Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 24

Second Empire Style in Canadian Architecture

by Christina Cameron and Janet Wright

Conclusions

The enthusiasm with which Second Empire was accepted in the 1870s is matched only by the rapidity with which it was rejected the following decade. The reasons for this change in fashion are difficult to isolate. The high cost involved in building such structures was clearly a contributing factor as was the notion that "Mansard roofed boxes" were foreign intrusions on the North American scene, "not adapted to our wants and times."¹

One American writer, not hesitating to express his disdain, wrote that the New York Post Office "with its multiform and multitudinous roofs, and its banded sections of ugly, useless columns ... looked as though they were troubled with a continuous attack of influenza."² A more general assessment was made by comparing the roof form with a man's hat.

Give the dignified president [wearing a top hat] a smashing blow on the head and you see what he may become after an unsuccessful defalcation — an unfortunate tramp, who has 'seen better days'. He is a capital illustration of the roofs called 'French', that were so imposing a few years ago, and are about as agreeable in the way of landscape decoration as the tramp himself, but not half so picturesque.³

In spite of this inevitable reaction to so pronounced a style, Second Empire was nevertheless one of Canada's major architectural manifestations for almost two decades. In its most ornate phase, it affected all building types, but especially those of an official character — public buildings, institutions, banks — and the residences of the influential; in all cases, the desired effect was one of conservatism, stability, respectability and opulence.

Predictably, the style tended to be concentrated in fashion-conscious urban areas where the clientele had had the opportunity to develop more sophisticated tastes. Since the style reached the height of its popularity before the full expansion of western Canada, its major monuments are situated for the most part in Ontario, Quebec, the Atlantic provinces, and Winnipeg.

To judge from the buildings recorded by the Canadian Inventory of Historic Building, it is clear that Second Empire influences in a diluted form continued to be felt until at least the end of the 19th century. Indeed, some of the features associated with Second Empire resurfaced in the new context of other architectural styles.