NATION BUILDING: GOTHIC REVIVAL HOUSES in UPPER CANADA and CANADA WEST, C.1830–1867
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NATION BUILDING: GOTHIC REVIVAL HOUSES IN UPPER CANADA AND CANADA WEST, c.1830–1867 JESSICA MACE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN VISUAL ART AND ART HISTORY YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO MARCH 2015 © JESSICA MACE, 2015 ABSTRACT The Gothic Revival is, without question, the most influential architectural movement to have ever come out of England. Its effects on houses, and colonial houses, in particular, however, have been little studied. Nation building: Gothic Revival houses in Upper Canada and Canada West, c.1830–67 examines the Gothic Revival houses built in the English colony of Upper Canada and Canada West prior to Confederation in 1867 in order to contextualize them and to give this category of housing the academic attention it merits. Using the buildings themselves as well as architectural drawings, plans, and archival photographs, this dissertation reveals and contextualizes the houses of pre–Confederation Canada within the broader scope of Western architectural history. The houses are divided into temporal and theoretical categories, examining the chronological spread of the style as well the means by which it was employed; namely, through architects and publications. Beyond formal analysis of the objects themselves, then, the influence of British and American precedents is examined from the mid–eighteenth century through to the late 1860s, as well as the dissemination of these ideas to the colony through a variety of conduits such as architects, publications and popular aesthetic theories. This study also explores the rise of the architectural practice in the colony and the resulting eventual spread of the architectural vocabulary of the Gothic style into vernacular housing. Likewise examined are the multiple identities and associations produced by the Gothic style as applied to designs for houses, both on paper and as actually built. This study is the first of its kind, providing not only a comprehensive examination of the houses themselves, but the diverse theories, influences and cultural meanings behind them as well. In short, this dissertation establishes the framework for the academic discussion of these houses by rigorously contextualizing them within existing architectural histories. Overall, it exposes these houses as valid cultural objects and as an important part in the formation of Canada’s built heritage. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my doctoral supervisor, Malcolm Thurlby, whose boundless support and encouragement enabled me to complete this this dissertation. Thank you for so generously providing me with your wisdom, innumerable opportunities, and, of course, photographs. Your enthusiasm for my work and in your guidance in general has been truly inspirational. I will forever strive to be the type of mentor that you are to me. Thank you to my committee members, Peter Coffman and Richard Hill, for your feedback and advice, particularly when I dumped large portions of my work on your plates at the most inopportune of moments. Thanks, too, to both of you for your kind advice and words of wisdom throughout my time as a student. I would like to express my thanks to Luc Noppen and Lucie Morisset for their unbelievably generous support of my work. I would also like to thank them for encouraging me to pursue areas of study outside of my dissertation research, which has provided me with many great experiences as well as new perspectives into this project. Thank you both for all of the unexpected and unforgettable opportunities that are more valuable to me than you will ever know. Relatedly, I would also like to thank the Canadian Forum for Public Research on Heritage and the Chaire de Recherche du Canada en patrimoine urbain of the École des sciences de la gestion at l’Université du Québec à Montréal for their support in assisting my travel to numerous conferences both nationally and internationally. I would not have been able to attend these events without their help and my work has developed in large part because of these experiences. I would like to thank both Sarah Parsons and Dawn Burns for their never–ending encouragement, their willingness to lend a sympathetic ear and for helping me to navigate the intricacies of York’s funding and administrative structure. I am grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and the St George’s Society of Toronto for supporting my research at various stages throughout my degree. My friends and family saw me through the highs and lows and made sure that I always remained sane. Thank you all for this and for at least feigning interest in what I was working on. And finally, but perhaps most of all, I would like to thank Dan for his unwavering belief in me, for his endless support throughout this entire process and for always knowing the precise moment when a drink needed to be poured. Thank you for being my second biggest fan and for bragging about me to anyone who would listen. This would not have been possible without you. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract............................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgments..........................................................................................................................iii Table of Contents............................................................................................................................iv List of Figures..................................................................................................................................v Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: The early Gothic Revival.........................................................................................10 Section A: A brief overview of eighteenth– and early–nineteenth–century English Gothic houses.................................................................................................................................10 Section B: Early Gothic Revival houses in Upper Canada................................................25 Chapter Two: Pattern books...........................................................................................................56 Section A: The history of pattern books in England and the United States.......................56 Section B: Pattern books in Canada West..........................................................................82 Chapter Three: Pugin and architects working in Canada West between 1841 and 1853.............119 Section A: English influences beginning in 1836............................................................119 Section B: Architects in Canada West, 1841–53..............................................................137 Chapter Four: Post–Pugin England and architects working in Canada West between 1853 and 1867..............................................................................................................................................183 Section A: English precedent after Pugin........................................................................183 Section B: Architects in Canada West, 1853–67..............................................................197 Chapter Five: Cottages and farmhouses in the Gothic style, 1864 and beyond..........................248 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................265 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................270 iv LIST OF FIGURES Chapter One: The early Gothic Revival Figure 1.1: Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, London, exterior, photograph by Jessica Mace Figure 1.2: Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, London, entrance, photograph by Jessica Mace Figure 1.3: Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, London, gallery, photograph by Jessica Mace Figure 1.4: Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, London, library, photograph by Jessica Mace Figure 1.5: Lee Priory, Kent, south west view, John Preston Neale, Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, Second Series, Vol. II. Figure 1.6: Lee Priory, Kent, John Preston Neale, Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, Second Series, Vol. II., 1825 Figure 1.7: Reconstruction of a room from Lee Priory, Kent, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, photograph by Jessica Mace Figure 1.8: Fonthill Abbey, John Rutter, Delineations of Fonthill and its Abbey, plate XI, p.66 Figure 1.9: Fonthill Abbey, interior of the great western hall, John Rutter, Delineations of Fonthill and its Abbey, plate IV, p.24 Figure 1.10: Downton Castle, Herefordshire, John Preston Neale, Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, Second Series, Vol. III., 1826 Figure 1.11: Chiswick House, London, photograph by Jessica Mace Figure 1.12: Kedleston Hall, near Quarndon, Derbyshire, photograph by Jessica Mace Figure 1.13: Kedleston Hall, near Quarndon, Derbyshire, garden facade, photograph by Jessica Mace Figure 1.14: Luscombe Castle, Devon, John Preston Neale, Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, Vol.1,