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| Alwington 1954 (Panoramio) |
To young to care...1959 and a building rich in history and architectural significance disappears from my life, before I even knew it. Reading Kingston history the past couple of days, and browsing images, I have fallen in love with the story - and the architecture - of Alwington House. Alwington stood on important King Street west, just a bit east of the penitentiary.
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| Alwington 1954 (Panoramio) |
Alwington was Government House, built in 1834 for Charles William Grant, and leased to the government in 1841. Alwington was the most important house in the new country, in the years from 1841 (the year of union of Upper and Lower Canada) until 1844, while Kingston was the capital city and Lord Sydenham, Governor General, resided there. "Much of the basic structure of Canadian government was mapped out [here]" continues Angus.
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| Alwington - Street side - 1954 (Panoramio) |
Lord Sydenham died of gangrene, after a fall from his horse, said to have been startled by a pile of building rubble outside Hale's Cottages, in September 1841. Kingston died as capital in 1844, when the seat of government for the newly united country moved to Montreal.
I have posted some photos found in online searches. I admit to being reluctant to do so; although ownership/copyright is said to be a factor, most of these photos are well over fifty years old, and as such I believe they are public domain. I attempted to contact one of the sites with no success.
So, this is Alwington. Lost when I was 12, and hadn't travelled as far as Kingston yet.
Today, an enclave of pretty boring suburban homes lays claim to the property. The only dignify left (imho) is the look out to the lake - but even that is exclusive - private property. Look but don't touch.
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| Willowbank, Niagara on the Lake (1834) |
I can only console myself with the memories of high style Classic Revival structures which I have been able to visit, wander about, and fall in love with.
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| Victoria College, Cobourg (1832) |
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| Barnum House, Grafton (1817) |
I lived in Alwington (sometimes called by certain of the family "Alwinkle") for two years in the 1950's. My father saw there could be a fire problem with the furnace, so in the middle of every night he got up to go down to the cellar to do something to it, though I never knew what. It was only a year or two after we had left that it burned down. One woman broke both her legs in jumping out an upstairs window.
ReplyDeleteI assume my father left a notice about the fire danger, but it took only one night of not going down to do something to the furnace, for it to burn down.
I lived in Alwington in 1953 and 1954 when I was a child. My father saw that there was a serious danger of fire because of the faulty furnace. It required him to go down to it in the middle of every night, but I never knew what it was he had to do to keep it safe. Nor do I know if he was able to tell Alwington's owner of the danger, but I believe he told the rental agent. However, within the next year, or possibly two years,after we had left, sadly, the house burned down because of the unsafe furnace.
ReplyDeleteThe house had a central part of two storeys and two one-storey wings.
The kitchen was originally in the basement, which went on for perhaps a dozen small rooms. These looked as if they had never been used, except for one larger room that was tiled all over the floor and walls.
A year or two later after we had moved on, we were all very sad to learn that it had burned down .We felt it had been a privilege to live there for a while.