cornice return on gable, sidelights and transom, engaged columns193 King Street West – c. 1891 – cornice brackets, shutters295 King Street West – c. 1847-48 – This is a Vernacular Ontario Cottage and only cut stone house in Cobourg; it was built by Alexander Sutherland and was the home of the Delanty family for many years.317 King Street West – c. 1850 – 1½ story, center hall plan, wood house sheathed in stucco, verge board trim and finial327 King Street West – c. 1840s – 1½ story house with Gothic Revival elements – Birthplace and boyhood home of Father Francis P. Duffy, WWI Chaplain of the 69th New York Regiment, Rainbow Division, U.S. Army540 King Street East – Gothic – verge board trim, corner quoins, bay window, drip molds with keystones411 King Street East – Built in 1857 for Henry Mason, a director of Cobourg Railway. Architect was Kivas Tully. It is in the High Italianate architectural style with Corinthian capitals on the two story high columns, a second-floor porch with railing, dentil molding under the eaves, oriel window.390 King Street East – c. 1878 – Brookside Youth Centre – pediment with decorated tympanum above two-story veranda supported by Ionic pillars; dentil molding on cornice; lower level veranda has Doric pillars.214 King Street East – c. 1891 – Home of George Armour, son of Chief Justice of Canada (John Armour), from 1910 to 1930s. Queen Anne Style with irregular plan170 King Street East – c. 1840. This residence in the Georgian style was built by Joseph Townsend, and later owned by John Crease Boswell, Cobourg postmaster.160 King Street East – “New Hall”, 1913. English Cottage style of architecture. It was built by Senator Clive Pringle, whose wife was the daughter of Madame Albertini, proprietress of the Arlington Hotel.7 Fitzhugh Lane – Ravensworth, a waterfront mansion with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, built circa 1897 on Lake Ontario for a distinguished Union officer in the American Civil War. The Colonial Revival-style house sits on 3½ acres at the eastern edge of Cobourg. It is built to symmetrical Georgian proportions and embellished with Greek columns, an imposing portico and a large sun room with lake views. In the 19th century the town was known as resort for American steel magnates from Pittsburgh and other centers of the industrial United States. Among those barons traveling north to survey their iron mines near Marmora were members of Emma Shoenberger Fitzhugh’s family. She had married a military man thought to be the youngest general in the American Civil War. Many years after the war ended, Brigadier-General Charles L. Fitzhugh commissioned Ravensworth as a summer estate on 50 acres. Brigadier-General Fitzhugh looked to his roots in an old Virginia family and modeled the new summer getaway on an ancestral plantation house near Fairfax, Virginia.
