A Heritage of Stone: Buildings of the Niagara Peninsula, Fergus and Elora, Guelph, Region of Waterloo, Cambridge, Paris, Ancaster-Dundas Flamborough, Hamilton and St Mary's (review)

A Heritage of Stone provides the first overview of nineteenth-century stone architecture in southwestern Ontario. It is lavishly illustrated with photographs of 114 well-preserved buildings selected from thousands of surviving examples. This region has a rich architectural heritage and some of the finest nineteenth-century stone buildings in Canada. Nina Chapple is an expert in the built heritage of this region. Trained as an architectural historian, Chapple has worked for over twenty-five years in heritage planning and conservation and she is the former senior heritage planner for the City of Hamilton.

This is not a technical account of building in stone and there is little discussion of interiors or patterns of use. For the most part these structures are celebrated as beautiful objects and as historical artifacts that embody the skills, taste, and aspirations of southwestern Ontario's early settlers. In its comprehensiveness and clarity it is a welcome addition to the scarce literature on Ontario architecture and one hopes it will inspire further research. A useful bibliography of secondary sources is provided as well as a glossary of architectural terms. An appendix gives the heritage status of each building and its present use. Buildings open to the public are identified, and contact information is provided. The buildings in this collection are already well known to heritage professionals in the area but this book will make them much more accessible to a wider audience. Virtually every one is a listed property but more than a third have not been officially designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.

Chapple arranges the material geographically, dividing southwestern Ontario into nine regions: the Niagara Peninsula, Fergus and Elora, Guelph, Region of Waterloo, Cambridge, Paris, Ancaster Dundas-Flamborough, Hamilton, and St Mary's. These were all places where early settlers found an ample supply of stone. What is remarkable is the variety of stone construction found in this region, and examples range from split fieldstone and cobblestone to quarried limestone and sandstone. Early settlers used stone for all sorts of buildings from the most utilitarian structures to the grandest edifices, and Chapple includes wonderful examples of all types of buildings, many with superb details. Each section begins with a brief summary of the early settlement of the area under examination. These prosperous towns grew rapidly, and in a short time entire stone towns arose out of the Canadian wilderness.

As Chapple makes clear, natural processes provided the raw material for building in stone, but it was the taste and skills of the settlers in each region that transformed this raw material. Drawing on different heritages, the masons and architects had their own distinctive ways of handling stone. What emerges from each chapter is 'a surprising degree of variation, even among neighbouring communities.' While the contribution of Scottish and English stonemasons and architects to the architecture of Upper Canada is well established in the literature, Chapple balances this commonplace with numerous examples of the contributions of German Mennonite and Amish immigrants in the Waterloo region. Connections with contemporary building practice in the United States are also recognized, such as in the unique cobblestone buildings in Paris, ON, linked to buildings in Rochester, NY.

The inclusive stone heritage that Chapple presents deals with a period in Ontario's building history when local stone was used, which begins in the late 1790s and trails off after 1870 when local rail lines and brickworks made building in brick and imported stone more common. The latest example included is the 1891 Town Hall in St Mary's, an example of a town where 'pride in local stone persisted longer than in other stone centres.'

Many outstanding examples of work directed by well-known architects are included, but equal emphasis is given to the contributions of master stonemasons. Wherever possible...