Good Bones

We took a drive through Consecon on Sunday. My husband, long accustomed to my pleas to "stop the car I need that one", was most patient while I leapt out to snap yet another house (always rehearsing my lines lest some angry soul on witness protection comes charging out to hurt me and my offending camera).

We had been admiring some beautifully preserved homes in brick and stone, and I almost let these two get away. But there was something about the proportions and hints of former fine detail that made me look again. And there they are - the monitor gracing the Ontario cottage form in the photo on the left below, and the pilastered doorcase and symmetry of the tiny house on the right, clues beneath the modern siding that point to their origins in 1845 and 1834 respectively.

I've just had a look at photos of these houses taken in 1930 by Eric Arthur, legendary professor of architecture at U of T. The photos in my tattered copy of Settler's Dream are lovely. Proof that good bones will always show.

(Incidentally, Arthur's magnificent No Mean City is a great favourite - it's a look at the Toronto we've lost).