Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (53847)	7/25/2000 8:40:27 AM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

* click on by if if you are bored by discussions of old architecture... (-: I love this stuff. Wish I was there to see it. Wish you could see it too... and hope that some day you actually will. This morning I was thinking about the area that I live in... and why it seems like there is so much history around. It's not because we have large, famous old estates, because they are rare up here. We do have a a fortresses and some military barracks or blockhouses along the Rideau canal system, but most of the "history" of this area is less conspicuous. There are many old mills along the many rivers of the area (woolen, flour and sawmills). Also a lot of stone architecture because of the type of stone around here, and also because the first settlers to this region came from Ireland and Scotland, where there was a tradition of building in stone. And then there are the farms throughout the region... which, while often updated with new barns, the original "homestead" buildings have usually been preserved much as they were 150 or more years ago. Up the valley, there are a lot of log houses and barns. Some of those barns are constructed of logs which are 60 feet or more in length and of large diameter. Hard to imagine that there were such massive trees as that around at one time. Last week, we spent 2 days driving through the upper Ottawa Valley photographing old log buildings. I've been wanting to do that for some time... because I always start to worry that people might start knocking these old buildings down... Fortunately, that doesn't seem to happen very often around here. Anyhow, I'm thinking that the reason that the "history" of this region seems so much a part of the present has to do with the lack of new building in outlying areas. Many towns haven't really changed much... especially since the 1940s-50s. For example, when you drive along old Hwy 2, on the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence Seaway, you will see a steady stream of old Georgian-style farm houses...(approx. 1820s-60s)... 1 1/2 story stone houses... usually with a large fanlight above the front entrance door... And most of them have been carefully maintained and preserved, even if the rest of the farm buildings have deteriorated during more than a century of Canadian winters. They're simple houses, but stately, and many are surrounded by gardens that are much as they would have been when the houses were still new. Yes, there are new houses along the way as well, but when I say "new", that might be what we call "Scotch brick" farmhouses (approx. 1870s-90s) made of red brick with interesting patterns of yellow brick worked into the window and door surrounds, lintels, etc... And then there are the wooden Victorians... steamboat Victorians with gingerbread and barge-boarding... and Queen Annes with towers. In some of the older towns like Morrisburg, Brockville, Prescott, Perth and Kingston, you will see the whole range of styles that existed in Upper Canada in the 19th and early 20th century.... Italianate, Second Empire, Greek Revival, Georgian, Edwardian. You will also find a number of old stone factories or commercial buildings such as banks in the towns... many of them echoing the styles of commercial architecture being made popular in Philadelphia, NYC, Chicago and Boston. Just within an hour's drive I could show you several examples of Richardson Romanesque-type commercial buildings with their great rusticated stone foundations. If you like architecture, you would enjoy walking around in just about any town or small city in this area.... This isn't to say that you don't see much the same thing down in the states... Belfast and Bath in Maine both stand out as great towns to explore on foot and I have spent many hours wandering through them photographing houses, churches and factories. It's just that I think the actual "presence" of the past may be greater up in the Ottawa Valley because the impact of modern architecture is still relatively minimal in many towns. There has been little in-filling in historic areas, partly due to heritage bylaws, but also because builders of new homes gravitate towards subdivisions rather than small town lots. For this reason, a historic town such as Merrickville will still have a logical order to it... The canal passes through the center of town... the old mill and a foundry are located at the adjacent spillway of the falls and old stone locks carry the boat traffic down to a turning basin at the foot of the town where there are docks. From there, the town spreads out in all directions... the a massive stone church, a military blockhouse, and many stone commercial buildings line the streets closest to the canal. From that point outwards, as you walk along any street, each block will carry you forward a decade or so in time as you pass from the 1850s out to the 1920s... and then it pretty much stops... Just a few houses here and there that reflect the latter part of this century. The physical record of each town's architecture provides an interesting study of its history and culture...