Maple Grove 1787 - 1820

This house currently in safe keeping in Upper Canada Village is an excellent example of Loyalist style. It is a storey and a half structure with a symmetrical seven bay plan, created in 1787 by Jeremiah French. The Loyalists assimilated the Neo-Classical style, added in the practical changes developed in the 13 colonies as a result of a harsher climate, and created this the Loyalist style. Timber frame houses with clapboard exterior finishing, like this one, were generally all white, or either cane-yellow or stone blue with white trim. Wattle and daub insulation could probably be found behind the siding.

Maple Grove

The plan of this house follows the basic central floor plan of a Georgian house. The difference is that the Loyalist house was a more formal arrangement. In the Georgian house, the dining room often doubled as a sitting room. In the Loyalist house, the dining room had a fixed position and had particular interior moldings, curtains and detailing to suit it.

The kind of Neo-Classical enrichment found on this window surround is often found on fireplace mantels. Fluted pilasters, a large cornice and a plain but prominent architrave were distinct elements of the Loyalist window surround.

Maple Grove

MacRae and Adamson point out in The Ancestral Roof that the double swag and pendants of husk molding found on the entrance door, here protected fro the winter, are taken directly from Pompeii, probably through pattern books. This motif was being used liberally in Vermont architecture of the same period, particularly around the Windsor area.

The influence of the American colonies is much easier to see in Nova Scotia where building materials and even entire buildings were being shipped up from Boston or Pennsylvania. A house made with timbers numbered in Roman numerals was generally a house prefabricated and then assembled on site. In the mid-18th century, the old city of Halifax was constructed largely with prefabricated houses shipped up from Boston.

Maple Grove

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.

This house originally belonged to Jeremiah French, U.E. The name, Maple Grove, was associated first with the house and its accompanying mills, then with the small community that grew up around it. The community was removed to make way for the St. Lawrence Seaway. The house was rescued and reconstructed in Upper Canada Village. The plan of the house was created in 1787 by Jeremiah French. The Neo-Classical elements of the façade were added in 1820 by George Robertson who married French's daughter and subsequently took possession of the house.

The Poplars

Like the house above, The Poplars, otherwise known as the Barnum House in Grafton has been lovingly restored and is now a museum. Here is Ontario's finest application of Classical detailing, applied with taste, refinement, and a feel for proportions sadly lacking in many modern attempts.

The building is a two storey center block and one storey wings all made in wood frame. The overlapping ship-lap siding of the Maplegrove is found here only on the sides and the back. The front is carefully fitted flush siding.

The Poplars, detail

The façade is composed of 12 over 12 sash windows inserted under elliptical blind arches, a motif found in Dundas as well. The pilasters are capped with simple squared capitals. Under the soffit, beautifully restored, is a frieze of triglyphs, plain metopes and guttae.

Decorative windows were often used within gables to light the attic spaces. This lunette or semi-circular arch shows the quality of the glazing.

The Poplars, detail

As you can see from the Georgian entrances, the semi-circular arch is the most structurally sound arch, thus employed liberally by the Romans. The builder in wood is not restricted by these considerations since the arches are largely decorative, but they are still used extensively in Loyalist architecture.

The Poplars was built in 1817 by Eliakim Barnum a Loyalist from Vermont. This house replaces his original house that was accidentally burned to the ground when British soldiers were billeted there while defending York in the War of 1812.

Nelles Manor

The Nelles Manor in Grimsby is a private home, the owners are meticulously restoring each room to its original glory and doing a great job of it. The façade is a typical five bay Georgian with three dormers on the roof. The Neo-Classical porch was added later. The door and window surrounds are quite plain, the door has a simple rectangular transom and the windows have shutters on twelve-over-twelve sash windows.

The Manor

The detailing of the Manor is very similar to that of The Poplars. The triglyphs on the frieze are very similar, as are the soffit vents. This lovely porch has a central barrel vault supported by slim Hellenistic columns, Doric with bases. The porch was originally on the other façade, and then transferred to this side to take advantage of the garden.

The Manor

The magic in all of these buildings is in the details. Under the eaves there is a gay band of triglyphs and lozenges capped with a scallop.

The Manor

The interiors of Loyalist houses were beautifully constructed. This house has three foot thick stone walls. The inside is plastered, and the interior walls were all made of plaster as well. The window casements are fitted by an expert joiner and decorated with fitted panels.

Locust Hall 1824

This house was built for the Woodruff family in 1824, and stayed in the family for six generations. Like most Georgian style homes, it has five bays and a gable roof. This is different in that it is brick with large stone quoins where most are clapboard. The Neo-Classical doorway and large second floor window have intricate wooden moldings fulll of egg and dart and classical motifs.

The gable ends are adorned with fan ornaments, and there are cornice returns. The house has two chimneys and services a variety of fireplaces inside.

Locust Hall 1824

The large central doorway of the house has a fan transom, sidelights, and engaged fluted pilasters. Rumour has it that the woodwork on this and many other buildings of the time was made by shipwrights during the winter or off-season months.

48 Queenston Rd. 1820

This clapboard house is one of the original houses in Queenston. William Lyon MacKenzie lived in a house just up the street.

This place has been wonderfully maintained. The clapboard looks original, and the colour is authentic for the period. The window surrounds are very plain, but the door frame is quite ornate with four engaged pilasters and an architrave with a cornice. Notice how the door frame and engaged pilasters have the same proportions and design as Locust Hall above. The houses are less than ten miles apart.

Niagara Area 1837

This fanlight is about 15 years later than those identified above. The detailing has been beautifully restored both on the fanlight and on the colonnettes. The building has exaggerated quoins on the windows and door, the façade is composed of local stone and the fanlight

Niagara Area 1837

This detail illustrates the quality of craftsmanship that was rare in the 1830s, but even more rare today. The window has radiating mullions. The window is recessed under a large, panelled soffit, and the window is finished with a beautiful egg and dart band.

Woodruff House 1815

When Anne MacRae wrote about the Woodruff's house in St. Davids in her timeless book The Ancestral Roof, she captioned Page Tole's picture as "The valiant beauty of a dying house." Clearly this house has found some worthy owners who have revived the beauty of the original design and polished it until it sparkles.

The craftsmanship on this house is superior to that of their later house, Locust Hall. The design is the same, five bays with a gable roof and fan ornaments in the gable ends.

1717 York Road - 1820

Many of the buildings of this time have a one room deep main building with an ell on the back for a kitchen. This storey-and-a-half house reflects the Georgian design again with five bays, a central door and two large chimneys. Door and window surrounds are quite plain, in keeping with the Georgian tradition. The corners of the building show fine craftsmanship on the quality of the quoins. The builder was sea captain William Davis and the property was purchased from the Secord family.

Laura Secord Homestead 1803

What survey of Loyalist architecture would be completed without the homestead of Laura Secord. In this house in 1813 she overheard American soldiers planning an attack. She traversed 19 miles (30 kilometers) through swamps and forests to warn the British and became a Canadian heroine.

The house itself, restored to its 1803 glory by the Laura Secord Company and local enthusiasts, illustrates, again, an unadorned Georgian storey-and-a-half with two large chimneys, small side lights and plain window frames.

Laura Secord

This original fireplace has also been restored to its former colour. This simple design has a mantel shelf that breaks forward over the side pilasters and in the middle. The ornaments are paterae. Variations on this design can be found in Niagara-on-the-Lake and as far up the St. Lawrence as Maitland.

1755 York Road 1820

This is a Georgian home with five bays and two chimneys, but the door is much more ornate than in the other examples. The fanlight is large and elliptical, under an elliptical stone arch complete with keystone. The

The house was probably built by David Secord, son of Peter Secord, who received 300 acres of land below the escarpment.

Fairfield House

The house is 44' by 36' deep, commanding a magnificent view of Lake Ontario, just west of Kingston.

The central supporting posts are of white pine extending the full 2 1/2 stories of the house. The sawn clapboard and wood trim are made of white pine as are the floors and trim on the interior (see below) The attic floors are constructed of wood planks up to 18 inches across. The floor planks get progressively thinner on the second floor and thinner than that on the first floor. A thin floor plank was a sign of affluence; more labour was needed to produce the planks.

Fairfield House

The Fairfield House, like those above, has been carefully maintained as a museum since 1984. The Fairfield family built the home in 1793 and lived in it continuously until Dr. William Fairfield and his daughter Elizabeth donated it to the province. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited the house in 1984 as part of the Bicentennial of the arrival of the Loyalists. Thanks to the efforts of Don Priest and many local volunteers, the house and its magnificent gardens are a vital part of the community.

The house has the same design as Crooks house in Dundas.

Fairfield House

A patterned or stenciled floor was also a sign of affluence. The stenciled floor here is new, but is an exact replica of the original floor. The television show "Antique Style" by Summerhill Productions featured an excellent segment on the history and production of such flooring.

The plan of the house is a symmetrical four rooms over four rooms with a central hall. Each room opening onto the hall had a door that could be closed in winter to preserve the heat from the fireplace or later wood stove within. Heating pipes, here taken out, connected the rooms so that heat could be vented from one area to another.

The Loyalist front door generally had a transom and side lights. The walls were plastered and then white-washed with lime.

Fairfield House

The cellar of the Fairfield house was dug by hand into the solid limestone bedrock. The vertical members or pillars shown here, have been replaced for structural reasons, the originals had worn out, but the horizontal members still show the marks of the ax. This limestone was added to the quarried limestone used to level the foundation walls and to build the stone chimneys and fireplaces.

The frame for the house is hand-hewn white oak.

Fairfield House

Brick fired on the property in an outdoor oven was used in the interior of the building to separate rooms.

The frame was filled with a combination of straw and clay known as wattle-and -daub that afforded some insulation in the winter and a more solid structure against the strong winter winds from across the Lake. This "daub" also contains horse hair as is often the case.

The house is surrounded by fruit trees, nut trees, barns and storage areas attesting to the self sufficiency of the family. This place was definitely "off the grid".

Fairview House

While the insulation and heating materials are rudimentary, the crafts-manship of this house is a testament to the sorry quality of workmanship found in many modern houses. Each major structural element was attached by a mortise and tenon joint as shown on the right, and the roof and ceiling rafters were connected with half-dovetail and collar ties. This house was not constructed in the 120 days quoted by modern builders.

The chair rails and interior wood paneling are a further testament to skill without fanfare. The detailing is thoughtful, elegant and understated.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Stonegate

The façade is composed of five bays, the central bay contains the Neo-Classical 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 peices of glass. Sham fanlights with metal or wooden muntins placed over a large peice 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.

Stonegate

Fireplaces on the main floor of Loyalist homes were generally ornate. This one on the loyer 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.

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 transome. 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.

The Harrison House

The Rogers Blake Harrison house of 1817 is a brilliant example of Neo-Classical detailing added to a basically Georgian design. It is part of the Loyalist Style, but has been noted in some texts as NeoClassical when the Loyalist style is not defined. It is currently a bed and breakfast, which is fortunate for the architecture enthusiast in that the mantel is one of the best examples of Loyalist fireplace detailing. The legend is that when the Yankees fired on Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) in 1813, an old woman pried the mantel from the wall and dragged it to safety. After the fire, four hundred women and children were left homeless, but the mantel survived.

The Priest's House

Though it later became known as the Priest's House, this old brick and rubblestone was originally the home of the local tax collector Isaac Swayze. Property tax had not yet been imposed. Taxes were collected on shops, inns, taverns and stills, the precursors to the current Niagara wine industry. Once again it is an example of a basically Georgian building with a Neo-Classical façade.

The stone first floor is said to have been constructed in the late 1700s. The upper storey and a half were added in 1816, the original being burned, along with almost everything else, during the War of 1812.

The Priest's House

This detail illustrates the traditional use of quoins. Squared stone or bricks were used to provide squared edges on building for corners, sills, lintels, and door openings. Once the corners were constructed and in place, the walls were filled in using, in this case, local limestone from the fields and riverside, held together with lime mortar. The stones were collected in such abundance that they made walls 26 inches thick.

Brick was an unusual building material during the time. It is likely that the bricks were fired on the property in an outdoor oven.

Acacia Cottage

A great many Loyalists moved to Nova Scotia after the war, but not many stayed in Halifax, they went to new Brunswick or Shelburne N.S.

Acacia Cottage, built by John Howe, father of Joseph Howe and a Loyalist, was originally on the Northwest Arm of Halifax and later moved to South St.

The chimney is missing showing that the central fireplace has been removed. The addition on the back giving it a "saltbox" shape is probably added later as well.

Acacia Cottage received the 1999 Home Award for renovation.

Acacia Cottage

Not many Loyalist houses remain in Halifax due to the frequent devastating fires. This one is notable for the large Doric columns holding up the front portico. The columns are larger in the center than in the two ends, a technique called entasis, used in the Parthenon and other large Greek buildings to counteract the optical elusion that diminishes such columns when seen from from a distance.

The windows have been replaced, but the other detailing has been well preserved. Note the cornice line on the gable extending the line of the end of the roof.

Acacia Cottage

The large portico on the back of the house opens up onto the ravine.

Acacia Cottage

The Scottish dormer

Shelburne

The town of Shelburne was established in 1783 to receive the people leaving the newly independant American colonies, and for a short time it was the largest town in British North America. By 1785 the town had 10,00 people and 1500 buildings.

There was no economy to support the colony, so this boom was shortlived, but there are a wide variety of buildings that are slowly being restored.

This, the

Shelburne

This garrison was rebuilt for a movie.

Shelburne

The town of Shelburne was established in 1783 to receive the people leaving the newly independant American colonies, and for a short time it was the largest town in British North America. By 1785 the town had 10,00 people and 1500 buildings.

There was no economy to support the colony, so this boom was shortlived, but there are a wide variety of buildings that are slowly being restored.

This, the

Jordan

This building was constructed by the original Henry of Pelham in 1842. Henry's father, Nicholas Smith, was a bugle boy in the Butler's Rangers, on the side of the United Empire Loyalists in the American Revolutionary War. After the war, Smith moved to the Niagara area and was awarded Crown lands for his loyalty to the British - 40 hectares (100 acres) for himself, 40 for his wife and 40 for each of their 14 children. Nicholas and Henry planted some of the first vineyards in Niagara and while commercial wine production was not in their game plan, anecdotal evidence suggests the family did make wine for their own table. Currently, Henry of Pelham winery makes some of the best wine in the world.

Homewood Museum

Many United Empire Loyalists settled in the St. Lawrence valley after the American Revolution. Dr. Solomon Jones (1756-1822) and his three brothers arrived in Augusta Township in 1784 to take up lands granted to them by the government. Jones commissioned Louis Brière, a Montreal mason and contractor, to build a "gentleman's residence" in stone overlooking the river in 1799. Although Homewood was constructed in the late Georgian style, the simplicity of some of its details, especially the shutters and metalwork, show a French-Canadian influence

Maitland

The Manor

This Bungalow in Ancaster appears to be quite small from the front façade. There is a lovely porch with three rustic columns made in the same rough stone that the rest of the house is in. A look at the side of the house, however, shows that there is a great deal of living space.

The roof on this house is not exactly bell-cast in that the sweep from the ridge to the soffit is not curved, but the roofline is still very pleasing, as is the wood detailing on the sides. The sun room - sometimes called a Florida room - on the side is a very elegant residential touch.

Macdonell Williamson House 1813

John Macdonell spent 19 years as a fur trader with the North West Company, (1768-1850) before retiring to Hawkesbury Township with his wife, Magdeleine Poitras, a Métis from Qu'Appelle, Manitoba, and their children.

Record of Loyalists show that they generally have a plot of land, 5 acres up to hundreds of acres, and in addition, they made a living through the growing commercial enterprises of Ontario. MacDonell is no exception. His house,known as Poplar Villa, served as a centre for his milling, general merchandising, warehousing and freight-forwarding business. Macdonell's home, is a graceful adaptation of the Palladian style.

"In 1882, the Williamson family bought the house. It remained in the Williamson family until the early 1960s. The Ontario Heritage Foundation acquired it in 1978 to save it from demolition, and conducted extensive architectural and archaeological investigations on the property."

McMartin House Perth 1830

This is one of the few houses built by Loyalist offspring in the American Federal style,common in the eastern United States between 1780 and 1820. It was built for Daniel McMartin (1798-1869), one of the first lawyers in Perth.

The house is constructed of red brick with marble trim, the marble being an extravagant material imported from........ round and semi-elliptical. arches are layered across the symmetrical façade that is decorated with quoins.

" Interior details, such as the window trim and moldings, were inspired by the published architectural renderings of Asher Benjamin, an influential designer in the Greek Revival style. The classical moldings of the gate and the corners of the picket fence can also be traced to this source.

St Andrews United Church Williamstown 1813

Originally built by the Church of Scotland Presbyterians to replace the log church of 1786, the records show that this is where John Strachan married Anne Wood McGill. (John Strachan was the most influencial churchman of his day. He helped to found McGill University, the King's College, later the University of Toronto, and Trinity University. He was responsible for the early organization of grammar schools. In addition to being one of the founding members of the Family Compact, he spent 55 years working as priest, arch deacon and finally bishop for the Church of England.)

Conger Meeting House Picton 1809

Most early settlers were Puritans by nature and not generally drawn to much decoration in their church or civic architecture. This is a square building along the general lines of a New England meeting house.

The two great enemies of architecture are fire and affluence. Scholars differ on what causes the most damage. Not many wooden Methodist meeting houses survive. Those that weren't flooded by the St. Lawrence Seaway were used as sheep folds and barns when bigger stone buildings were produced. If they weren't destroyed by fire, they were destroyed by progress.

Conger Meeting House Picton 1809

Most early settlers were Puritans by nature and not generally drawn to much decoration in their church or civic architecture. This is a square building along the general lines of a New England meeting house.

The two great enemies of architecture are fire and affluence. Scholars differ on what causes the most damage. Not many wooden Methodist meeting houses survive. Those that weren't flooded by the St. Lawrence Seaway were used as sheep folds and barns when bigger stone buildings were produced. If they weren't destroyed by fire, they were destroyed by progress.