Saturday, October 5, 2019
2019 Port Hope House Tour
Welcome to the
54th Annual House Tour
Featured this year are 6 homes, a log cabin and a church celebrating its 200th anniversary. Enjoy the splendour of each one.
Most of the homes have been lovingly restored, renovated and beautifully decorated by their current owners. Meander through the leafy streets and laneways where these homes are situated and take note of the unique styles and architecture in many of the buildings in Port Hope.
Don’t forget to visit our spectacular downtown core where you can shop, enjoy lunch at one of the many restaurants or simply browse. The Farmers’ Market is also held on Saturdays behind our town hall.
Your support of our tour enables the Port Hope Heritage Foundation (PHHF) to provide the funds for the restoration of architecturally and historically significant buildings in Port Hope. It also grants a scholarship to a deserving student who is entering into one of the heritage trades at the post secondary level.
On behalf of the Port Hope House Tour Committee we look forward to another successful house tour. Port Hope is a “Town of Distinction.”
Home #1 | Circa 1860
32 Bedford St
This stately Victorian brick house was built as a cottage for the owner of 30 Bedford Street to the east. A second stage of the history of the house was an addition to the west.
This 2-storey house is notable for its large bay consisting of large 6 over 6 windows with heavy stone sills and lintels. The bay is topped by a classically-inspired peaked dormer with a semi-circular ornate vent. Original photos indicate a “widow’s walk” topped off the cottage style roof, but it is no longer in evidence. The house is constructed in brick laid up in a Flemish bond style.
A stately Victorian house built as a cottage.
A simple front porch off-centre of the original house is now more central to the overall composition. Again, early photos show a grand front walkway which circled around a large tree in the centre.
The newer but still historic west addition also has a bay with 6 over 6 windows similar to the original house. This area has now been renovated into a modern open kitchen.
The house overlooks a pond system which runs behind the houses on Bedford Street. There is a walkout from the stone basement foundation wall. Notable is a large brick vaulted room thought to have been an ice house. Running through the basement is the owner’s model railway layout.
Home #2 | Circa 1841
25 Brown Street
During the period of construction of this house, owners began to build their houses on an axis, similar to that of classical Greek temples, such that the gable end faced the street. This gave a modest house an impressive front façade.
Given the width of town houses, the entrance was located to one side, flanked by two windows. This clapboard farmhouse with simple frame details, sports an elegant front door with sidelights and classically-inspired columns and frieze.
This small, modest house belies a spacious interior of large rooms with elegant proportions.
As was often the case with these classically-inspired houses, they had a side kitchen wing. This house originally had a kitchen wing to the south, but this was removed to provide parking for the house.
Due to topography, this house boasts a walk-out basement. The basement is constructed of limestone, above which is a wide east-facing porch. As with many of these houses, they were originally heated by stoves from a central chimney, and in this case, the chimney still exists.
Home #3 | McDougall House | Circa 1850-53
202 Walton Street
Built around the same time as the house at 187 Walton Street, across the road, 202 Walton is part of a collection of buildings of similar style known as English Town —an almost separate community at the top of the hill with stores and a fire hall.
This house is brick construction laid out in a 3-bay arrangement with a side door with transom light, flanked by large elegant 6 over 6 windows with wood lug sills and brick voisseurs. The brick façade is interrupted by prominent pilasters extending to the roof with decoration capitals.
English Town was an almost separate community at the top of the hill.
At the roof, corbelled brick frieze detailing tops off each bay. Large brick parapets frame the roof and culminate in four elegant chimneys with rich brick detailing.
A side porch, likely added later, is supported on chamfered wood columns with decorative wood capitals and brackets. The east façade of the house, now mostly hidden, originally had windows, but due to the proximity of 200 Walton Street, these have been bricked up, suggesting a later construction date on its easterly neighbour.
The house has recently been renovated by its current owners, exposing a wonderful basement. Also of interest is the attic room with its original pine floor.
Home #4 | Albion Inn | Circa 1857
187 Walton Street
Prior to 1857, a coaching inn stood on this property. The last stop at the top of the hill, drivers would leave their coaches and horses at the inn and walk down into town.
With the opening of the railways, the coaching inn was no longer needed. It was torn down and the Albion Inn built in its place. Subsequently known as the Temperance Hotel, the building was partitioned into a duplex in the mid-20th century and converted back to a single dwelling bed and breakfast in the 1980s.
Now a single family home, when Kate & Ian Everdell bought the house in 2016, they fell in love with the sunlight streaming in the large 6-over-6 windows (which also boast handsome brick voisseurs), the wide-plank pine floors on the 3rd floor, and the large back yard extending into the ravine.
Colorful and contemporary art adds personality and fun.
The house has a symmetrical layout with a central door flanked by two windows on either side, known as 5-bay Georgian. The brick is laid in Flemish bond on the front and common bond on the sides, and brick pilasters frame either side with a corbelled brick frieze and brick parapets supporting large chimneys.
One of the few properties in Port Hope with heritage designated features inside, watch for the mahogany bannister and newel post on the main staircase, the classically designed chimney-piece in the living room, and the wood panel under the window in the kitchen.
The Everdells have embarked upon several projects since moving in, including a major kitchen/dining room renovation that also added a powder room to the main floor, and exposing the brick wall in the living room (ask a volunteer while you’re in there about why this brick work isn’t as nicely finished as the exterior brick, it’s a neat story!).
Take a Look
Behind The Scenes
Home #5 | The Belvedere | Circa 1850
95 Augusta Street
Port Hope is blessed with having a wonderful collection of Ontario Cottages. These one-storey cottages are deceiving. Due to Port Hope’s hilly topography, most have “walkout” basements, thus making them more like 2-storey houses. This cottage is typical of that model.
Set far back from the street, a row of Japanese crab apple trees leads to the one-storey brick cottage. This modest cottage is graced with rich detail, such as brick voisseurs, and four stately brick chimneys. The dignified entrance has a door flanked by sidelights and topped with a transom light. Above the regency style porch is a fanlight bringing daylight to the attic space and above that, a glazed rooftop monitor brings light to the attic room. This device has been termed a “Belvedere”, hence the name of the house.
Port Hope's hills turn a one-storey cottage into a two-storey home.
The house is a symmetrical plan with a central entrance. Originally, the front hall was flanked with parlours, but since renovation, one side is a large open kitchen and living area. Large 6 over 6 windows light the space and lead to the south where French doors lead to a deck overlooking the ravine to the south. This deck is covered with an awning in the summer, forming a wonderful summer room.
The basement is a charming part of the house. Originally, the kitchen was in the basement, as was the case in many of the Ontario cottages. Now, it provides additional bedrooms and a parlour leading out to a terrace overlooking the ravine.
Home #6 | Circa 1870
95 Charles Street
This two-storey frame vernacular cottage was built with its gable facing the street. This, like the cottage at 25 Brown Street (also on the tour), exhibits the character of cottages of this period in history, which aspired to a classical style temple. This is further developed with a wrap-around porch with classical details in the columns with capitals. A metal roof adds much to the charm of this ground level porch.
Over the years, the house has been modified with a large shed dormer to the west, making the second floor a more usable space.
A generous renovation adds functionality to history.
The current owners have added a large addition, providing a generous great room with south-facing windows and a new walk-out basement room. The old portion of the basement has been opened up, exposing the original limestone foundation. This feature, along with rustic barn doors, creates a particularly charming part of the house.
Take a Look
Behind The Scenes
Home #7 | Circa 1840
190 Hope Street N (Rear)
Behind a delightful, classically-inspired frame Ontario Cottage (not part of the tour) is a log cabin. The log cabin is a 2-storey vernacular cabin moved from Dunvegan, Ontario, north of Kingston. It was disassembled, numbered and reassembled twice to ensure how it would be put together.
The cabin was a 2-storey log house with a main body and side wing with side porch. Due to height restrictions in Port Hope, the reassembled house was reduced in height by one log, making it a single storey house with loft.
The house contains a large music studio in the south portion with high ceilings and generous windows overlooking the ravine to the west.
Practice makes perfect - this log cabin was put back together twice as practice!
The northerly section is a cathedral ceiling studio with windows viewing the ravine. The space is notable for its large circular stained glass window in the gable made by connecting two half-round windows from an old church. A generous east-facing porch completes this composition.
The house has been restored with original logs, traditional masonry chinking and authentic wood double hung 6 over 6 windows with storm windows, made by Barry Payne in Omemee. The modern intervention in the construction is full insulation in the roof and chinking, and modern heating and cooling.
Property #8 | St. John's Anglican | Circa 1869
33 Pine Street N
This year, St. John the Evangelist Church is celebrating 200 years of Anglican services in the Port Hope Area. The first services were held in a wooden building in Cobourg. In 1822, services in Port Hope began at St. John’s Church on King Street, in a frame church building. In 1869, the Church constructed a new building on Pine Street. The original worship space on King Street was renamed St. Mark’s Anglican Church; it still operates today.
The new St. John’s Church is a large red brick building built in the Gothic Revival style, typified by a long nave, anchored by a high brick steeple. Large brick buttresses help support large spans of the nave, and divide it into a series of bays, each containing a magnificent stained glass window.
This church shows unusual duality and a landmark steeple.
Unusual to this Church is the pairing of the double front Gothic peaked front doors, above which hang two Gothic peaked windows. This is an unusual duality, where typical Anglican churches celebrate the Trinity.
The Church is blessed with a high steeple, a landmark in the Town. Over the years, it has had numerous repairs. At one time, the bells could not be rung for fear of vibrating loose bricks. More recently, the entire copper-clad steeple was rebuilt with the generous donations of citizens and local organizations, including funds generated by the house tour.