Knocking on Heaven's Door

As I prowled through my photo files recently, I realized that I have accumulated a large number of images of cemeteries, most especially the gates. A decorative gate to a cemetery is rife with symbolism, isn't it?

the stone angel, Neepawa Manitoba

I am rather fond of cemeteries. Probably arises as much from my history habit and my sniffing after resonance, as from the picturesque appeal of many of the well-designed cemeteries following Victorian garden cemetery aesthetic.

Glenwood Chapel, Picton

Some of my favourite cemeteries are Picton's Glenwood Cemetery, the  Cataraqui Cemetery west of Kingston and the Toronto Necropolis. Years ago, I spent hours in the Old Burying Ground in the eye of the hurricane which is downtown Halifax, and long to revisit that picturesque and moody place, for stories it tells - stories that ended there as early as 1749.

rural Frontenac county

three Victorian stones from the Necropolis

"to honour and record the dead...

..and to elevate the prestige of the living."
~McKendry

It's difficult to wander among beautifully crafted old gravestones, with their quaint memorial inscriptions, and not survey birth and death dates looking for family stories. Hard also, not to want the stones to tell those stories.

Kingston based architectural historian Jennifer McKendry wrote an outstanding book which I have recently borrowed from the library. Into the Silent Land  is considered among reviewers as the definitive book on Ontario cemeteries by the Ontario Historical Society.

fancy in Toronto - gateway to the Necropolis

and plain in Trenton - Al Purdy's parents lie here

I am enthralled, and will post again, as McKendry's book opens my eyes to cemetery design, garden cemeteries, mausoleums and dead houses, furnishings like iron fence enclosures, ornamental benches, urns and statues, the art of lawns, trees, and plantings, shapes and styles of memorials (basically classical or medieval in inspiration), the huge significance of imagery, cemetery adornments and the like.

next 5 images from Belleville cemetery

The social history of cemeteries and funerals is fascinating.
I'm already planning my next wanders - waiting for spring, to sit on a sunbaked old stone and listen to the ancestors.

Celtic cross

Susanna and her husband

McKendry raises and answers so many interesting questions. For instance, why are willow trees so popular on gravestones? Because they regenerate when cut down. A hopeful sign when staring mortality in the face.

Angels represent resurrection. Ditto.

But what does the  tree stump signify?
Stay tuned.

Fidality

sunny days return to One Walton 

the arched front door exiting the Gothic portico

If you live in Prince Edward County, or link via social media with one Alex Fida, you are getting regular updates on a bright new chapter in the life of the historic Downes house on Walton Street in Picton. I posted about the house recently, but was coy about the new owner's name for, after all, it was his news to share. And happy news it is too. Alex (like me) has loved the house since he was a child, and is excited to be saving it from what many worried might be oblivion, neglected as it was amidst encroaching commercial development. And he loves old houses, and will be faithful to the architectural legacy of this unique and beautiful place.

the astonishingly wide doorcase in the wide welcoming hall

As anyone who follows Alex's Facebook updates with Johnny CY Lam's evocative photos knows, the place is regaining its former elegance by the day, its beauty arising from the clutter and neglect of recent years. Restoration and reuse plans are underway, and the gracious home is already hosting happy social events.

the west bay window

Last Wednesday, I spent the morning in the house, delighting in Alex's delight, and pinching myself at being inside a house I have long admired.

one of four fireplaces - two marble Victorians

dado panels below French windows

Alex

house only looks small from outside

one of the four principal rooms on main floor

not your everyday kitchen window view

the oriel window waiting for Johnny Lam
to do it photographic justice

Looking out of the windows onto the snowy lawn, I was aware, not of the activity of the town, but of the calmness of the property, a feeling of refuge.

stunning simplicity of landing, gable-hugging window

There is lots to be done, but many gifted and sensitive craftsmen to assist, among them Kip Brisley of the well-known heritage preservation family.

interior window looking out onto the former verandah

Alex has many ideas and plans for the house, but I'll leave it to him to share them. Watch this spot.

built in fireplace cupboard

Alex contemplating the window mouldings

luscious ceiling mouldings

no Home Depot light fixture needed for this plaster medallion

Fabulous Fakes

Snow Road

Reader Mark recently commented on  the insulbrick siding in the photo I posted of John Thomson Hall in Snow Road Station.

That got me thinking about insulbrick, and wondering how much of it was still about. Time was, you'd see it often. Last weekend we did a circle tour through Frankford, Stirling, Tweed and Madoc, just to get out of the house. I kept an eye open for what I thought would be numerous examples, and noted only three. I'll try to get back for their portraits.

Insulbrick was the commonly used term for several brands of maintenance-free asphalt brick siding- other trademarked names were Insulstone and Insulwood. The tar-coated fibreboard siding with an embossed gritty surface was manufactured from the 1930's to 60's. It came in grey, brown and red 'brick' with white or black 'mortar'.

Belleville

Insulbrick was a popular sheathing for the less than grand houses of ordinary folks, and persisted until recently on the occasional shed or garage. Turns out it's getting hard to find.

Mallorytown? Overlapping slate effect

Old house friend Alex recounted his recent experience rehabilitating a log structure - like an archeological journey through vinyl siding to insulbrick to stucco (with its chicken wire spine) to plank to log. Now that's perseverence - and speaks to insulbrick's place in the line of great new ideas for covering houses. Maybe that's one old log place that was really warm!

can't decide - does this house have a future
or just a past?

With the upcoming ban on asphalt roof shingles that I keep hearing about, it's a sure bet that we won't see houses sheathed in insulbrick siding, ever again. So have a good long last look at any you come across! You won't be alone. Here's a link to a bicycle tour of Ottawa area examples, and another link with a bit of technical info by a building inspector.

almost missed this example in Tweed!

a combination of light and dark 'mortar' versions

Stirling

If you find any great examples, let me know!

outdoor convenience near McArthur Mills

Home Ice

I just read with interest (and enjoyment, for I like anything he writes) Tom Cruickshank's article in the current issue of Watershed magazine, about the old Memorial Arena in my city of Belleville. 'Skating on Thin Ice' chronicles the long story and the importance of this arena - as part of the province's cultural and architectural landscape. For Memorial is unique and endangered ...one of the last truss-supported vault arenas in the province.


I have been aware for several years that the building was at risk (empty, unused, ice-making capacity failed), and that perhaps only its emotional connections to many area folks keep it alive. Maybe the familiar analysis paralysis resulting from any hot heritage issue among politicians will at least keep the building standing until something good can come of it.

Memorial Arena was the place for figure skating and hockey playing kids, athletes, and sports fans for many years - from 1929 when it was constructed as Hume Arena 1929 (after its major sponsor) to  1946 when it was renamed Memorial  in honour of veterans and those lost in WWII, through the heady days of the Belleville McFarland's historic 1959 amateur world championship, and up to (almost) the present day.

 (Harvey J. McFarland figured large in my childhood, for he brought the 'victory mentality' post-war building boom to our county, and many around us - in addition to sponsoring this hockey team -which figured not at all... Our dad was pretty impressed with all that road construction, and ironically, in his last job, worked for the H.J. McFarland construction office as night watchman.)
















Cruickshank interviews Betty Burkitt, a well-known local advocate for reconditioning the facility for its intended purpose, who emphasizes the arena's vital importance to the residential and recreational aspects of downtown revitalization.

But what most affected me was a quote by Ann Champion (the L.A.-based, appropriately named advocate of saving of old arena architecture.) Tom ends the article with a quote by her..."Sometimes, we don't appreciate the beauty of utilitarian things." Ouch. That hit home. 

I didn't find the place beautiful, although admittedly, I appreciated the story it told. Certainly didn't respond to the place as I do to a Fairfield or MacPherson. Early beautifully restored homes are the baby seals of the heritage movement. But fortunately, even the most pedestrian of heritage structures has its champions. Though it may not ever bring me to my feet, I will follow this story with interest and just a little bit of nostalgia.

Last spring I was invited to join some friends in the Municipal Heritage committee (as a former member of that august body, and a known old house nut) and ACO Quinte, as they visited and toured ACO president Richard Longley around this venerable institution.  It was a great privilege, and although much of its vintage hockey arena appeal was lost on me, I was fascinated by the photographic possibilities of the place - and the passion it generates in its preservation supporters. I wish them very well indeed.

Do pick up the Watershed Winter 2014/15 issue for Tom Cruickshank's article, and visit the website created by Ann Champion, with its terrific photos by Shaeree Zoll .

Check for updates, for it's my guess that the fight for Memorial is not over.

Gothic Survival II

I started to worry about this wonderful Gothic whimsy at left, back in 2011. Well, I worried about it long before then, to be perfectly accurate, but brought my concerns to the blog back in February and again in November of that year. I worry a lot.

Van Blaricom house 

 Sometimes things turn out. Like the happy ending for the c.1835 David Gibson stone house on Victoria Road, and the c.1837 Van Blaricom home in Sophiasburgh, Not to mention the most worthy and fortunate houses rescued by the dedicated Brisley family near Demorestville , or my maternal ancestor's stone house which was lovingly and expertly restored by the Gibbins family (who went on to add a few rare log structures to the domain.)

the Brisley's Demille House c.1811

Isaac Striker house (c.1860)

David Gibson house

I had a wonderful opportunity to meet the Brisley and Gibbins houses and their people during interviews for articles I wrote for County and Quinte Living last year. The Brisley's enclave features in the Spring 2014 issue; I wrote about the Gibbins' homes that summer.

But back to the little white stucco confection in Picton. The former Downes/Allison/Falconer house has been purchased, saving it from further shame and embarrassment as it sits isolated and deteriorating in its tiny treed park, surrounded by not at all sympathetic commercial development, and asphalt, acres and acres of asphalt.

The lucky house (and by extension, the lucky town, which has lost far too many of its historic and appealing buildings in the past 30 years) has been purchased by an informed and experienced owner and restorer of older buildings. I won't say more at this point (although it may well be that Picton readers know) as I never believe in sharing other people's news. Not until I take the new owner up on his invitation and enter this intriguing old house, which has had such a fairy tale appeal for me since childhood, when it was one of my 'castles.'


The Settler's Dream contains Stokes' and Cruickshank's exquisitely detailed description of its Gothic character, which I will quote with admiration: "The Tudor period is well represented in the vestibule with its boldly buttressed form and labelled doorway, and over the entrance the steep gable, whose roof runs from front to back of the house, has a bargeboard which might be interpreted as Elizabethan. The charming oriole goes even further and suggests the Jacobean. But the chimneys set back well within the building, hark again with their clustered polygonal flues to the Tudor..." (p.227)

The Downes house was the home of prominent Picton citizen Captain John Pepper Downes (1801 - 1878). I have  a set of 12 reproductions of Captain Downes' pencil drawings of Prince Edward County, reproduced by the PE Historical Society. The historic photo of the house on the wrapper would be worth the price of admission alone, showing the picturesque chimney pots intact, and the Gothic bargeboard and finial crisp and fresh. The elegantly attired folks on the front step - and the width of the ladies' skirts, suggest the photo might be from the 1880's. (I'll look it up when I stop looking at it.) The title describes it as 'after 1857'.

Downes was active in civic life in the early days of the town, but to most his legacy is these wonderful prints - scenes of the townscape and important buildings dating from 1847, the year he took up drawing in earnest. There are lovely captures of the harbour, the very English countryside looking hills and dales around the town and views of Main and Bridge Street lined with businesslikee frame structures.

But the most intriguing print is titled 'Captain J.P.Downes' first home near Picton.' Now we all know that 'near town' meant entirely different things in the day when towns were more compact and trips townward were made by horse and foot. Indeed, Belleville's Glanmore was a county house on a self-supporting acreage at one time.
So, is it reasonable to think that this little house with a bank in its front garden might once have been considered 'near' rather than 'at' the Tim Horton's epicentre of the place?

courtesy Prince Edward Historical Society

And we also know that houses were improved and embellished with newer styles during their long lifetimes.
But nowhere have I read what seems to be logical to me.
The drawing of 'Captain J.P. Downes' first home near Picton', is this house, Gothicized. My reason for thinking this is the hip or Ontario cottage roof, over which the peaked Gothic gable is perched.
And the large Regency style windows. A typical 'Gothic' Ontario farmhouse, centre gabled, would have been less likely to have a hip roof under all the peaks.
I compare the photo and the print (which I have just sought permission to use, to help you see my point). The proportions are the same. The house shows in the drawing as dressed stone originally, which evolves nicely into stucco cladding in many contemporary homes (and which return sometimes reluctantly, to their stone origins).

Time will tell. A visit may reveal a bit of limestone under a failed bit of stucco. Or the new owner may know. Heck, everyone may know! I long for a visit to this house, to capture some sunny day photos that express my joy at seeing it purchased and waiting for restoration.