It's what's outside that counts - the facts on faux

Belleville has been doing a lot of reminiscing lately about its personal connection to the great Hotel Quinte, which we lost to fire before Christmas. I've done several posts about it, and anyone with a google can find dozens of media reports.

I'm just here to talk about pillars for a moment.

The most recent version of this hotel was reopened after an earlier fire, in 1907. The press of the day, given to hyperbole, described the sumptuous interior and its appointments. Newspaper reports describe the Etruscan and Macedonian marble pillars in the rotunda and dining room, with great enthusiasm.

With colleagues from Heritage Belleville, our local municipal heritage committee, I toured the interior in early spring 2011 and took these photos of the lobby (called the Rotunda in the days of spitoons, public writing desks and ladies' entrances.)

The pillars drew my attention. Not only was their surface slightly roughened, as if by brush-strokes, it was room temperature, not the cold I associate with marble. And there were nicks and building scars where a desk had been removed and those breaks in the surface revealed... white plaster. So, faux!

 All that glitters is not gold. There were certainly some fine plasterers in the day, although I wonder if some of this cornice detail might have been pre-cast.

marble mosaic in the hotel main lobby

I have heard these marble mosaic floors described as Italian marble. I have even read that Senator Corby, one of the consortium of men who built the hotel, imported the Italian marble and the marble-worker to do the job. Then on the weekend, at the Historical Society/Archives outstanding display of historical photos and facts, I saw the words "Vermont marble". 

the reveal - a brief glimpse

One very fine story about the Hotel Quinte rotunda was the real thing - real dedication, real love of the place and its history, real hard work! During the hotel's final year, before it fell into the hands of the receiver, dedicated manager Angela and her team tried very hard to capture the hotel's history and charm. One of the projects was the removal, by heat and hard labour, of carpeting that had been glued over a section of the marble mosaic floor in the Bridge street side of the lobby, which greeted patrons as they entered through the majestic south portico, removed and blocked in the 1960's (the entrance at the right in the post card at the top of this post). The words 'Hotel Quinte' and the design  which continued that of  the main lobby and halls, was revealed. For a little while.

And those pillars?

Greg Pinchin of Belleville's planning department, who serves as staff support to the Heritage Belleville committee, took the two photos which follow. One displays the nicks in the 'marble' of one of the pillars. The other view, available, sadly, only after the fire, shows one of the square pillars, and its decidedly un-marble interior.

to the right of the settee, the interior structure of a column

photos used by permission

Portals

 One of the best times of my summer with a camera was a hot August afternoon wandering among these rescued early log homes. I had spent the morning with Mel Shakespeare at the Tradition Home home/office, learning about Mel and his passion for early homes, for an article in Country Roads magazine.

I did a post about the visit back in September. After the interview, Mel directed me to his outdoor warehouse of rescued log buildings, where I spent two happy solitary hours listening to old house stories. Sitting on worn doorsteps, wandering in and out of log house doorways, I imagined the lives led in these rooms.

 

Suddenly this damp, dull, -10 degree day fades, and I am alone again in that sunburned wildflower meadow, surrounded by the warm shells of early early log buildings which had been disassembled, moved and rebuilt here, waiting for a customer to purchase and build a home in and around them.

 After I enjoyed the memories of that day, I went to Mel's website, to see how his retirement sale was progressing...though to imagine this man retired is a bit of a reach...and found this. Nice, Mel, thanks.

My surprise at seeing the article brings back the delight at exploring the featured home with its owner, the lovely Anne Keefer, and the sadness at hearing she passed away soon after the article was written. Her home brought her such joy...I cannot think of a lovelier spot for her spirit to have chosen to rest than this sunny meadow.

Happy Bicentenarians

16 Orchard Street (before 1800)

A correspondent, whose heart is clearly with the homes of the c.18 in Maritime Canada, sends links regularly to images of venerable early homes of eastern Canada. Some are doing very well thank you...other reports are obituaries.

top, across the bay: Christian Ernst House (1765)

Today I was browsing photos of our wander round Mahone Bay a couple of years ago - yearning for a sunny summer day, for a bit of travel, for a look at some old houses.

photo of Christian Ernst house - borrowed from
 Coastal Winds Realty website listing

Thought I'd share these in case you're in the same frame of mind.

Hyson House (1800)

Love and Loss 2 - Rickarton Castle

The black and white photo below of Picton's once-upon-a-time Rickarton Castle was taken by Rodger Greig and published in the Spring-Summer 1990 issue of ACORN, the ACO publication.

He explains the building's evolution: "[it] must have started as a simple symmetrical box of a house, but just before 1863 it developed the trappings of a castle: a massive square tower at one end and plenty of miscellaneous rambling additions at the other, crenellations along every roofline and shapely Tudor gothic verandahs in back to look over the harbour."

I recorded his comments about its chances for survival in a post on January 9.

symmetrical box proportions re-emerge

Picton's second castle after Villeneuve, the home was originally called Warwick House by Colonel Rylands who did the gothic facelift. A cut above your usual house, it was sold for a boarding school in 1866, then bought by shipping magnate Arthur Hepburn who renamed it Rickarton to recall family estates in the old country.

Sadly, it's remembered by most folks in town as a pretty divey beer parlour. Went there once, had a great reunion with a local cousin, when we were home on a visit from the west. Felt odd, though, like being a tourist in my own town.

another good house good-bye

Warwick/Rickarton met its end sometime in the roaring '80's. A developer had purchased the land, discovering too late that there was an historic building on the site. (I am trying to emulate Greig's famous sarcasm here). Unfortunately, the building did not fit with their plans for a development site, so it had to go. You understand.

The alternative would have been to make it the centrepiece of the housing estate. But that's seldom a solution...stripped of their property, surrounded by new builds, homes like this become anachronisms.

But lest I be accused of tying myself to every old building, I offer this bit of wisdom from Harold Wilson:

"He [and, I assume, she] who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery". 

(photo credit: mom and dad)

Be sure to venture below to the comment by a visitor to the blog, who has special recollections and memories of one of Picton's lost castles.

Love and Loss - Villeneuve Castle

looking up from Picton Bay

 Mom and Dad took great interest in the historic and beautiful buildings of their town. They were especially pleased to live on Bridge Street overlooking the treed hillside where stood the Castle Villeneuve.

They were 'first on the scene' with their Instamatic the morning after the explosion. Just recently I found these photos and wanted to share them with folks who still mourn the loss.

 In the 1986 propane gas explosion, a patron of the (then) restaurant was killed. The building could not be allowed to stand without some kind of retribution, and was quickly demolished.


The six acre property which slopes down to Picton Bay marina has been for sale forever. The Lester Group  which is handling it (one simply does not 'sell' a property this special) has assembled some of the history on their website. I guess in time the property will fill up with McMansions, and the castle will be nothing but a name...bragging rights.





It will always be there for me, part of the scenery we drove by on the way to 'town'.  I still remember the matching gatehouse which stood along Bridge Street. It stood for many years after the castle was demolished. I remembered to look recently and it has disappeared. Wonder how long ago?

Be sure to venture below this post, to read the heartfelt comment sent by the son of the then-owner of our wonderful Villeneuve.

Gone Walkabout

ACO Quinte area walking tours have been going on for a long time. I have just enjoyed reading a delightful eight-page account (a significant chunk of the 25 page Fall 1986 issue of ACORN) written by then Quinte Region president, the well-known heritage activist and writer Rodger Greig. He titles the article which describes tours of Glenora, the village of Roslin, and Cherry Valley, 'Lessons Learned from Walking Tours' and makes the point that "our buildings are on our streets for our education, enjoyment and use." Provided we are good citizens and stay on the sidewalk.

Sidney township but tour October 2012

On Sunday, January 20, at 2 PM at Bridge Street United Church, the AGM for the Quinte chapter of the ACO will take place (with cookies) in the meeting room of historic Bridge Street United Church. President for life (or so it doubtless seems to him) is David Bentley, with whom I worked for some years.

 David has been continuing the tradition of third-Sunday walking tours in the area.

Old East Hill walking tour 

These photos are from two of the tours in 2012 - a walking tour of the Old East Hill and a bus tour of some of the historic farms and buildings in Sidney township.

David assembles a tour guide for all these junkets; they are available at the archives of Prince Edward in Wellington. I have enjoyed exploring the back roads of Sidney township, following the instructions in a 1990 ACO tour itinerary, taking photos to add to the guides.

Kathryn enjoying the Corby Rose Garden

George and Denis 

David who makes it all happen

Muscular Christianity

Canterbury Hall (1879)

Muscular Christianity. A idea which emerged during the Victorian era - physical strength and health married to the manly pursuit of Christian ideals in life and politics. A phrase which links these images of a very unusual church building in Trenton, and a glacial erratic found several miles north.

 But first...a few words about this polychromatic brick church, which has always caught my eye. Only a warm day last week brought me onto the streets of the town, to have a closer look. This is Canterbury Hall, built 1879 as the Sunday school and function hall for nearby St. George's Anglican Church. A picturesque Gothic revival building perched on a rise, it's an interesting style departure from its mothership, the 'English village' church in local limestone.

St. George's Anglican Church, Trenton

The brickwork is fascinating. Red brick creates bands across the facade, and follows the raking cornice of the gable. The exotic cross in the gable and the triangular motif depicting the holy trinity are unusual, conjuring mysterious lodge symbols. Diamond shapes, zigzags. The bricklayers were on fire that day.

Arches over the windows are flattened, Tudor style. Bricks are pressed into service to form decorative hoods over the windows.

And soaring overhead is a wonderful belfry pierced by a Gothic lancet arch opening.

Sadly, successive alterations to the front entrance have given the hall a perpetual dirty face. The building looks unoccupied. Graffiti are starting to add to the interesting facade. Uh-oh.

 And the link to the Bleasdale Boulder, that most muscular of rocks which rests where the glacier dropped it, in a lovely Conservation area on Highway 33? Reverend Canon William Bleasdale was the rector at St. George's from 1848-1889. The Reverend Canon supervised and volunteered in the actual manual work of building Canterbury Hall. And in his free time, this Victorian Renaissance man studied botany, astronomy, entomology and geology. Bleasdale drew scientific attention to the big rock in Glen Miller; featured on the scientific lecture circuit, it became a national curiosity - 'The Bleasdale Boulder'.

weighing in at one million kilos, the most muscular of Ontario rocks

Thanks to the LACAC notes resident in the fabulous Trenton library for the words to describe the wonderfully eccentric Canterbury Hall. And thanks to reference librarian Robert Amesse for making them available to me.