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Westfield Village
This example of a Log House
illustrates the basic log cabin built by the first settlers
in Canada. The chimney was placed
in the centre of the house so that heat could radiate in all
directions. A great many of these log cabins had internal dimensions
of 15' by 16' --the traditional dimensions of an English cottage.
The windows are 12-pane fixed.
The log house provided the first winter's shelter,
but a larger house made from either wood plank or stone replaced
the log house as soon as was economically feasible. This house
was originally along Hwy 99 and has been rebuilt in Westfield
Village.
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The Cummins House 1837- 38
Prior to the Gothic Revival Cottage, the "cottage"
was the most frequently encountered residential design in Ontario.
As can be seen above, the design is not far removed
from the traditional log house. The door on this building is
more ornate than in the log cottage, but it is facing west.
The windows on the south side of the house are large to emit
the sun.
The owner of the property, Daniel Cummins, was
of Scottish origin. He moved to New Jersey, then up to Flamborough
in 1794.
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Morden House, Rock Chapel Road 1810
The Morden family arrived in Flamborough from
Pennsylvania after fighting in the American Revolution. Like
other Loyalist houses, this one commands a spectacular view,
in this case a look over what was to become Dundas from the
very edge of the Niagara Escarpment. While it looks like a modern
house, the door transom and proportions are definitely Loyalist.
The interior of the house has a stone walk-in fireplace with
the original metal pot crane hinges.
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Stonegate
The subsequent owners of the Van Every house on
Highway 8 in Flamborough have had both the grace and the luck
to preserve over time the house and its spectacular setting.
As the city of Hamilton imposes new taxes and thus new incentives
to "change your yard into a cul de sac", this gem
provides instant time travel back to the years before cars,
seven eleven and CD ROM.
No amount of chem-lawn can provide the settled
beauty of this spectacular site.
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Flamborough
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Stonegate
The front of the house, restored in the 1940s,
is completely hidden from the road by trees while the back,
shown here, overlooks a wide, gently terraced lawn descending
down to a brook.
In the rear gable is
a Roman arch enclosing a Venetian
arch window carefully crafted in wood. Two heavy
pillars support a second floor balcony.
The windows are encased in heavy stone quoins,
but have no other adornment. The owners have provided six
over six storm windows to maintain the look of the original
ones. Two dormers with segmental
arches allow light into the upper floors.
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Flamborough
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Stonegate
The Van Every family came from the Poughkeepsie
area of the Mohawk Valley in New York and fought in the American
Revolution as well as being part of Butler's Rangers during
the War of 1812. For their efforts they received 800 acres is
East and West Flamborough upon which they built a frame house
in the first decade of the nineteenth century. This house was
enlarged and veneered in stone in the 1620s or 1830s. Three
sets of triple chimneys show the amount and size of the fireplaces
within.
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Flamborough
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Stonegate
The façade is
composed of five bays, the central bay contains the Neoclassical
front door. The door itself is a regular six panel construction
often called a Christian door because the connecting panels
on the top four panels create a cross.
The fanlight over the
door is deeply recessed showing that the glazing is authentic,
muntins radiating from a solid block
hold six individual pieces of glass. Sham fanlights with metal
or wooden muntins placed over a large piece of glass first started
appearing during the revivals of the late nineteenth century.
The muntins are less and less authentic looking in vinyl replacement
windows of the 21st.
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Flamborough
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Stonegate
Fireplaces on the main floor of Loyalist homes
were generally ornate. This one on the lower level of the house
is less ornate and still has the original slate lining.
For those who appreciate older architecture, it
is difficult to say whether fire or renovation does more damage
to these homes. Dundas is very fortunate to have many home owners
who see themselves as guardians of the house as much as owners.
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Flamborough
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Springdale 1810
This house was built in or before 1810 by Hector
McKay. It was bought by Joseph Webster in 1819 and remained
in his family until the twentieth century.
The front of the house is composed of dressed
stone while the back is rubble. Like the others in this area,
it has six over six sash windows, a wooden door with side lights
and a square transom. The door surround is simple but elegant.
There are large stone lintels and
well preserved shutters on the windows
. The austere lines of the house earned it the designation of
Wilderness Georgian.
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Springdale
This door
detail illustrates how carefully the owners have preserved the
original wood. The reveals are paneled
as are the door and base panels. The agraffe
above the door is a simple foliage pattern. There are large
quoins along the edge of the door made
of the same limestone, but in larger blocks than the rest of
the façade.
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Crook's Mill
James
Crook purchased four hundred acres of land on top of the Dundas
escarpment in 1811. Within ten years he had eclipsed the growing
town of Dundas by creating this mill plus a number of other
mills including the province's first paper mill which began
operations in 1826.
Construction
of the paper mill was encouraged by the imposition of a tax
on paper from the United States imposed by the British Government
in 1826. Crooks Hollow was the largest industrial center in
Ontario in the 1820s.
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Moxley's General Store 1812
- 1820
These two lovely stone
buildings have been used as commercial buildings for almost
200 years. The large gabled building was a retail outlet - general
store, snack bar or Antique shop. The three gabled building
was a hotel. Local stories maintain the William Lyon MacKenzie,
when living in Dundas, was a frequent visitor to the hotel.
The front of the building, like many in the area,
is cut stone. The back is rubble.
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Retail
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Kerby House 1835
The beauty of the Neo-Classical
style can be seen in the detailing of the doors and windows.
This detail shows the quality of craftsmanship that was available
at the time.
It is interesting to note that all of this is
done by hand with no electrical power either for cutting or
lighting. Now that we have power tools, comfortable work places,
and excellent lighting, this detailing can't be found.
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Springhill 1820 - 1895
Prior to the onset of suburbs
and cul-de-sacs, people created building designs that took advantage
of the setting. This splendid residence has, perhaps, the most
exquisite setting in all Hamilton Area, on the escarpment brow
in Dundas. The house began as
an unassuming cottage in the early 1810s, and remained as such
until the 1890s at which time it was embellished by a
belvedere, a stunning verandah,
a glassed in sunroom, and an elegant entrance portico.
Historians have labeled this addition an example
of the "Romanesque" style,
but I'm inclined more to the Italian
Villa style, popular at the time, that emphasized a central
tower, mansard
roof, exaggerated cornice brackets,
venetian arches, and extravagant woodwork, all of which
are part of this design.
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Springhill Detail
This detail
of the above shows the kind of workmanship available at the
time.
The Italian Villa design was
for wealthy clients who were well traveled. They would generally
be of British decent, and would, perhaps, have made a European
tour.
Records show that between 1871
and 1901 only 22 people living in Hamilton claimed to be of
Italian descent. In 1871, approximately half of the population
had been born in Ontario (13,969), just less than half were
from the United Kingdom (10,639), about 5% were from the US
(1,227) and .5% were from Germany.
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Stormont 1837
This is a variation on
the Neoclassical design, the addition of Classical elements
to the austere Georgian simplicity. The frontispiece became
a mainstay of the more ornate Italianate
style of twenty years later.
This and other stone houses in the area are detailed
by Nina Chapple in A Heritage of Stone
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McKinlay House 1848
The central hall plan and
symmetrical windows on this house are certainly Georgian in
design. The recessed portico, central gable, and elliptical
arch with lancet windows places this, as well, within the realm
of Neoclassical The portico has four Doric columns complete
with entasis. The sash windows have elegant shutters and decorative
Jack arches. The roof has three sets of paired chimneys, decorated
with banding. The history of this house and its owners is very
well presented in from West Flamborough's
storied past.
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Arts and Crafts
The Flatt House in West Flamborough by William
J. Walsh (1880-1952) is a charming Arts and Crafts style English
cottage. This home is situated on one of the most spectacular
sites along the Dundas Valley with a view across the glen to
Lake Ontario. The original construction in 1820 was probably
in the Regency style. Just under 100 years later, the house
was renovated to add two sun porches, a second storey and an
entrance portico in the A&C style.
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Arts and Crafts
The built in cupboards in the dining room are
in the Picturesque Gothic style. The Flatt House follows the
requirements of English rural vernacular. The rooms are set
out according to function, taking maximum advantage of the gorgeous
site for providing views across the Niagara Escarpment and through
the garden.
While small and unpretentious, this home is an oasis of charm
and comfort. Like the Wychwood neighborhood in Toronto, the
most famous Arts and Crafts neighbourhood in Canada, it has
that ephemeral Midsummer Night's Dream quality that makes you
want to stay forever. The magic dream potion would be kept in
this picturesque Gothic built-in.
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Downtown Before 1850
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By the early 19th century the theory of Classical architecture
had rigidified in England as a result of overuse with Palladian
architecture. There was a strict code of rules specifying
which particular branch of the Classical: Doric, Ionic or
Corinthian, should be used on a particular building and
what decorative features could be used. Architects had little
freedom to add their own "signature" to a building.
It was against this background of weariness with the Classical
on the part of many architects, and a renewed interest in
the medieval period, that the Gothic Revival was born.
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In Dundas, as in many Canadian towns, the Classical Revival
style was much used for residences as can be seen in Mount
Fairview The Gothic Revival style was used in churches as
a result of the writings of Ruskin and Pugin, among others,
who said that the Gothic style most perfectly reflected
the Northern spirit.
Prior to 1850, some large residences were found, but mostly
there were small cottages.
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Retail Building 1800-1812
This stone structure was built near the crossroads
of the first town of Dundas by the Dundas Mill.
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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 land for Mount Fairview was purchased from
the Widow Morden in 1847. Hugh and Jane Moore then built this
home on the top of Cotton Mill Hill to take advantage of the
view in every direction. There are lookouts and verandahs on
every side, and a promenade deck on the top level with an enclosed
belvedere. The view, then and now,
is spectacular.
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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.
Glencairn and Willowbank in Queenston have similar
giant order, front columns with a second floor balcony. (soon
to be on the Classical Revival page)
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Mount Fairview 1847
Skill without fanfare is
the fashion statement of the front hallway.
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Cross Street Neighborhood |
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The area north of King Street in Dundas was the first exclusively
residential area of Dundas, and was the home of the well-to-do.
The driving park was originally intended for the promenade
of horse carriages, much like Hyde Park in London.
The Rolph estate took up much of the neighborhood and was
slowly divided. Prior to 1951, the Coleman (demolished),
MacKenzie, Beque and Notman
estates were the only large houses in the area. A few
smaller cottages date from this time
as well.
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One draw of the Cross neighborhood was that it was within
easy walking distance from the downtown core where many
people had businesses, and the escarpment and the Spencer
creek basin protected them from easy access from the outside.
After 1851 this neighborhood grew quite consistently with
Italianate and Victorian houses as well as several churches.
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Gothic
Revival Cottage
The Gothic Revival Cottage was the most prevalent
residential design in all of Ontario prior to the 1950s. Generally
speaking, the GRC belonged to the farmer who owned the land,
the design for the cottage was written up in Canadian Farmer
magazine in 1865. This cottage has a segmental arch in the window
within the gable. It is finished in local limestone, but not
with the same finish as the more stately manors in the escarpment.
This limestone is in irregular pieces and has been re-pointed
many times prior over the years.
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Regency
This Regency
cottage in Dundas is made of local limestone with an ashlar
finish: all stones are carefully finished to provide a smooth
surface. It has the low pitched roof and
expansive rectangular floor plan typical of Regency design.
The large
covered verandah has been replaced
by a terrace that surrounds the building. The symmetrical French
doors are prominent, and the entrance door is ornate with
Ionic pilasters, a transom,
and side lights. This is understated elegance at its
finest.
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Eastridge
The first floor of this
house is similar to the Regency design above with tall windows
and a central plan. The stonework is different, not ashlar,
and there is no verandah or terrace.
The Mansard roof, indicating
a French influence, was added later to replace a Mansard roof
that was more traditional. The dormers are in a Neoclassical
style instead of rounded. The iron cresting over the doorway
may once have been a balcony. The original roof can be seen
in Pictorial Dundas.
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Victorian
This is
a Victorian mansion from the 1880s - 1890s. The wood
detailing is extraordinarily fine both in the gables and on
the verandah and porch. The verandah is only five years old
and has been constructed with great sensitivity to the original
style.
The woodworking on this building
is in the Gothic style. On all gables there is a king post,
even on the small gable on the porch. On both sides of the roof
there is verge boarding. This decorative woodwork, often referred
to as gingerbread, was originally used to protect the ends of
the roof members that were exposed to the elements.
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Victorian 1890s
This Victorian also has
fine woodworking in the gabling. When built, there was probably
also a fine front porch.
While both Victorian, these two houses are very
different.
Both houses are built with red brick. Both have
fairly simple window treatments, and both have a bay window.
The major difference is in the wood detailing. On the house
above, the gables are very large and are all treated with a
Gothic style of wood trim. On this house, the gables are very
small. The house has a large cornice and the wood trim is in
a 'sunburst' pattern. The vergeboarding is not lacey but solid
and relatively sturdy.
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Maple Lawn 1896
The porch on Maple Lawn
is beautifully restored and maintained. It is an Italianate
design, slightly different than the rest on the block, with
a central hall plan, paired windows, and large cornice brackets.
The woodworking, however,
is more in the tradition of Gothic Revival. It is solid, substantial,
full of quatrefoils and multifoils, and quite well suited to
the substantial structure of the building. Like the Victorian
above, the gable wood trim is not lacey but solid as in the
one above.
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Cottage 1840s - added to in
1870s
There are quite a few cottages
in the Cross Neighborhood worthy of note. They tend to be larger
and more ornate than similar cottages on Hatt and Witherspoon
Streets. This one has a lovely finial over the front door and
accolades over the windows.
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Window Detail
Accolades were often used
in the middle ages and the Renaissance to adorn window and door
lintels. They are two ogee curves that meet together to form
a point over the door.
In Ontario architecture, the accolade is most
frequently made of wood.
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Walnut Cottage
Home of T.H.A. Begue, Walnut
Cottage once had a large encompassing verandah.
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Cottage
This is slightly outside
the Cross neighborhood, strictly speaking, but is a similarly
well designed and well cared for cottage, probably a workman's
cottage.
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Col. Notman's House 1846
Cut stone is used on the veneer of this three
bay Classical Revival. The hip roof is ornamented with dentil
blocks along the sill. There are also concrete sills on the
windows. The original four over 4 sash windows
have been covered by aluminum outside windows.
The arrangement of all the features is formal
and solid. The application of the details follows academic rules
that evolved through the Palladian Classicism practiced in England
and in the United States during the 18th century. The result
is a sturdy, impressive building made from vernacular materials
that, after over 100 years, remains dignified.
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Classical Revival
The Classical Revival differs from the Neoclassical
in that it tries to imitate certain architectural features of
the Classical period rather than simply apply Classical detailing
to a Georgian façade.
The Greek portico is a translation into stone
of wooden construction methods that may have been used for centuries.
The dentils used to ornament most Ionic entablatures are translated
from the wooden roof purlins used above the ceiling joists and
below the main roof deck. The triglyphs represent the built
up wooden members that provided the ceiling joists. The metopes
would have been decorative terracotta finishes inserted between
the ceiling rafters to prevent wind and rodent entry into the
building.
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Notman Detail
Cut stone is used on the veneer of this three
bay house in Dundas. The hip roof is ornamented with dentil
blocks along the sill. There are also concrete sills on the
windows. The original four over 4 sash windows
have been covered by aluminum outside windows.
The arrangement of all the features is formal
and solid. The application of the details follows academic rules
that evolved through the Palladian Classicism practiced in England
and in the United States during the 18th century. The result
is a sturdy, impressive building made from vernacular materials
that, after over 100 years, remains dignified.
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Dundas
Octagon houses were
much more prevalent in the 19th century and were often built
for religious reasons. This is the only Octagonal house that
I have seen that is raised on a central structure then cantilevered
out.
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Parkside High School 1959
Designed by the great and wonderful Lloyd Kyles.
This won an award for the most innovative structural design
in Ontario in 1959. Precast concrete structure. The outside
walls and spandrels were precast reinforced concrete sections
with marble chips inserted in the precasting, Kyles' original
idea. The reversed arch concrete roof was poured in place -
in situ.
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The Park neighbourhood is a rich and varied assortment
of houses. There are industrial buildings dating from the
mid-ninteenth century, workman's cottages, and very fine
large homes along the same stretch of road.
As Dundas followed Greensville as a manufacturing center,
farm produce and lumber were closely followed by textiles
and metal goods as exported items. Growing prosperity resulted
in a diverse range of architecture, including Italianate
masterpieces,
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quaint worker's cottages, sturdy Georgian homes, and glorious
Gothic Revivals, Classical Revivals and extraordinary Second
Empire. Dundas presents one of the most well preserved town
centres in the province. It simply cannot sprawl. What is
remarkable in Dundas, as Angelo from Adventure Attic pointed
out, is that it is one of the few places "where professors,
doctors and lawyers live happily beside factory workers."
This is the Park neighbourhood.
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Dundas Forge 1846
Foundries in Dundas produced
engines, pumps, agricultural machinery and implements, screws
and other ironware.
This building has segmental arches over the windows,
but is largely of a Georgian design: regular bays, simple sills,
and a lack of ornament.
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Witherspoon Cottage Park Neighborhood
Witherspoon had the property?
Miss Witherspoon, the daughter, built five of
these cottages in 1870??. The first year it was rented out there
were nine adults living in the house - before running water
or indoor toilets.
This cottage retains the original porch, front
door, and exterior finish. The tress have grown around the house
as it nestles into the side of the escarpment.
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Witherspoon Cottage Park Neighborhood
This Regency
cottage in Dundas is made of local limestone with an ashlar
finish: all stones are carefully finished to provide a smooth
surface. It has the low pitched roof and
expansive rectangular floor plan typical of Regency design.
Instead
of a large covered verandah, there
is a wide terrace that surrounds the building. The symmetrical
French doors are prominent, and the
entrance door is ornate with Ionic
pilasters, a transom, and side lights.
This is understated elegance at its finest.
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Witherspoon Cottage Park Neighborhood
Two other cottages have
been renovated, covered with "new" stucco complete
with exaggerated quoins and fashionable
keystones. The shutters and lintels nicely accent the pleasing
proportions of the original cottage.
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Doctor's Office Park Neighborhood
Another marvelous example of brilliant wood detailing
can be seen in the Doctor's House in Dundas. The upper window
is almost rounded, but it contains the set of double lancet
arches from the decorated period. On the lower level, the door
and window are both topped with four centered arches. The roof
is topped with a finial, and the verge boarding on the roof
is a Canadian classic, the "droop." Here is how Marion
Macrae describes this detail in her excellent book The Ancestral
Roof . "The verge boards conjure up visions of many little
buttered hands happily pulling molasses taffy."
Over the top widow is a
drip mould. There are lancet
arches, curved four-centered arches,
and wonderful sills.
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King Street
This wonderful Georgian
building, made from local limestone, is found on the west end
of King Street. The quoins are beautifully cut, the door
lintels and sills are sturdy and sure of themselves. The front
door has a small but impressive pediment.
The rest of the exterior finish is in relatively
rough limestone. The windows would originally have been multi-paned.
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Hatt Street illustrates the unique character of Dundas
with mixed industrial/residential buildings. More than that,
it still has the flavour of a real working Ontario town.
This is the Hatt Neighborhood.
As more and more products are being produced in the Pacific
rim and craftsmanship disappears over the horizon, Dundas
with it's unique mixture of potters, sculptors and painters
centered around the Dundas Valley School of Art and the
Carnegie gallery, maintains the feeling of a working town.
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Wonderful architecture enthusiasts around Ontario are trying
to preserve the workings of picturesque towns and villages,
and credit should be given to them. The fear is that the
town, while being maintained in a certain fashion, will
be bleached out, homogeonised and even Disneyed. Shops tunr
into Shoppes with frilly overprices nicknacks and gifty
doeys. Dundas stil has shops with real goods that real people
buy and use for every day purposes. It's the real deal.
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Hatt Street
This small cottage is like
many along Hatt Street. Charming and delightful in every way.
The astute owners have resisted the dreaded vinyl replacement
salesman and have maintained the original stone finish and the
basic shape of the old windows.
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Hatt Street
These multiple housing
units are similarly manitained. Simple, straighforward design
and regularised proportions makes this building work.
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Hatt Street
here is another cottage
with a brick facade.
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King
Street - The Commercial District |
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Nestled into a small valley in a fold of the Niagara Escarpment,
the town of Dundas has cultivated that extraordinary mixture
of a rich architectural history, wonderful cutting edge
eateries and a thriving retail industry that provide the
heart and soul of Small Town Ontario.
One of the most notable eateries was the Deluxe restaurant
opened in 1950 by Du Wong and his wife Sue. The Wongs had
done their homework. They knew that downtown Dundas was
the heart of a strong community serving the long established
manufacturing component of Dundas, the growing suburban
population, and professors and administrators from nearby
McMaster University. Dundas had a thriving market and a
series of well established retail stores. It needed another
lunch spot.
What the Wongs may not have known was that Dundas and Greensville
were among the oldest communities in Ontario being settled
by Europeans as early as the 1700s. In fact, the area was
considered the greatest manufacturing centre in the Upper
Canada by 1822 due to the efforts of James Crooks, who started
with an existing store and grist mill then added three more
mills, a general store, a cooperage, a blacksmith's shop,
and an ox-shoeing stall, thereby creating the largest industrial
center of Upper Canada by 1830.
Down the hill, Dundas was becoming the major shipping centre
for western Lake Ontario. As Dundas followed Greensville
as a manufacturing center, farm produce and lumber were
closely followed by textiles and metal goods as exported
items. Growing prosperity resulted in a diverse range of
architecture, including Italianate masterpieces, quaint
worker's cottages, sturdy Georgian homes, and glorious Gothic
Revivals, Classical Revivals and extraordinary Second Empire.
Dundas presents one of the most well preserved town centres
in the province. It simply cannot sprawl.
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The Deluxe Restaurant was a typical 1950s development:
the street level brick facade was covered with the cutting-edge
Mid-Century Modern material vitrolite. This clean, trendy,
ever-so-hip restaurant had a neon sign, a soda counter,
and jukeboxes in every booth.
Many small towns still boast a drug store or restaurant
in this design, but those in larger cities have succumbed
to the dreaded remodelling.
Du Wong died unexpectedly in the 1970s, but his ghost hung
around for the next 30 years protecting his artistic vision
and securing a monument to Ontario architecture for future
generations. His widow, Sue Wong, steadfastly refused to
let anyone "mess with" the building until the
film industry started discovered it in the 1990s. By 2005
she was convinced that the building was safe, and at 101
years of age, she gave up her own ghost and joined her husband.
The building was a location for many movie and television
shoots. Robin Williams, Ed Norton, Geena Davis and Jimmy
Smits all played a part in keeping Dundas and this diner
in good form.
The story of the Deluxe is indicative of a curious synchronicity
that surrounds Dundas. The movie industry uses the main
street as a timepiece backdrop while the merchants themselves
seem to come from a different era. They steadfastly refuse
to let it sink into the mind-numbing dullness of 21st Century
purely-profit commerce. They are merchants making a living
pursuing their passions. They don't compromise on quality.
They stand behind their products and they know what they
are talking about.
Sadly, in 2009 the Deluxe restaurant building was sold
and the facade is currently being ripped apart to make room
for a remodelled Thai restaurant. Apart from the drug store,
it will be the only 'chain' on the street. We wish we could
wish it prosperity.
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Carnegie Gallery
By the turn of the century,
architectural vocabulary was taken to its limits by the Beaux
Arts style.
Like most Beaux Arts banks,
it has an exaggerated version of a variety of Classical
elements: giant Corinthian pillars,
thick fluting, a balustraded
pediment, a cornice with huge
dentils, an entablature
that proclaims the builder's name more proudly than any
triumphal arch, and nicely carved spandrels.
The same vocabulary of the Classical
Revival Style is used, but for a very different effect.
This is one of the few buildings left in Hamilton's once "historic"
core.
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Dundas
Dundas has one of the most
impressive pre-1850 buildings in the province. This building,
designed by **** and finished in 1848, is made from local limestone
with an impressive ashlar finish.
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Dundas
The door on the town hall is a late Renaissance
style, verging on Baroque. The pediment is broken in many sections
and the center has an urn flanked by a series of stylized roses.
The keystone has an interesting agraffe. The fanlight is a large
semi-circular radiating design. The pillars and the spandrel
design are French.
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Classical Revival
Dundas has the distinction of
having the shortest highway in North America and the longest
running hotel in Ontario, the Collins Hotel.
The most astonishing feature
of this building is clearly the front portico
with the four fluted, Doric
columns. Above them are the
triglyphs and metopes found on
a traditional Doric entablature. Above this is a discrete cornice.
The roof has a series of dormers
with Florentine pediments. There
are two floors to the hotel, the second of which has a
balcony running the full length of the building. On the
ground level there are shops.
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Italianate
Dundas has some of the best Italianate architecture
in the province, even in the country. This detail found over
a set of buildings on King Street has over-the-top detailing
all done in caste iron.
If any architectural style can be called truly
Victorian, it is the Italianate. Not many people had been to
Italy, but they wanted a style that would reflect the opulence
and material success that these fourth or fifth generation people
had acheived.
Many merchants built shops in the Italianate style
because it reflected this optomistic material success. The homes,
just two or three blocks from the down town area, are also often
Italianate in style.
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King Street Dundas
Again, this detail is all done in caste iron.
The oversized cornice, the capitals with their molding, the
window surround with the ornate brackets, pediment and acroterion,
the dentils, all the detailing assembled together and made in
the Dundas foundries.
Dundas was famous for its metal work. This building
shows why.
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Italianate
Further up the street and on the same side are
many two storey buildings with brick hood molds sporting keystones
and fancy label stops. The double brackets holding up the cornice
are Italianate.
During the 50s, 60s, and 70s, many of these buildings
were 'renovated' along the street level. The Dundas BIA is now
engaged in trying to restore the street level to its previous
glory. This block has a whole set of dedicated owners who have
spent a small fortune maintaining and restoring their buildings.
This may be one reason why the film companies keep shooting
theis street.
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King Street 1870
Another fabulous cornice, beautifully designed
and maintained. The window treatments are also amazing. The
keystone and skewbacks on the window mold are a delightful example
of stonework.
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Residential Italianate
This residence is slightly
off King Street and illustrates another major component of Dundas
architecture. It illustrates not only the beauty of the original
design, but the dedication and taste of the person who so painstakingly
restored it. There are many houses in Dundas that have comparable
architectural potential languishing beneath faded, dreary paint
jobs, but these are being restored slowly as Dundas maintains
it's historic position as the home for "people of taste"
if not necessarily money for many Hamilton workers.
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The De Luxe
Incomparable mid-century
modern architecture, this wonderful restaurant was used often
for movie shoots. The façade was the original vitrolite
and chrome, the materials used in Art
Moderne and Art Deco architecture.
The vitrolite buildings in Europe
are seeing a huge come-back. Sadly this is not the
case here.
The signage on these
places is also interesting. The signs were not purchased, but
rather rented, with a maintenance contract. This gave the owner,
who was probably not familiar with the new neon lighting, the
ability to keep it under constantly good repair. When the signs
went out of fashion, the sign companies often just left them
where they were.
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Out of Town
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The King Street of Dundas
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Concession 2
The late 20th century saw the arrival of an as-yet-un-named
style of architecture that aimed at providing a comfortable
living space in the least amount of time possible. The requirement
is for a two car garage, three bedrooms, and as many purely
ornamental columns, keystones,
pediments or gables as can be randomly
arranged on the façade. The
oversized steep-pitched roofs are often
ornamental as well: they are completely empty. Descriptions
of these houses say that they are "nicely appointed".
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Wasn't it Great
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Bibliography
Blyth, J.A., "The
Development of the Paper Industry in Old Ontario, 1824 - 1867",
Ontario History, Toronto: Ontario Historical Society;
1970 (June)
Chapple, Nina, A Heritage
of Stone,Toronto, James Lorimer and Company, Ltd., 2006
Green, Patricia and Maurice H., Wray, Sylvia and
Robert, from West Flamborough's storied
past , The Waterdown East-Flamborough Heritage Society,
2003
Tarnas, Richard, Cosmos
and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, Toronto, Penguin,
1987
A very useful ink to the Hamilton and Dundas Street Rail website-
http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/industrial/railways.htm#2
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