Building Styles

Gananoque

Gananoque is a town along the St. Lawrence that houses quite a few geniuses. They have restored some magnificent architecture and maintained the town as it would have looked like 100 years ago. This fabulous Villa is also a restaurant and inn, so if you are lucky, you can even stay here. Then you can judge for yourself if it looks better in the early morning sunshine or late in the evening as in this shot.

From the iron cresting at the top through the paired brackets or modillions on the cornices right down to the keystones and quoining, this building is beautifully crafted and very well maintained.

Woodstock

The most striking feature of this house, as with most of the Italian Villas in Ontario, is the tall central tower like a Tuscan campanile. This one even has two small balconies . The tower is ornate and embellished, even to a finial on the top. Midway up the tower are roundels, also in the Tuscan manner.

Unlike the Classical styles, the windows on the main floor are casement but they still have shutters and cornices. The roof cornices are oversized as they would be in a Palazzo, and the brackets, or modillions, are paired.

This is a beautiful example of a residence built for comfortable living in the country manner but within an urban setting.

Woodstock

The central tower of the Italian Villa in Woodstock has paired Round-headed windows on all sides. It is a belvedere.

The balconette offers a beautiful view of the street.

Woodstock

On the side of the building are two paired round-headed windows united by a decorative sill and sporting two shutters.

Below is a tall double window with a double sill and a decorative cornice above the window.

Cobourg

This Villa has many different arches and window finishes. The tower is capped by a four- sided pediment, a steep roof, and an orb. Over the central window in the tower is a Gothic arch like those found in Siena. The pediment over the door is held in place by extravagant brackets and carved pilasters.

Over the windows on the main floor the arches are Tuscan and contain a roundel or medallion design. Within the gable on the left is another roundel; this one is a blind roundel. The bay window is one storey in height with an oversized cornice and iron cresting on the top.

This is an interesting mixture of Tuscan, Gothic and vernacular design, nicely preserved and maintained.

Cobourg

All dressed up for the Halloween season, the front entrance shows the wealth of detail on this building. The window above the door has a Florentine arch. The other windows on the second floor are connected by a band of dogstooth brick work. The window lintels are segmental arches. The door has an ornate aedicule. The doors themselves are highly carved.

There is iron cresting on the half bay to the left. The wood molding on the cornice is complete with pendulums.

Niagara-on-the-Lake

Like the Woodstock example, this tower has two viewing balconies; in this case one is on the side of the tower. The upper windows on the tower have Roman arches; the highest windows are paired.

The cornice brackets are large and ornate. Within the pediment there is a roundel. The windows on the first and second storey are rectangular with simple window surrounds and cornices. Both storeys have elegant shutters. Like many shutters on older buildings, these would probably have been working shutters that would close in winter for heat retention.

The portico on the front door is of a Classical design with Ionic clustered columns and a simple architrave. There is a discreet string course or band separating the first and second storeys.

Once again, this building is beautifully maintained.

Guelph

This is an unusually symmetrical Villa style with semi-octagonal pavilions and a central tower. The colour scheme is muted: white and light grey. The pavilions have mildly pitched roofs with large brackets; the tower has a higher roof with an acroterion. There is no balcony on the tower, but there are paired windows on the upper level as in most of the other examples.

Three small porches with lunettes and large roof brackets allow entry to the house.

Kitchener

Unlike the Simcoe Italian Villa, this one in Kitchener is relatively unadorned. The central tower has an ornate, slanting roof with a roundel, dentil blocks, and decorative gables. The second floor roof gables have large brackets and unadorned roundel windows, and the windows on the first and second floors are simple one-over-one sashes with no shutters (and no room for them on the original design) and simple jack arches with a small central keystone.

The L shape plan, hip roof and central tower with large veranda can be seen in A.J. Downing's Cottage Residences (1840). This plan was used in many Italian Villas throughout Ontario. The second storey balustraded porch suggests that before urbanization the building was once on a much larger piece of land with a view. The simple vergeboarding on the roofline is typical of Western Ontario craftsmanship. The house was, incidentally, once the residence of the mayor.

Baden

Castle Kilbride is an extravagant and boastful Villa in the middle of Mennonite country. It was built in 1877 by James Livingston, an entrepreneur who made his fortune as a paint manufacturer. The exterior of the villa is grandly symmetrical with paired bay windows and ornate window cornices. The oversized belvedere, the portico, and the window details are all painted in rich colours.

The roofline of this Villa is not as undulating as many of the other examples. The layout is a simple center hall plan. The overall impression of the building in its surroundings is that of a balanced Renaissance country Villa.

As in many Renaissance Villas, there is extensive fresco work in the interior. The building, currently owned by the Township of Wilmot, is open to the public.

Oakville

Photographs of this Italian Villa over the years since it was constructed (1870) show the various stages that the house has gone through until it has reached its current state which is very close to the first design. The original building was 65 feet further back on the property. It was moved forward to be placed over a new basement.

The balconies on the tower have been removed and then replaced, and the arcaded veranda with fine treillage (latticework) has been replaced by a tasteful closed-in porch. The windows maintain their original massive dressings, pediments, and cornices held in place by oversized brackets. The roof has an extensive overhang with large brackets.

Kingston

Bellevue is one of the most spectacular Itallian Villas in Ontario, indeed in the world. The setting is as spectacular as the building. It is now a museum, but it was once the home of Sir John A. MacDonald.

The central tower has an ornate cornice and a veranda with Doric columns and an architrave on the main floor and a balustraded terrace on the second floor. The windows have large shutters. The main floor has multipaned French Doors.

Kingston

Here is a beautiful, rustic version of the Italian Villa. In many ways the most "Italian" on this page as it certainly the type you would be most likely to see in the Tuscan countryside.

The central tower is topped by an acroterion and has an iron balcony on the second level. The corners have very subtle quoining. The arch over the front entrance is round-headed, and has a decorative impost.

The front veranda has been replaced by a very smart glassed-in porch with a second floor balcony. The windows are new, but care has been taken to make them contextual. The paired chimneys are quite ornate, suggesting that some of the details may have been changed, but everything has been done very tastefully.