Mini-Mansard

I always feel a bit of 'I'm not worthy' when faced with the imperious beauty of the Second Empire style as expressed in such places as Glanmore National Historic Site and others of its ilk. Of course, that's perfectly natural as that was just the effect the owners were looking for.

Second Empire style was popular in Canada in the 1870's and 80's, so named because it used many of the design elements made famous by Napoleon III and his man Baron Haussmann during the Second French Empire (1853-70), as they transformed much of medieval Paris into those iconic wide boulevards of tall mansard roofed buildings (think: Champs Elysee.) Heavy decorative mouldings abound, dormer windows characterize the style, but what says "Second Empire' most loudly is the Mansard roof - named for French Baroque architect Francois Mansart who popularized the style in the 1600's.

Mansard roofs could be straight, convex or concave curved or double-curved. I've read that many straight gable-roofed houses in North America were remodelled to add a Mansard roof - certainly increased the interior floorspace.For more on Second Empire, check out Shannon Kyles' Ontario Architecture site.

Glanmore NHS, Belleville

I've included photos of a few favourite Second Empire homes, but the real reason for this post is an email from a reader based in Gravelbourg Saskatchewan, a tiny town we actually sought out on a trip west in 2005, because it is a unique French enclave.

Gravelbourg, Sask. - photo courtesy of Jake

Lunenburg, N.S.

The reader sent me a photo of his house, a rare and noteworthy Eaton's catalogue house, a story from our past that I told in a post back in 2011.


 The photo got me thinking about small-scale Mansard roofed houses I've seen in my travels.

Sackville, NB

Although they lack the snooty presence of the grand Second Empire houses, these smaller scale homes made the sensible decision to hold onto that idea for extra space upstairs, and in so doing retained those peekaboo dormers with mouldings.

Picton, Ontario

 There are even a number of Mansard roofs in 1970's and 80's subdivisions - many near my home.

M. Mansart would be pleased.


PS Just came across this mini-Mansard as I was Streetviewing around Lindsay, in preparation for a photo tour on the weekend.

Journeys with John - Second Empire

Cox Terrace (Canada's Historic Places)

It's been a while since I journeyed between the covers of that esteemed guide to Ontario Architecture by John Blumenson. My trip to Peterborough rekindled my interest, not for what I was able to capture, but what I was not, given the failing of light and energy to explore P'boro's rather peripatetic street layout. That building was the rare Second Empire terrace (row) structure Cox Terrace on Rubidge Street. Might be better to wait for a bit of greenery to cheer the scene; I seem to recall the last time I saw the building, it was a bit sad. And I'm happy to wait for my spring visit.


So, for a bit of Second Empire styling. In keeping with the premise of this series, and to ensure absolute veracity, I use only photos which Mr. B. selected for his book. (In a 'companion series' for the blog, which I intend to title 'Wish you were here', I will include other examples of the form which appeal especially to me.)

 This imposing red brick Second Empire home in Mallorytown has all the requisite bits: mansard roof, eyebrow dormers set into the roof to light the third floor, cornice and brackets, plain segmentally arched windows and a tower set centrally between projecting bays. Wonder if the roof is the original slate, or replacement shingles? The boxy white vestibule doesn't do a thing for it (aside from keeping north winds from hurtling into the front hall).

The local history Fact, Folklore and Fiction: The History of Mallorytown, provides the name 'Doctor's House', so dubbed because its late 1880's builder was Dr. Joseph W. Lane. The name stuck although the only other doctor in the house didn't take up residence until 1946.

Blumenson describes the sombre stone version above as "an excellent example of the formal but towerless version of the Second Empire style that most often served as a town or city dwelling" and draws attention to the "balanced facade of Classical details" and iron cresting, along with the obligatory mansard roof. This house sits across from the park at the corner of  King and Simcoe streets, a few steps from the lakeshore. Magnificent.

And everyone's favourite Second Empire haughty lady, the exquisitely restored Glanmore National Historic Site on Bridge Street in Belleville. For a closer look visit the Glanmore website, or even better come for a visit.

Imagine when this house sat on a wooded property that stretched east to Dufferin, and all the way south to Dundas Street?

Frontier Mansard

So, what do we call this? I asked Shannon Kyles, she of the Ontario Architecture website.

Second Empire, of course. We all know, and most folks love, the over-the-top mansard-roofed drama of Second Empire architecture.

This carefully restored brick building is home to some lovely posh shops in Warkworth (Trentmendous being a personal favourite, thanks to personable Dawn and Jim, proprietors.) On the face of it, the commercial building has all the Second Empire wow factors.

But it's a different sort, isn't it?

We all know at least one 'tall' Second Empire (my terminology.)  Belleville's Glanmore is a fine example of the verticality and drama of the style.

I chose this image of a 2013 icestorm adding drama to this elegant NHS, in honour of today's first snowstorm of 2016 (which I am enjoying thoroughly from my cozy spot in my writing room.)

Then, if you look hard enough, you may find 'small' Second Empire. One day last year, I had a look at smaller scale mansard roofed houses, and recorded a few images in this post. This frame sweetheart from Sackville N.B. has it all - shingled mansard roof, a conventional dormer and a five-sided or Scottish dormer, a mansard-topped bay window, and a box bay (of newer vintage?)


But back to the Warkworth example. It's a bit tall, a bit small. The most distinguishing feature of the building, to me, is not the expected SE elements, but that roofline, trending downward from the impressive facade in a workmanlike shed roof. I'm guessing it was a builder's solution to maximize the impact of the facade, and keep costs (and ceiling heights) down at the back.

Is this the same principle as that at work  on the false fronts of boomtown structures in the wild west? Here are a few in a 2013 post, written after a visit to historic Fort McLeod Alberta.



I think I'll call these shed roof versions Frontier Mansard (until I hear from Shannon, at any rate.) There are several more in Warkworth, one I recall in Norwood (photo not available.) Tweed has a beauty. Let's look about, I'm sure there are more.

Recorded late afternoon on a blissful summery November day last week, in Warkworth.  No, really.

The Empire Strikes Back

Second Empire, that is.

I'll admit it.
I have been immersed in early house stories lately.
My visit to the stone houses of Moira, and subsequent virtual conversations with hamlet residents started it off.
Reconnecting with the owner of the c.1812 Huffman-Smith house, in advance of the sale to what we hope will be a knowledgeable owner kept it going.





However, sunny day visits to two Second Empire buildings that I have long longed to capture brought me right up to the 1880s.








Friday, after a great story interview with a couple north of Madoc, I dropped in on friend Brenda for a walk around her historic village - the one with barns here and there in back lawns that used to be fields, the village having grown out to meet them. New bungalows coexist with front-porch former farmhouses in Madoc's sleepy suburbs.


Close by, the impressive buff brick three-storey Dale mansion inhabits the top of a hill; it would loom were it not for the encircling trees which dwarf  it. Its polychromatic slate mansard roof with pronounced cornices and brackets (but no iron cresting, although I suspect it once had some) rivals Glanmore's. Plenty of hooded dormers. A chunky decorated portico. Oriel window. Not one, but two bays ending in turrets. A bull's-eye window peeking through the roof slates. Shannon Kyles reports that the builder was Thomas Hanley, who also built Glanmore.

Glanmore's iron cresting

The website Building stories.com provides some detail. Although I disagree with their assertion that the house is of the Queen Anne style (for the bird-watchers among us, I believe it to be solidly in the Second Empire camp), I appreciate the detail they provide.The steps which lead down the terraces to the west of the house were once part of twelve acres (the family which currently maintains it has a large lot, even today) featuring tennis courts, a bridal path (could they mean bridle?), orchards and a walkway, the whole encircled by a stone wall.

photo courtesy B. Skinner

John Dale, owner of a private bank, built the house between 1904 and 1910, says Building Stories. That's late for Second Empire, which is generally thought to have petered out about 1900. But perhaps style changes, like seasons, come a touch bit later north of here. The website reports that his bank went under in 1914, shortly after the house was completed, and the family left town, later reimbursing most of the money to customers. The house was divided into apartments, and used as a barracks in WWII (probably the finest house many of those young fellows from the township would have seen.) Likely still is.

photo courtesy Madoc and Local Area History Facebook

I just learned of the wonderful Facebook page hosted at Madoc and Local Area History, and recommend a visit!

Thanks to them, I have seen this photo of the side lawn below the stairs, and have taken the liberty of sharing it with you. Looks like a playing field, but the grouping is very formal.

Notice the conservatory on the verandah along the rear wing.

The Official Government Word

 It's time. Haven't been to Ancestral Roofs in ages. Christmas plague. A couple of months busy over Spring and Summer deadlines, in preparation for a late spring junket 'over home.'  Thought I'd take a minute to celebrate those most pretentious of Victorian homes, the Second Empire variety. This in honour of a borrowed book, inscribed "Presented to Glanmore House (sic) National Historic Site on the occasion of their twentieth anniversary 13 June 1993 from Bellevue House National Historic Site." Aw, nice. Museum buddies.



Second Empire excess has been on my mind lately. Glanmore, my 'other' house, was featured in the Winter issue of  County and Quinte Living. The splendid photos of magazine photo editor Daniel Vaughan showed the world how Glanmore does Christmas. I had a little something to do with it, also, she added modestly. In any event, the article (and editor Catherine's pointed remarks) brought a lot of people who "had been meaning to come in for some time" into the museum for all the Christmas splendour.

The book is one of a series produced by Parks Canada back in the affluent 80s. The burst of scholarship and publication arose out of the ambitious Canadian Inventory* of Historic Building, a well that has been tapped for a host of authoritative books on Canadian Architecture, such as The Settler's Dream, a local favourite.
*If you follow the above link you'll see that Glanmore's photo appears. Cred, to be sure.

I've talked about this series before: I'm fortunate to have collected titles in Neoclassical, Palladian and Architecture of the Picturesque (which requires stepping out of traditional 'style' names, a la Robert Mikel et al). I have just entered into negotiations with Abebooks to purchase a "some water damage but completely readable" copy for myself.

Because this copy must go back to the G'more reference libray. The title is Second Empire Style in Canadian Architecture.  The superscript Canadian Historic Sites identifies the series, I suppose, but it is missing in the other titles I own. Here's a review of the series; looks like the total was to include 7 titles. Wonder if they made it. I will check. "Hey kids, collect all 7!!!"

This book in the Parks Canada series is written by Janet Wright and colleague Christina Cameron. Cameron is listed as first author, but I recognize Wright's name from Architecture of the Picturesque on my bookshelf.

Parks Canada is a wide-reaching entity. I despair, and include this Wiki clip for your edification:

The Canadian Register of Historic Places is supported and managed by Parks Canada, in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments and other federal bodies. The agency is also the working arm of the national Historic Sites and Monuments Board, which recommends National Historic Sites, Events, and Persons.

It's puzzling that there is no biographical information about the authors. Faceless government functionaries. They're more gracious. I LOVE that in their Acknowledgements they "express their thanks to the many persons who added pieces to the puzzle with patience and enthusiasm." Among those identified is my friend, and acknowledged local old house expert, Lois Foster.

Another thing that appeals to me is that one of my very favourite (one, I hasten to add) Belleville SE houses, the buff brick at the corner of Charles and Bridge Streets, is the 'cover girl.' Had me puzzled for a minute, as the photo captures the Charles Street facade, whereas the  Bridge Street frontage is more familiar to OEH commuters.

Here's a Streetview view of the side the Inventory types preferred. They missed out on the splendid chimney, included above for your enjoyment.

I won't go on about Second Empire style, or the toothsome examples I've come across in my rambles, because, well, I've already gone on about them. If you've discovered the recently added Search function on the blog, you can readily call them up. If not, here's a link to several posts. Gad, I do ramble on, don't I?

The Empire Strikes Back...the sequel

I know, I know.
The Empire Strikes Back was the sequel.
This is just a rather hokey way of revisiting Second Empire sightings this week.


On Saturday we visited a favourite aunt in Peterborough.
On the way out of town, with the sun on our backs, we decided to navigate the one-way system to find Rubidge Street (it's divided into three pieces, like a robin-tormented earthworm.)
And there, holding its head proud above a sea of tarmac, sat the impressive Cox Terrace.

centre pavilion with convex Mansard

Cox Terrace is a rare multi-unit residential terrace built in the Second Empire style, 1884.

According to the Historic Places site, Cox Terrace contains seven two and three storey residential units (although I didn't venture indoors, so it may be that some subdivision has taken place over time.) Each of the original units has its own entrance.

end pavilions have straight-sided Mansard roofs

We parked. I braved the cold wind, camera in hand, and did not do the place justice.

But neither, in fairness, did many of its rent-paying residents,  judging by the proliferation of bad window treatments and the not at all harmonious business signage.

But they do pay the rent. I hope. And the owners did achieve a fairly recent paint job, and a creditable retention of heritage elements. Well, it is a National Historic Site, after all.

Like Glanmore, it was designated for its Second Empire style - the mansard roofs, projecting bay windows,  dormers both hooded and round, the pavilion massing, the complex roofing with two sorts of mansard roof combined with regular gable roofs with cute little hip roofed bays, between the pavilions. I'll quote this bit from Historic Places: "prominent eaves with decorative brackets, a balustraded pseudo-parapet (!) over the central block, hood moulding over dormer windows, and corner quoins."

I am not amused

Second Empire with NHS credentials 

I recently spent a week agonizing over dozens of architecture books preparing for a talk which didn't happen on 'house styles' (which I tend to think might better be referred to as stylistic influences, given the tendency for Ontario buildings to go all eclectic on us.) Blame the vernacular builder, the owner with dodgy taste who selects everything fancy to slap on, to the high Victorian Italianate/Second Empire piles who tended to share high style elements. Or later additions. Not a bit like train-spotting.

Gothic Revival

This we know for sure.
Second Empire.
Italianate.
Romanesque Revival.
Gothic Revival.
And so on.

I've read that most 'styles' express one of  two polarities - the stylistic see-saw between the popularity of influences from the Classical or the Gothic.

Regency

Greek Revival

Italianate

Shannon Kyles devotes a chapter to Victorian architecture on the Styles pages of her website ontarioarchitecture.com.

She explains: "a Victorian can be seen as any building built between 1840 and 1900 that doesn't fit into any of the aforementioned categories."

Markham

Victorian houses came in many sizes and shapes. A very common form was the L-shaped house, commodious for the large Victorian family and their entourage of relatives and household staff.

Hastings County

She describes that pleasing "mixing of styles", the bargeboards good but not Gothic, decorative but not historical. Gable designs feature not quatrefoils but sunbursts and starbursts. 

Shannon likens the craftsman's propensity for decorating every surface with as much variety as possible, to the Victorian dressmaker's art, which brought the art of over-decorating to heights never attained since.




The site lists features you'd see in any self-respecting Victorian home: "bay windows, stained glass, ornamental string courses, and elegant entrances."


Shannon Kyles points out that good craftsmanship was the hallmark; despite all those details, a pleasing "unity of design" prevailed.

Toronto Bay and Gable

 

Cabbagetown Cottages

 Bless those Victorians. No 'style' identification angst. Just sit back and enjoy them.