Time Flies

AncestralRoofs was the ever-listening ear for my enthusiasms about the Ontario buildings and communities we explored over the years from 2010 to 2020.  During that time I took two architectural history courses from Shannon Kyles at Mohawk College, and several others from online MOOCs Ed-Ex and Coursera. And bought every book I could find. (And still do. Just recently I acquired Shannon's massive informative and entertaining  Ontario Architecture, and I suggest you do also. ) At the same time, I was enjoying writing for several local publications, affording loads of research opportunities. 

Montepulciano, Tuscany

The year 2020 changed everthing. Covid shut-down prevented the local drives that had sustained the blog.  Later that year my dear Denis died. He had been my supportive partner in a long life together, and on so many countryside explorations, my "getaway driver" he called himself, hovering on roadsides while I ran back for good photos of fine structures. Life changed. In time, travel called again, not our chummy rambles along country roads but a trip to Italy, a return to many spots Den and I had visited years earlier, but with a new perspective. The featured photo on AncestralRoofs, unchanged since those days, is telling. It's not an Ontario Gothic Cottage, but an arch in a medieval stone wall in an Italian hillltop town. My continuing travels led shortly afterward to the travel blog Bernini's Elephant and Other Stories.

Just recently, my brother commented on the writing on AR and suggested I keep posting. Then this week I received a comment from a fellow who'd come upon my 2015 post about the village of Moira, and his connection with the early families there. Even after all those years, relevance. And some pretty good research all in one place. I admit I enjoy rereading my writing. I said that?

I spent a lovely 4 days in Perth recently, in a gorgeous stone outbuilding adjacent to a restored mill in a lush garden along the exquisite Tay River. 

The visual treat and the history rabbit-holes made me want to revisit AR, if only to collect in one spot what I learned about the indefatigable industrialist/politician/empire builder John Graham Haggart. His beautiful Regency house in an even more beautiful wild garden setting highlights Perth's parklands.

 

A welcoming sight at my stone cottage stay.

During my explorations I captured every interpretive panel I could about the Tay Canal, built along the Tay River in 1834 and expanded by 1887. an additional section leading to Perth's industries,  dubbed "Haggard's Ditch" by some. 

To the right. the Haggart home, built in 1837 as a hip-roofed Regency style home. The surrounding property is so 'regency.'

Above, Code's Mill, begun 1842. Photo taken from Stewart Park

The interpretive panels recounted the facts, and revealed the impatience for growth and wealth between every line. Resonance of industrial Perth's inner harbour days followed me as I followed park paths and boardwalks. Wouldn't you love to have heard the local debates of the time?

Later I drove to peaceful Beveridge's Locks, which maintained the opening from the Tay Canal, a sideroad from Perth to  Lower Rideau Lake and the superhighway Rideau Canal.

Literally, Beveridge's Locks are a sleepy backwater, and a delightful spot to wander alone at the end of a summer afternoon. The frustrations of driven men to keep this silty waterway open for business, are but faint echoes.

Just now I ordered two Canadian classics exploring the ethos of those empire-building days - Sarah Jeanette Duncan's The Imperialist (1904) and  Frederick Philip Grove's The Master of the Mill (1944) to keep the quest alive.

 I'm hooked. Again. Off the wagon. I have visited a number of great Ontario spots in recent summers, and I intend to share them with you. Ancestral Roofs is back.

Blame it on David

 

In recent weeks, friend David, who is past president of our local ACO branch, has been sampling the delights of Victoria, BC. His many Facebook posts have set me longing for the neighbourhoods and attractions of that delightful city. 

Last night I browsed through hundreds of house photos taken when my love and I spent a week wandering the city in 2017. Seems like yesterday. In truth, I suspect Denis indulged me well beyond his capacity for appreciating architecture, as we trudged through most of the Victoria Heritage Foundation's neighbourhood walking tour guides. It's a time I am looking back on today with a full heart.

Back in 2017 I wrote about our James Bay neighbourhood B&B home base with our hosts the delightful Toshie and David. This neighbourhood occupies the  'home farm' land which provided food for the Hudson's Bay Company fort 'downtown', epicentre of the fur trade in the west in the 1840s.

"The Empress"

The area includes the delighful Fisherman's wharf floating home neighbourhood, Francis Rattenbury's grand 1898 "classical renaissance  Romanesque" Parliament Buildings with their lovely grounds, and the imposing 1904 "Franco-Scottish Chateau style Empress Hotel" among other architectual delights   

We explored the beauties of the endless trails bordering the James Bay peninsula, and ventured into lush and exotic Beacon Hill Park. 

A plaque beside the location where a traditional pole is being rebuilt, acknowledges the colonial history of the HBC. There are many public plaques and interpretive panels by which to inform oneself. 

This  

camas flower beneath oaks, Lieutenant Governor's mansion

Dave Mason post, written about our guided walking tour tells tells the history better than I, as does the book written by our B&B host David Helme. I look forward to being greeted by the new Welcome Pole when I return this spring.

But the focus of attention on several long walking days were the frame homes which for a red-brick Ontario girl, were exotic enough. 

Thanks to David, I am homesick for the houses of the James Bay area, that neighbourhood of vernacular Colonial bungalows, Arts and Crafts and Craftsman styles - and folksy blends. The photos following also capture the rich colour of March in Victoria, sigh, a feast of flowering shrubs and trees and spring bloom, including the wild camas flower cultivated by the Lekwungen people."Such much", to misuse one of our favourite Casablanca quotes.

For architectural details please consult the wonderful walking tour brochures provided by the researchers of the Victoria Heritage Foundation, those worthy documents  my Denis assiduously followed as I darted about excitedly with my camera.

 I will leave my pilgrimage to the Emily Carr homes for another post. 

Walk on.

deer in Lieutenant Gov's flower beds

Are you still with us? As the Staple Singers said, "I'll take you there."

Precisely my point

  I have an instinct for these things. A   mention  in a local tourism publication. An   interesting road snaking along a blue line on the map. NHS directional signage.  Interesting   road names or appealing  topography.

 I don't know what led me to Sturgeon Point,   but I do know what kept me there. Sturgeon   Point village is what people do when they band   together to preserve a way of life, and fine  buildings, from change due to bureaucratic contols and development. 

I assume. I didn't speak to anyone at Sturgeon Point, but I visited the Sturgeon Point Association website. And I wandered some of the charming narrow twisty cottage roads lined with majestic trees, bordering the lake. And I ogled cottage homes from the later 1800s and early days of the last century: simple frame cottages and stately family enclaves set back in wide lawns shaded by enormous pines. And I could see why the residents would want to circle the wagons to limit changes and maintain this lovely summer cottage communtiy. 

The place put me in mind of Point Abino near Fort Erie, which I visited years ago with my dear friend Judy, a fellow traveller lost long ago,  A gated cottage community (irritatingly, owned almost exclusively by Americans) from which we were shooed when we went to visit the historic lighthouse .

There is some interesting Sturgeon Point village history online. The first regatta was held in 1838 - and these exclusive events continue to this day. The point became a summer destination for locals in the 1850s . Excursion boats, everyone in their best collared and corsetted attire no doubt, started arriving for picnics in the hardwood groves near the water. The most popular such event, for a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta performance in 1881, numbered 3000! That's a flotilla of excursion boats! 

The village history site is worth a visit. There's the story of Crandell's Sturgeon Point Hotel, with marine and train traffic bringing thousands to the point. Built in 1876, it burned in 1898. George Crandell's story makes for an interesting read!

In the 1880s, the first permanent homes were built. And that's where I come in. The signage that led me to the point directed me to the beautiful rustic Sturgeon Point Union Church, built 1915. Its history is fascinating, the structure is unique. An octagonal building of Georgia pine, it was commisioned by a Lady Clara Flavelle, and gifted to the community as an ecumenical church. Although I couldn't get inside, the woodcraft is phenomenally beautiful. The website welcomes "residents, guests and visitors" and I felt that welcome as I found a spot to park, to set out on my wander through the streets and along the shore road.

The residences range from tiny original cottages to fine summer homes. All are beautifully  maintained, the roads are tree-lined with views over Sturgeon Lake. 

The whimsical canary yellow Cherry Tree Lodge, set in wide treed grounds, caught my eye. And as I did some research for this post, I learned to my delight that it has a story. Not only is the tiny cottage one of the first purpose-built cottages, and thus the object of my search, but it has a fascinating history. Cherry Tree Lodge was  built in 1887 by artist W.A.Goodwin (no, new name for me also.) The late Victorian cottage with Arts and Crafts influences, "built to evoke the appearance of the large canvas tents campers used at the time" (website) was home to sedate family activities and wholesome local youth events. And it served as inspiration to an artist unjustly overlooked until recently. A grand story, doubtless one of many told in this delightful little community.

So, Sturgeon Point Association board members and supporters, you have a precious legacy and a special place in your care. I wish you success, as burgeoning development pressures build on quaint and character-full places. They come for the charm, and destroy it in the process.