Friday, July 19, 2013

WILLIAM PRING HOUSE CIRCA 1855


158 Mary Street, Hamilton, Ontario
William Pring, appointed Surveyor of Customs in 1851, had this house built in 1855 for himself and his family. At the time Mary Street was a major artery down to the east docks, warehouses, custom house, and old Port Hamilton on Burlington Bay.


The location was ideal for William Pring. It was close to the harbour and the customs office thought to have been in the post office on James Street North. When Pring had his fine stone home built, he had a view to the east of the Ferguson family farm that extended from Rebecca Street to the bay. He saw a growing city full of optimism in all other directions.
          
Margaret Houghton, archivist at the Hamilton Public Library, says Mary Street is one of the oldest in the city. “Some of the notable institutions along the street included the Lyric Theatre, Chipman Holton, Malcolm and Souter furniture manufacturers, Hamilton Cotton and the Canadian Knitting Company.”

A city heritage designation in 1991 recognized the William Pring House as a rare example of pre-Confederation stone architecture in Hamilton.


FRESH FEATURES:
  • The nine-foot ceilings
  • Eight fireplaces
  • Three-story spiral staircase with turned banister.
  • Wondrous curved panelled doors
  • Thick limestone walls
  • Renaissance Revival entrance
  • Finely detailed shutters














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David Cuming, who manages heritage planning for MHBC, an urban design and landscape architecture firm in Kitchener, says the interior woodwork of the Pring house is on par with the finest examples of pre-Confederation architecture in the province, including the Ruthven Estate in Cayuga.                         
Ruthven Estate, Cayuga, Ontario
                                        
FRESH FACT:
Sold in January 2012 after being listed for 1-week for $349,800. The new owners converted the home into a hostel for backpackers called the Hamilton Guesthouse. Click here for details.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

1930s PIGOTT BUILT



1 St. James Place Hamilton, Ontario
Landmark home in the heart of the Durand neighbourhood. Built in the 1930s by the Pigott family (see below history).


In 1927 the city of Stuttgart hosted the White Housing show. The structural and stylistic innovations on display penetrated everywhere - even to remote Hamilton, Ontario, where the Pigott Construction Company offered a line of "Better Built" homes: white painted stucco, flat roofs, concrete stairs, steel window sashes and all (as seen with 1 St. James Place) .

NOW FOR SALE with Joyce Hodgskiss & Ken Rossiter of Coldwell Banker. Click here to view the listing. Offered at $619,900.

History: Pigott Construction
Joseph M. Pigott was a prominent Canadian businessman, who jointly ran Pigott Construction Company, responsible for some of Canada's largest industrial plants and finest buildings.

He was born in Hamilton, Ontario on February 23, 1885, the son of a prominent Irish contractor (Michael Pigott, himself the founder of Pigott Construction Co. and the son of an Irish farmer who emigrated to Canada and settled near Guelph).

In 1903 he began working for his father's construction company. In 1909 Pigott travelled to Saskatchewan with his younger brother Roy where they secured a large contract to build St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon.

Together the brothers would direct Pigott Construction to fortune and fame. Roy looked after the engineering and Joseph took care of the business administration. The first $1,000,000 year came in 1926, and in 1930, Hamilton's earliest skyscraper, the 16-storey Pigott Building, was completed.
After the Second World War, Pigott Construction was Canada's largest privately owned construction company, amassing more than $113,000,000 in business in a single year.

 Pigott built some of Canada's largest industrial plants and finest buildings: the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; Crown Life Insurance Company head office, Toronto; Bank of Canada, Ottawa; a plant for General Motors, Oshawa, and buildings for A. V. Roe Company in Malton. In Hamilton, buildings built by his firm included: the Canadian Westinghouse offices, Banks of Nova Scotia, Royal and Montreal, McMaster University, the County Court House, Westdale Secondary School, St. Joseph's Hospital, the Pigott Building, the new City Hall and the Cathedral of Christ the King.





Joseph Pigott's Home -  358 Bay Street South, Hamilton, Ontario
The home was built for Joseph Pigott, President of Pigott Construction, in the Tudor revival style. It was designed by William Souter, architect of the Cathedral of Christ the King on King Street West. Souter's own home was around the corner at 108 Aberdeen (see below).



William Souter's home - Burnewin, 108 Aberdeen Avenue, Hamilton, Ontario circa 1932
The home was designed by architect William Souter as his own residence. It is made of stone and was constructed at the same time as the Souter-designed Cathedral of Christ the King was being built in west Hamilton. Originally, Souter intended to purchase the house immediately to the east, tear it down, and convert its lot into his front garden entrance on Bay Street South. It's for this reason the front door of the house faces east and not onto Aberdeen Avenue.

FRESH FACT: Sold  about 3 years ago for $1.2 million


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Friday, July 12, 2013

REGENCY COTTAGE CIRCA 1846



35 Cross Street, Dundas Ontario, circa 1846
Wood-Dale, the Regency cottage of Lt.Col. Thomas Howard McKenzie, built in 1846. Born in Scotland about 1811, McKenzie was one of the biggest merchants in Dundas, buying and selling pork by the hundreds of tons. His sales exceeded $1 million in his best year. He commanded a company in the 1837 Rebellion and was later Lt. Col. in the Wentworth Regiment. He was Mayor from 1859 to 1861.
This is one of my favourite houses in Dundas. View the photos below and you'll see why. Bad news is it sold a few years ago - in the high  $800s I believe...

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