The Design Site

Victorian Buildings In Toronto – What Is Special About Them?

Quite a few people consider Victorian as a style, but this is not correct From 1835 and 1900 there were many kinds of home built and ‘Victorian’ architecture encompasses them all. Making use of many different elements it is hard to pinpoint a specific style, although each building will have a few details in common with each other. The properties are constructed in brick, stone, and timber, using a sometimes-eclectic combination of Classical and Gothic motifs.

Around Ontario, if you wish to see lots of Victorian structures then you need to look at the houses. Whether it was a big farm in the country, a little worker’s cottage or a town house in a growing urban centre like Toronto, the residences could show off good solid craftsmanship and decorative touches. The normal Victorian property builder wanted to ‘dress up’ the house with frills, swirls, patterns and similar designs. Some European groups did not like the design of the Victorian house, seeing the designs as picky and overly complex. The finished result worked, regardless of the fact that there were completely contrasting architectural styles over the years.

History

Unlike in today’s subdivisions where many homes are built by the same builder in not-too-subtle variations on the same look, the builders of what was Toronto’s first suburb were a very eclectic and imaginative bunch. Searching around for places to put these properties in the 1830′s, saw builders turning their attention to land at the north of Queen and west of Parliament, as this had at first been cleared for farming. These empty ‘park lots’ would eventually house the properties of some of York’s (as Toronto was formerly known) most important officials.

The initial pieces of Toronto Victorian homes were farm houses and a few cottages. The initial building lots were sold in 1845 along Sherbourne Street, with the land being separated into a grid arrangement of streets by city surveyor John Howard. The narrow building area of only 15 to 20 foot in width, made the most efficient home the terraced (row or attached homes). There is a building on Sherbourne street which didn’t conform to the general house build; that was Allandale which is found at number 241 and is a rather elaborate Victorian example. The residence flaunts a large rustic porch, with an ornate trim and two-toned decorative brick work; the owner being Enoch Turner, the brewer, who had it built in the late 1840′s. Another example of early Victorian design in the area is 424 Ontario Street, in which the ornate gingerbread trim on peaks and porches threatens to eclipse the delicacy of the overall design.