Art Deco, 1910-1940 – The Art Deco Style was developed for the French luxury market after World War I. Art Deco left its mark on everything from lamps and foot stools to purses and hair combs. The style was adopted in Ontario by wealthy and very fashionable patrons who wanted Art Deco detailing to make their buildings look lavish and exotic.
Hamilton – Sanford Avenue Public School – Industry, Integrity, Service – Erected A.D. 1932 – Art Deco styleHalton Hills Book – Georgetown – 70 Mill Street – Old Post Office – 1935 – Outstanding example of Art Deco style institutional buildingWindsor Book 2 – 1011 Ouellette Avenue – Medical Arts Building – seven-story Art Deco style commercial building of limestone and brick built in 1930 – characterized by classical symmetry and graceful lines; finely detailed limestone facade crowned by an angular parapet and enhanced by three vertical bays and an arched stone entrance sheltered by a bronze and glass canopy Corinthian pilasters flanking the entrance which features carvings of the traditional medical symbol of the caduceus, which also appears above the sixth-floor windows
Art Moderne, 1930-1945 – This style originated in the United States with rounded corners, smooth walls, and flat roofs. Large expanses of glass were used, even wrapping around corners.
Preston – 443 Duke Street – Art Moderne styleKitchener Book 2 – 44 Weber Street West – Art Moderne with rounded corners, smooth walls, flat roofsOrangeville Book 3 – 5 First Street – Art Moderne style with flat roof, glass block windows, curved corners – built by Fred Webb c. 1944 and housed the Orangeville Dairy and Dairy Bar until 1969
Arts and Crafts: The overlying theme – the house was based on the function of the house. Rooms were oriented to take advantage of the movement of the sun for warmth and light during daylight hours. Side entrances allowed for usable space on the front facade for light or garden use. Features include: wood, stone or stucco siding; low-pitched roof; wide eaves with triangular brackets; exposed roof rafters; porch with thick square or round columns; stone porch supports; exterior chimney made with stone; open floor plans with few hallways; many windows, some with stained or leaded glass; beamed ceilings; dark wood wainscoting and moldings; built-in cabinets, shelves, and seating.
Belleville Book 2 – 165 William Street – Arts and Crafts – stone and brickAmherstburg Book 1 – 495 Dalhousie Street – Argyle Castle – 1894 – Arts and Crafts style, Palladian style window with window hood, turretNorth Bay – 610 Copeland Avenue – The Milne Residence is an impressive home located on an unusually large lot. It was built for William Milne Sr. in the early 1900s. Milne was the owner of Wm. Milne & Sons Lumber Company which was located at the present site of the Ministry of Natural Resources on Trout Lake Road from the early 1900s to 1944. Milne was also a former alderman and Mayor of North Bay in 1909 and 1910. The house is set back on the property. The large side yard housed a tennis court during the first two decades of the house. The exterior is simple, but the structure is reminiscent of the local history of the lumber and crafts industry. The exterior walls are sheathed with shiplap-type wood siding. The roof is sheathed in wood shingles. The veranda, which wraps around the front and side of the home, once extended to the rear of the home as well, but it was later removed.Smithville – 120 St. Catharine Street – Arts and Crafts
Craftsman 1905-1925 – The Craftsman style is derived from the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 20th Century. It was a style that builders could take on with or without the services of an architect, and generally used locally sourced materials. It promoted simplicity with clean lines and evoked strength and quality in how the exterior components were placed. The earlier traditional Craftsman house tended to be symmetrical in its proportions. It was at least two floors, sometimes up to three on large lots in neighborhoods such as Mount Pleasant, Kitsilano and Shaughnessy. The form was defined primarily by gables and porches. Deep-set full width porches, a carry-over from Edwardian Builder houses, were common. Sleeping porches were popular.
Halton Hills – Georgetown – 22 Charles Street – Good example of a Craftsman style residence with a steeply pitched side-gable roof that extends over the verandaMount Brydges – 22417 Adelaide Road – This beautiful Craftsman style residence was originally constructed in 1916 as the residence of Clarence and Lily Steer. The Steers were merchants of the general store located on the east side of Adelaide Road. The store also had the Post Office and the I.O.O.F. lodge hall. As a style of residential architecture, the Arts and Crafts Movement reflected the increasing wealth of the expanding middle class. True to the Craftsman style, this four-bedroom home featured beautiful woodwork throughout, with a grand wood staircase, a large den with wood panels on the walls, and a dining room with molded wood ceiling panels.
Classical Revival, 1820-1860 – This style was an analytical, scientific, and dogmatic revival based on intensive studies of Greek and Roman buildings, concerned with the application of Greek plans and proportions to civic buildings. Schools, libraries, government offices, and most other civic buildings were built in the Classical Revival style. The white columned porches of the Classical Revival domestic buildings are identified with the mansions of wealthy land owners in Canada.
Cayuga – 55 Munsee Street – Court House – 1923 – Classical Revival style of architecture – low hipped roof, pilastersCobourg Book 1 – 351 William Street – c. 1840s – built by Peter McCallum, a prominent merchant – Classical Revival style of architecture – The attractive portico and veranda were added c. 1900. The porch is supported by four squared Doric columns.Kingston Book 1 – 294 King Street East – Custom House – 1856-1858 – Classical Revival style made from hammered limestone blocks from local quarries – voussoirs on lower windows and door, pillared entrance, window hood on second floor center window – The Kingston Custom House was built 1856-59 for the government of the United Canadas. The symmetrical composition of the two-story ashlar building, surmounted by a restrained cornice and parapet, draws on the British classical tradition. The orderly design is achieved through repeated use of semi-circular forms for doors and windows.St. Catharines Book 5 – 26 Yates Street – Classical Revival – second floor semi-circular balcony above pillared porch with composite capitals, sidelights and transomSt. George Book 2 – 154 Bethel Road – Bethel Stone United Church – 1864 – built from local stone gathered from the fields – Classical Revival style with elliptical arches over the 12-over-12 windowsSt. Marys Book 1 – 31 King Street South – 1857 – one of the first houses in St. Marys built of brick (salmon-pink now painted white) – Classical RevivalThunder Bay Book 2 – 277 Camelot Street – The District Court House was constructed in 1924 in the Classical Revival style. The building is symmetrical and is constructed of structural steel with brick walls. The imposing exterior of the building includes the Classical pediment above the main entrance which is supported by four Corinthian columns. The white Tyndall limestone used for the columns, sills and the window casement rim contains visible fossils.West Flamborough – 252 Highway 8 – McKinlay-McGinty House c. 1848 – Classical Revival architectural style – The front entrance is screened by four Tuscan wooden columns. The main door is flanked by pilasters of ashlar limestone set on a plinth and surmounted by a limestone lintel carved to simulate a rusticated voussoir. The door frame is flanked by sidelights with a four-light transom above. Above the entrance there is a Palladian-inspired window, set within an elliptical arch, with a central semi-circular headed window with Gothic glazing bars, flanked by a pair of lancet windows showing the growing influence of the Picturesque and early Gothic Revival movement. Above this window is a recessed yellow brick lozenge pattern detail below a low gable with return eaves. The front windows have shutters and rusticated voussoirs.Windsor Book 1 – 350 Devonshire Road – Walkerville Town Hall – 1904 – Classical Revival – symmetrical, belt courses (a continuous row of stones set in the wall), angled quoins, burst pediment above door with coat of arms, dormers, cupolaWindsor Book 1 – 2100 Richmond Street – Walkerville Collegiate – 1922 – Classical Revival style
Greek Revival – have gabled or hipped roofs with low pitches. The cornice of the main roof usually has a wide band which represents the entablature of classical Greek architecture consisting of the frieze and the architrave. Greek or Roman columns usually support the porch. The front door is surrounded by sidelights and a rectangular transom and is usually dressed with pilasters, pediments and/or columns.
Amherstburg Book 1 – Dalhousie Street – Greek Revival, two-story Doric pillars, pediment, second floor balcony, side lights beside doorCayuga – 243 Haldimand Highway 54 – Ruthven Estate, the main house and wing, c. 1845, was designed by the master building/ architect John Latshaw. Ruthven Park is a 1,500-acre country estate. The house is in the Greek Revival style with a broad staircase leading to a front landing with classical columns. The south wing was added c. 1860, the south-east wing c. 1880, and the east wing c. 1884. It was the former home of five generations of the Thompson family from the 1840s to 1990s.Cobourg Book 5 – 120 University Avenue East – Victoria College – 1832 – Edward Crane, architect and builder. This is in the Greek Revival style and was built as the Academy of the Methodist Church and became one of Canada’s earliest degree-granting universities in 1841. Egerton Ryerson, a prominent educator and founder of the Ontario public school system, was its first President. After forming a vital part of the Town’s academic and cultural life for over fifty years, Victoria College was persuaded to relocate to Toronto in 1892 and today remains affiliated with the University of Toronto.Cobourg Book 5 – 10 Chapel Street – c. 1841 – This house has Georgian features – balanced facade, medium-pitched roof, and robust end chimneys. Its rather heavy and severe doorway, with its single panel, is characteristic of the Greek Revival style.Oshawa Book 2 – 270 Simcoe Street North – Parkwood, McLaughlin Estate – Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin and “Billy” Durant signed a 15-year contract in 1907, under which the McLaughlin Motor Company began to manufacture automobiles under the McLaughlin name, using Buick engines and other mechanical parts. Buick was merged into General Motors shortly after, and in 1915 the firm acquired the manufacturing rights to the Chevrolet brand. Within three years, the McLaughlin Motor Car Company and the Chevrolet Motor Car Company of Canada merged, creating General Motors of Canada in 1918 with McLaughlin as President. With the wealth he gained in his business venture, in 1916 McLaughlin built one of the stateliest homes in Canada, “Parkwood.” The 55-room residence was designed by Toronto architect John M. Lyle. McLaughlin lived in the house for 55 years with his wife and they raised five daughters. Parkwood today is open to the public as a National Historic Site.Peterborough Book 2 – 413 Rubidge Street – Grover Nichols House – an outstanding example of Greek Revival architecture, modified in the Palladian manner, it was begun about 1847 by P.M. Grover, a well-to-do local merchant. The square pillars are a Classical Greek feature. The local Masonic Lodge held its meetings here from 1849 to 1853 and the Masons purchased this imposing house in 1950.Windsor Book 1 – 415 Devonshire Road – Bank of Commerce – 1907 – Classical Greek, scrolled Ionic capitals on fluted columns, with a plain pediment above
Colonial Revival (1900 – 2003) – an attempt to recall the architecture of the first colonies in North America. Ontario, or Upper Canada, was largely colonized by United Empire Loyalists, English people who were not interested in joining the independence movement of the United States. Colonial Revivals are a tribute to the early settlers. The design is symmetrical, balanced, and refined, often with pedimented porticoes, and large Ionic columns.
Kingsville Book 1 – 59 Division Street South – 2 story house built in 1909 in the Colonial Revival style – cut field stone foundation, hip roof, Doric columns
Dutch Colonial Revival, 1890-1930 – is distinguished by its gambrel roof, with or without flared eaves, and the frequent use of dormers. The gambrel style allowed an almost complete second floor without the expense of two-story construction. Characteristics: 1½ to 2 stories, clapboard or shingle siding, usually symmetrical facades, gable-end chimneys, round windows in gable end, porch under overhanging eaves, shed, hipped or gable dormers, columns for porches and entry.
Ajax – 567 Kingston Road West – Dutch Colonial style – gambrel roofWindsor Book 2 – 742 Victoria Avenue – Taylor-Growe House – built 1892 – two-story, Dutch Colonial Revival style with a gambrel roof, and clad in a wooden clapboard finish, fish scale shingles on front facade – symmetrical design, an upper story that overhangs the columned entry porch
Cape Dutch architecture is a traditional Afrikaner architectural style found mostly in the Western Cape of South Africa. The initial settlers of the Cape were primarily Dutch. When the Dutch came to Ontario, they brought with them building concepts from their own native lands. Architecture from the 18th and early 19th centuries in Ontario includes a wide assortment of detailing and ornament all applied to a basic building design centered around the fireplace and the source of water.
Delhi Book – LaSalette – Cape Dutch style of architectureEssex – 74 Irwin Avenue – Cape Dutch architecture
Neo-Colonial (also Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival or Neo-Georgian) architecture seeks to revive elements of architectural style of American colonial architecture of the period around the Revolutionary War which drew strongly from Georgian architecture of Great Britain. Architecture from the 18th and early 19th centuries in Ontario includes a wide assortment of detailing and ornament applied to a design centered around the fireplace and the source of water. Structures are typically two stories, have a symmetrical front facade with elaborate front doorways, often with decorative crown pediments, fanlights, and sidelights, symmetrical windows flanking the front entrance, often in pairs or threes, and columned porches.
Belleville Book 4 – Bridge Street West – Neo-Colonial style – gambrel roofCornwall – 101 Third Street West – Neo-colonial style – gambrel roof, dormerDunnville Book 1 – 307 Tamarac StreetFergus – 265 St. David Street North – James Argo Merchant c. 1867 – Neo-Colonial style – hipped roof, two-story-tall Doric porch pillars topped with pediment with decorated tympanumHalton Hills – Georgetown – 20 Guelph Street – 1917 – John J. Gibbons, Baker – Neo-Colonial, gambrel roof, covered porch with deep eaves, pedimentIngersoll Book 2 – 143 and 145 King Street East – Neo-Colonial style with gambrel rootsNiagara Falls Book 1 – 6140 Culp StreetWaterloo Book 1 – 29 Spring Street West – built in 1947 by Charlie Voelker in a Neo-Colonial style in red rug-brick veneer with vinyl siding on the gable ends, sun room and dormers; each of its elevations is symmetrical; gambrel roof with shed dormers in the Dutch style, nearly as wide as the house, at the front and rear; scalloping on the facade’s frieze; very large windows in the lower front facade
Neo-Classical, 1810-1850 – This style was a direct result of the War of 1812. Many Upper Canadians returning from the war with the United States were second or third generation Loyalists who had inherited land and means from their forefathers. Once the conflict had passed, they had the money and the time to expand their holdings and indulge their architectural whims. Both residential and commercial buildings were constructed on the traditional Georgian plan, but they had a new gaiety and lightheartedness. Detailing became more refined, delicate, and elegant.
Ayr – A subscription library was started in Ayr in the 1840s. Andrew Carnegie was asked for a grant to build a library and in 1909 Ayr became the smallest community in Ontario to receive a Carnegie grant. In 1911, the library moved into the building at 92 Stanley Street where it remained for 94 years. In 2004, the library moved into a newer 7,000-square-foot building at 137 Stanley Street, leaving this Neo-Classical building vacant.Grafton – 10830 County Road 2 – Grafton Village Inn was built in 1833 to replace a log building. The Neo-Classical building was restored in the early 1990s bringing it back to the early appearance that greeted travelers approaching from Kingston, York or Grafton Harbor. Its distinctive features include the front door surround with carved oak leaves and acorns, the second-floor Venetian window and the demi-lune windows at each gable end. The western wing was a later addition and at one time housed the telephone exchange.Grafton – 10568 County Road 2 – Barnum House (National Heritage Site of Canada) – The Barnum House was built between 1817 and 1819 by Eliakim Barnum, a United Empire Loyalist originally from Vermont. The house which stands just outside Grafton is the earliest example of Neo-Classical architecture in Canada. Barnum House was the first house museum to open in Ontario, restored and operated by the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario in 1940. In designing his house, Eliakim Barnum was influenced by American Architecture, popular in New England states at the beginning of the nineteenth century. This Neo-Classical style was intended to reproduce elements of classical Greek architecture. These include a central temple front with flanking wings, articulation of the facade with pilaster linked by elliptical arches, and extensive use of delicately scaled details. The Neo-Classical elements of the house’s exterior are echoed in the ornate woodwork of several interior rooms.Hamilton Book 1 – Canadian National Railway Station, 360 James Street North – It was built in 1931 – Neo-Classical style. The first passenger train left the station on February 20, 1930. The station was closed in 1993. In 1996, Hollywood producers of the movie “The Long Kiss Goodbye” offered CN $1 million to renovate the station and shoot part of the movie there. The publicity from this attracted the Labourer’s International Union of North America (LIUNA) who bought the station and spent $3 million in renovations to open it as a hall for weddings and other events.Hamilton Book 4 – 51 Aberdeen Avenue – Neo-Classical style with the colonnaded half-round portico, dormersKingston Book 1 – 191 King Street East – Cartwright House – 1832-33 – Neo-Classical – dressed stone blocks house – built for Reverend Robert David Cartwright and his bride, Harriet Dobbs of Dublin, Ireland – The appearance of the house has not changed since it was built; even the fence in front is original. Sir Richard Cartwright (December 24, 1835-1912) was born in this house. He became Canadian Minister of Finance and Minister of Trade and Commerce; he was an advocate of unrestricted reciprocity with the United States; his father was the Reverend David Cartwright, Chaplain to the forces and curate of St. George’s.Kingston Book 2 – 5 Court Street – Neo-Classical – 1855-1858 – limestone – two-story front portico with frieze, cornice, Ionic columns, pilasters, coffered ceiling and tympanum with the Royal Coat of Arms, a center three-story block and two-story side wings with pediments, and classical detailing – dome tower added after an 1874 fire with sixteen arched windows framed by pilasters and accented by molded arches and keystones with a top lantern; cupolas with octagonal drums and ribbed domes on the end pavilions were also added at this timeNiagara-on-the-Lake Book 1 – 26 Queen Street – Niagara Court House built in 1847 for the united counties of Lincoln, Welland and Haldimand – This is the third and only surviving court house erected for the former Niagara district. Constructed between 1846 and 1848, it is in the Neo-classical style. Though the courts were moved to St. Catharines in 1862, this building continued to play an important role in the life of the community. It served as the Town Hall and later as the founding home of the Shaw Festival.North Bay – 183 First Avenue West – North Bay Masonic Temple was built in 1928 and was first used as a meeting and dance hall. During the Second World War it served as a center for medical examinations of those local residents contemplating military service. The building is Neo-Classical in style with a symmetrical front facade. The outstanding architectural features of this building include the engaged piers and stepped parapet carried by the entablature. The grand stone entrance way expresses the major function of this structure as an assembly hall.Perth – Corner of Gore and Harvey Streets – McMartin House – c. 1831 – erected by United Empire Loyalist descendant, Daniel McMartin, Perth’s second lawyer – basic Neo-Classical style, and then embellished with unique stylistic features such as recessed arches and a cupola (belvedere) with flanking side lanterns (Federalist style) – widow’s walk on roofPort Hope Book 1 – 56 Queen Street – c. 1851-53 – The Town Hall has a center entrance with a round-headed fan-lighted transom on its seven-bay pilastered front. The building was designed in the Neo-Classical style. The central octagonal cupola has alternating four-paned, heavily mullioned transomed windows, and clock faces with Roman numerals. Louvered panels are separated by small slender Roman Doric colonettes.Port Hope Book 4 – 282 Ridout Street – Spry House – c. 1880 – Basically square in plan, this two-story Neo-Classical frame house is covered in clapboard finished with end boards. Its steeply pitched roof has a flat top section and houses a hipped-roof dormer in the front facade. Together with the projecting eaves are a plain-boxed cornice and an unadorned wooden frieze. The window openings are flat with simple wooden. The first-story main-facade windows have flat structural openings with a segmental stained-glass pane lying over a flat, clear-glass pane. The centered main door has thin recessed sidelights but no transom panel. The door surround is molded and emblazoned with an entablature. A columned portico enhances the entrance. The columns are doubled at the front corners and support a flat-topped, hipped roof with boxed cornice and a molded frieze decorated with tiny, paired dentils. Thomas Spry (1811-1884), originally from England, was a local blacksmith who had his shop on Cavan Street in the 1850s.St. Catharines Book 2 – 52 Dalhousie Avenue – Neo-Classical – two stories, symmetrical facade, second floor semi-circular balcony above pillared porchWelland Book 1 – 102 East Main Street – Welland County Court House – built in 1855-56, four years after the creation of Welland County; Neo-Classical style, built of Queenston limestone – the front of the building is dominated by a huge projecting portico surmounted by a classical pediment and four large Ionic columns, sidelights beside doorWindsor Book 2 – 706 Victoria Avenue – Neo-Classical style, symmetrical facade with a prominent columned entry porch sheltering the fanlight and sidelights of the paneled door; dentiled eaves, dormers in atticWoodstock Book 2 – 147 Light Street – Neo-Classical symmetrical two-story home with painted brick; 6/6 double hung windows and decorative shutters; tapered Doric pillars support an open verandah and open balcony; sidelights and transom flank the centered entranceWoodstock Book 3 – 410 Hunter Street – Neo-Classical Revival – Central Public School – built in 1880 – two story with usable attic, deep wood eaves with decorated brackets, parapet with broken cornice above main entrance, first floor window ellipse and double hung, second floor semi-circular, double front door with ellipse transom, name of school in stone above doorway on second floor, decorated trunked chimneys with corbel bricking, three entrances – boys, girls and teachers lead to large spacious halls, all reached by stepsWoodstock Book 3 – 487 Princess Street – This house was constructed by Ralph Bickerton, carpenter and builder, as his family home in 1881. His sons, William John, Robert George, and James Graham, established in 1885 the nationally-known Bickerton Brothers Harness and Saddlery business. Italianate, Neo-Classical – symmetrical full two story, red brick, dichromatic brick accent, trunked hip roof, decorative pediment above entrance, paired brackets on wide cornice with dentils, decorative shutters, centered door with etched glass transom, Doric columns support classical pediment roof
Neo-Georgian
Georgian architecture is the name given to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover – George 1, George II, George III and George IV who reigned in continuous succession from August 1714 to June 1830. The style was revived in the late nineteenth century in the United States as Colonial Revival architecture and in the early twentieth century in Great Britain as Neo-Georgian architecture; in both it is also called Georgian Revival architecture.
The Georgian style is highly variable, but marked by symmetry and proportion based on the classical architecture of Greece and Rome, as revived in Renaissance architecture. Ornament is normally in the classical tradition, but typically restrained, and sometimes almost completely absent on the exterior. The period brought the vocabulary of classical architecture to smaller and more modest buildings than had been the case before, replacing English vernacular architecture (or becoming the new vernacular style) for almost all new middle-class homes and public buildings by the end of the period.
Georgian architecture is characterized by its proportion and balance; simple mathematical ratios were used to determine the height of a window in relation to its width or the shape of a room as a double cube. Regularity, as with ashlar (uniformly cut) stonework, was strongly approved, giving symmetry and adherence to classical rules: the lack of symmetry, where Georgian additions were added to earlier structures remaining visible, was deeply felt as a flaw, at least before John Nash began to introduce it in a variety of styles. Regularity of house fronts along a street was a desirable feature of Georgian town planning.
Whitby Book 2 – 5 Princess Street – post World War II – 2½ story brick gable roofed house – Neo-Georgian style, with a two-story gable roofed wing to the north
Neo-Gothic (Collegiate Gothic): is monochromatic and on a much grander scale than Gothic. Early Neo-Gothic was the decorative use of Gothic elements with a lack of knowledge and understanding of Gothic construction. Neo-Gothic tried to understand the basic principles of Gothic and used them. Early Neo-Gothic churches were often plastered or painted, later Neo-Gothic churches were not. An important moment in the development of Neo-Gothic is the year 1853, when the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church was fully restored in the Netherlands. Materials used were natural stone combined with brick. Around the year 1850 Neo-Gothicism was maturing and increasingly became a Roman Catholic style almost exclusively. Neo-Gothic was adopted as the style for schools and universities in the early years of the 20th century. The style became so common for scholastic buildings that it is often called Collegiate Gothic. Wall buttresses and finials are added, but they are generally far too small to be of any structural benefit.
Mount Pleasant – 637 Mount Pleasant Road – Emily Townsend House, circa 1860s – Alvah Townsend built this house for his daughter. It is a Neo-Gothic style home which has been well maintained.Mount Pleasant – 646 Mount Pleasant Road – “Scape Spa“ This circa 1850 Neo-Gothic style octagon is the only survivor of three similar buildings in Mount Pleasant. Shoemaker Richard Tennant took eight years to build it. Belvedere on the roof.North Bay – 555 Algonquin Avenue – Former North Bay Collegiate Institute & Vocational School – 1930 – The building has a projecting frontispiece with a recessed entrance with heavy oak doors. A secondary entrance has the motto “Learn to Live” inscribed in stone above the door.Oshawa Book 2 – 301 Simcoe Street North – O’Neill Collegiate and Vocational Institute offers a wide range of academic and extracurricular activities. It is known as an art school, drawing many students from around the Greater Toronto Area into its arts programs. The science programs are well developed, with multiple fully functional science labs. O’Neill CVI is the oldest secondary school in Oshawa, opened in its present location in 1909. The original building is still in the core of the school, but is not visible from outside. After several major expansions during the 1920s, OHS became Oshawa Collegiate and Vocational Institute in 1930. In the post-war era, when Oshawa began building other high schools, OCVI was renamed O’Neill Collegiate and Vocational Institute after long-time principal, Albert O’Neill, who had led its expansion and transition to collegiate status. O’Neill celebrated its 75th anniversary (as OCVI, though it is actually much older if the OHS days are included) in 2005 with a mural in the library and a reunion of students and teachers.
Neo-Tudor – At the same time that the Craftsman style was in vogue, the Neo-Tudor style also became popular. Both styles were striving to achieve a sense of coziness and quaintness, and sometimes Craftsman and Neo-Tudor components are mixed together. Neo-Tudor exteriors are usually a mixture of brick and stucco, often with some half-timbering included. Other characteristics include high-pitched roofs, asymmetrical configurations, enclosed entryways, fireplaces with ornamented chimneys and chimney pots, and casement windows.
St. Catharines Book 3 – 344 Merritt Street – The former Merritton Public Library was built in 1924 through a grant for the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. The building was designed in the Neo-Tudor style by renowned local architect Arthur Nicholson. The front entrance has a large Tudor-arch with decorative buttresses. A decorated parapet surrounds the flat roof and there is a single chimney. The exterior of the building is a dark discolored rough brick. There is a light colored stone frieze around the building located below the diamond shaped stone decorations in the brickwork. The many windows allow a lot of natural light into the building. The windows are surrounded by wooden mullions.St. Catharines Book 4 – 113 Lake Street – The former Grantham Fire Hall was constructed of steel and masonry in the Neo-Tudor style. The traditional red brick facade is laid in Flemish bond pattern; there is an elaborate decorative painted wood cornice and frieze. Decorative, rare circle muntin bars are in second floor windows. A stone carving set in entablature over the main door shows a fire carriage being pulled by horses, and stone plaques set in masonry show the firefighting crest. The building was built to accommodate a horse drawn hose wagon.
Palladian architecture is a European style derived from and inspired by the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). Palladio’s work was based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The style continued to develop from the 17th century until the end of the 18th century.
Amherstburg Book 1 – 525 Dalhousie Street – Palladian Architecture – central core with a wing on each side; hipped roof, symmetrical front of central section are evidence of British Classicism – 23 roomsCobourg Book 1 – 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.
Byzantine Revival (or Neo-Byzantine) 1840s-1870s: was most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. Neo-Byzantine architecture incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Orthodox Christian architecture dating from the 5th through 11th centuries. The character of Byzantine architecture is determined by the development of the dome to cover polygonal and square plans for churches, tombs, and baptisteries. The practice of placing many domes over one building is in strong contrast to the Romanesque system of vaulted roofs. The system of construction in concrete and brickwork introduced by the Romans was adopted by the Byzantines. The skeleton of concrete and brickwork was first completed and allowed to settle before the surface sheathing of unyielding marble slabs was added. Brickwork lent itself externally to decorative whimsy in patterns and banding, and internally it was suitable for covering with marble, mosaic and fresco decoration. The grouping of small domes or semi-domes round the large central dome was one of the most remarkable peculiarities of Byzantine churches; the exterior closely corresponds with the interior. The features of the style are multiple domes, round-arched windows, and ample decoration.
St. Catharines Book 3 – 124 Rolls Avenue – Saints Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church – The style is Byzantine Revival which is typified by domes, decorative brickwork and stone arches. The plan of the building is typical church cruciform with a main rectangular body (nave) crossed by a transept. There are six multi-sided domes on the roof. The elaborate detailing is characteristic of this style and features seven different colors and textures of brick and stone executed mainly as varying heights of bands around the building.
