The Gothic Revival Cottage

Although my childhood ambition was to become an architect, I discarded this dream at age 14 after taking a drafting class in high school and realizing that my gifts lay elsewhere. That said, I have an abiding interest in the subject. I find it fascinating to explore the different living and working environments people construct for themselves as they work out the cultural mandate. The building materials are largely dictated by what is available in specific localities. But the styles characterizing the completed edifices vary according to the limits of the human imagination.

When I moved back to southern Ontario 17 years ago, I couldn't help noticing that the design of the house shown immediately below, located in the village of Simcoe, recurs throughout the region.


OntarioArchitecture.com

It's called the Gothic Revival Cottage, and it represents a 19th-century attempt to translate something of the English architectural tradition to rural Upper Canada. According to OntarioArchitecture.com,

Many elements of stone buildings in England are translated into wood on cottages and smaller residences in Ontario Gothic Revival buildings. The overall effect is eclectic and usually ornate. The Gothic Cottage is probably the most pervasive Ontario residential style prior to 1950. Not to be confused with Neo-Gothic, which is a twentieth century adaptation to large institutional buildings, the Gothic Revival is a direct translation of medieval details and building practices to the Ontario climate. . . . The basic design was promoted in the 19th century by academics J.C. Loudon and A.J. Downing as well as the Canadian Farmer (1865) where it is featured complete with construction drawings for the farmer to build.

The most distinctive element of the Gothic Revival Cottage is the small arched window above the door flanked by a fairly steep roofline. A drive through southern Ontario will reveal many such cottages, some made of brick and others of stone or wood, but all variations on the same basic theme.

It seems that the Gothic Revival Cottage is not altogether peculiar to southern Ontario. Here is one located in Hudson, Ohio, near the city of Cleveland:


Hudson Heritage Association

Other examples of this style are seen occasionally in various parts of the United States, but they are not nearly as common as here in southern Ontario.