Ancestral Roofs

"In Praise of Older Buildings"

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

eye contact

also Castleton
The eye is the mirror of the soul, so it's said.
 So too, do windows offer a look into the souls of our buildings.

Castleton, Ont.

















Cobourg
Brighton, Ont.


Brighton
I am particularly sorry to see blank plate glass retrofits, like empty stares, in the walls of warm old stone houses. Then there are the fake sash windows, imitation mullions buried between thermal panes like those odious aspic salads popular in my gran's day.

Woodstock, N.B.

All the historic restoration folk say it. Windows are critical.

Look at these beauties.
Woodstock


Warkworth


Overlook the tendency to overlook maintenance on these problematic bits of old houses. See the beauty behind peeling paint and chipped caulking.
Port Hope
Toronto Cabbagetown







Toronto Island

Lunenburg, N.S.

Niagara on the Lake
Napanee


Colborne

It occurs to me that it might be advisable to overlook my tendency to tilt photos, too.

Gananoque
Lunenburg

Gananoque

Bath














Cobourg

Cobourg

1 comment:

  1. Nice post. So much could be said about windows in practical, architectural, metaphorical and historical terms. As a history-minded person, stories of windows abound for me.....to the point that they've worked their way into our folklore.

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