Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 25

Gothic Revival in Canadian Architecture

by Mathilde Brosseau

High Victorian Gothic

The completion of the Ottawa Parliament Buildings in 1867 was of prime importance both politically and architecturally. In political terms, the complex quickly became a tangible symbol of the emergence of a Canadian nation. Its architectural significance may be appreciated in terms of the hitherto unequalled magnitude of the project and by analyzing its intrinsic qualities that create an impression unknown in contemporary Canadian Gothic Revival — an impression full of vigour, colour and character. The site — facing a wide avenue on an old barracks hill along the high banks of the Ottawa River — gave the architects a unique opportunity to heighten the effect of these important public buildings. Set well back from the avenue in a horseshoe arrangement at the crest of the hill, the three buildings are worked harmoniously into the surrounding topography. Although the complex was designed by two different firms — Fuller and Jones for the Legislature and Stent and Layer for the Ministry buildings, it has a remarkably cohesive style, which also harmonizes with the character of the site¹ (Fig. 69—71).

Moreover, the complex is a milestone in terms of the striking originality of its composition; it is apparent that the architects were not concerned about imitating a specific medieval monument or even a particular period in the evolution of the Gothic style. In this respect, the architects made the following comment: "The designers have endeavoured not slavishly to copy the Gothic of any particular period or country but the noble civic buildings of the Low Countries and Italy have afforded them suggestions."² The guiding principle of the composition can be seen more as a desire to obtain a maximum effect from the visual potential of picturesqueness. This is evidenced by the variety of elevation, plan, texture and colour governing the composition. Thus the large surfaces of the local grey sandstone called "Nepean Stone" are highlighted by details in red stone imported from Potsdam, New York and other motifs in Ohio ochre. These colour arrangements, which we will return to, became one of the major elements of this new interpretation of Gothic Revival.

A second innovation may also be seen in a very liberal attitude toward models of inspiration. Thus the Fuller and Jones design for the Legislature combines towers of Germanic inspiration with French mansard roofs (followed through in the Ministry buildings), another tower drawn from the elevation of the clothiers corporation building in Ypres and a library based on the prototype of the chapter house of the English Middle Ages.³ The same tendency toward eclecticism appears in the general plan of the two administrative buildings; the quadrangle plan peculiar to the Neo-Gothic style is replaced by an open rectangle arrangement drawn from Baroque sources. The handling of proportions and details is also characterized by this freedom of expression. The immense wall surfaces of the central building could have been monotonous, but the architects overcame this difficulty by presenting the observer with a composition that is both solemn and vigorous. The elevations facing the street are thus regularized by the presence of mansard-roofed pavilions at regular intervals, but on the river side the composition responds to the picturesque setting with a series of irregular projections terminating with the rustic silhouette of the library. Other pleasant surprises are found in the handling of details. The fenestration of the main building, for example, shows the definite influence of a Gothic style drawn from Venetian palaces, while other motifs are completely unorthodox in their whimsical, sometimes even humorous character.

A brief glance at this gigantic Parliament project and one is aware of the new characteristics that will contribute to the renewed prestige of Gothic Revival during its High Victorian Gothic phase. These can be summarized as follows: emphasis on picturesque effects including the introduction of mural polychromy and a permissive approach to eclecticism.

What then is the explanation for this transfiguration of the Gothic Revival shown in the style of the Ottawa Parliament complex? The answer lies in the architectural climate of the 1850s in England. The field was still occupied by the all-powerful Cambridge Camden Society. However, this group had considerably relaxed its architectural theories, to the point that its model church, All Saints Church, built from 1849 to 1853 on Margaret Street by the famous architect William Butterfield, was in brick (formerly reviled by the Society). Butterfield built this church in collaboration with the president of the Society, A.J. Beresford Hope, an enthusiastic patron of architecture. Butterfield had won the esteem of the Society because he had drawn his earlier inspiration from 14th century Gothic. The church was built on a cramped space that required an intense articulation resulting in lengthened proportions and interpenetrating shapes; the flat wall surfaces had few interrupting buttresses and were striped with contrasting courses of brick⁴ (Fig. 72).

All Saints Church was immediately a brilliant success because it embodied in architectural form a new sensibility expressed theoretically by the writings of the great aesthete John Ruskin, who had introduced innovations in both tone and substance. His most important works on the development of Gothic Revival, such as Stones of Venice (1850-53) and The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) are filled with poetry in their intense, fervent treatment of aesthetic perception.⁵ Ruskin quickly rose to fame in both North America and Europe, and the impact of these qualities cannot be underestimated.

In many ways, Ruskin's architectural vision broadened the horizons of the Gothic Revival. First of all, he made English Gothic Revivalists look to the continent by pointing out the visual potential of the Italian Gothic style. Thus, as early as the 1850s, there appeared a definite taste for mural polychromy (in terms of coloured materials inserted In the wall surface). There is also an occasional return to the more horizontal lines and flat wall surfaces derived from the Venetian palaces of the Middle Ages. As a matter of fact, this is how Gothic Revival architecture was able to adapt to the continuous street façade required in urban development. By thus encouraging a widened range of sources of inspiration, Ruskin opened the way for the eclecticism that is so evident in the Ottawa Parliament Buildings. Moreover, his enthusiasm for applying the Neo-Gothic style to all types of buildings had a tempering effect on the prestige of religious architecture in the development of the style. As a result, this attitude was instrumental in introducing Gothic Revival into a wide variety of architectural sectors. In general terms, Ruskin's influence can thus be summarized as a breath of freedom in the evolution of the Gothic Revival: freedom in choosing the type of building that could be given a Neo-Gothic treatment, freedom in terms of models of inspiration and freedom in the handling of proportions and the choice of decorative motifs.

In Canada, the Parliament Buildings show that this new perception was quickly assimilated by local architects, or at least those, like Fuller, Jones, Stent and Layer, who maintained close contacts with England because of their ethnic origins. However, as one might expect in a country of such great geographical and cultural diversity, identification with this new aspect of the style varied to a great extent across Canada. There is no series of shining examples equalling the Parliament Buildings in the freedom of expression that is characteristic of this stage of Gothic Revival. Most of the buildings reflecting a similar trend are anchored in a tradition that resisted overly ostentatious effects. In addition, budget restrictions often curtailed the aspirations of architects. However, to a lesser degree, these buildings do reflect the same eclecticism and pronounced taste for picturesque effects — the two guiding principles of the High Victorian Gothic.

Institutional Architecture

Let us begin by examining the school and institution segment, which becomes more and more important in Ontario and Quebec from the 1850s onward. In this sector the most striking example of innovation is the project for University College in Toronto (1856-59) (Fig. 73). University College is the starting point in the history of the University of Toronto. Indeed, the University of Toronto in its present-day proportions grew out of this first building originally devoted to training teachers. It was created by provincial legislation proclaiming the establishment of a secular university in Toronto on May 30, 1849. In ideological terms, the construction of the building was a great victory for the advocates of secular education. Nothing was spared to give this building the splendour that would symbolize this victory to all beholders. A prestigious site was chosen and then the commission for the project was granted to one of the most reputable architectural firms in Canada. The architect to whom this commission was given, Frederick Cumberland first made a special trip to England to familiarize himself with the new developments in contemporary architecture. As indicated by the articulation of the south façade of University College, its composition is inspired by the famous Oxford Museum, apparently the only building on which Ruskin actually collaborated directly to put his architectural principles into practice (Fig. 74). However, the prototype was ornamented with Gothic details and University College was arranged with mansard roofs characteristic of the Second Empire style and elements of Romanesque origin. Cumberland arrived at this compromise after his patron, Sir Edmund Head, required that the building be inspired by the municipal hall of Sienna.⁶ Despite, and perhaps even because of the obstacles set up by the taste of his client, Cumberland succeeded in producing one of the first great High Victorian Gothic buildings in Canada.

The use of Romanesque-inspired motifs combined with a composition of the High Victorian Gothic type does not appear to have been perpetuated in this sector of Ontario architecture. In the middle of the 19th century, a taste for the Romanesque had net yet been fully accepted in North American architectural circles. On the other hand, the rapid rise of Second Empire in the 1860s had a greater effect on Gothic Revival works, particularly schools and institutions, in 1865, the architect Edward Staveley included a mansard roof in his Gothic Revival design for a Quebec high school⁷ (Fig. 75). A comparison of this school with the National School built in 1822 in Quebec City (Fig. 27) shows the evolution of Gothic Revival in the Quebec institutional sector. The National School shows the Gothic Revival influence in the form of details added to a structure which was not really different from that of the urban houses of the time. Like Staveley, many other architects discovered the advantages of replacing the gable typical of Gothic Revival with a roof profile permitting maximum use of attic space. In addition to the mansard roof, various Gothic Revival institutional buildings sometimes bore the characteristic arrangement of masses of the Second Empire style. As a result, buildings as diverse as the Brantford Institute for the Blind, Knox College in Toronto or the lavish St. John's College project in Winnipeg, share a similar arrangement of forms symmetrically placed on either side of a central tower with a mansard roof (Figs. 76-78). Others, like the YMCA that once stood on the corner of Victoria Square in Montreal, reproduced the superposed orders that denote Second Empire public buildings (Fig. 79). Also, there are still buildings, such as the Presbyterian Theological College in Montreal, built during the successive stages of eclectic development with a combination of mansard roofs and towers in the Castle style; but the picturesque articulation of masses is nevertheless more true to the spirit of Gothic Revival (Fig. 80).

While eclecticism appears primarily in a form of Second Empire characteristics, picturesque effects (doubtless considered unsuitable for this type of building) are usually limited to textural contrasts. Multi-coloured effects are ignored. In Montreal, where stone buildings were still predominant at this time, there was a distinct preference for contrast between the spilt stone walls and decorative motifs of dressed stone.

Outside Ontario and Quebec, the Canadian inventory of Historic Building catalogued few schools or institutions that could be considered faithful examples of High Victorian Gothic. In the Atlantic provinces, wooden architecture predominates even late in the 19th century and leaves little latitude for the spirit of this phase of Gothic Revival, which lent itself more to brick or stone buildings. Nevertheless, masonry schools of the High Victorian Gothic type have something in common with those of Ontario and Quebec: their masses are clearly influenced by other competing styles. The Fredericton Normal School, which has now disappeared, had a massiveness that was typical of many buildings of this period. Decorative sandstone motifs on its red brick walls appear to be something of a concession to the polychrome fashion (Fig. 81).

Similarly, the Prairies are even farther removed from the true spirit of High Victorian Gothic. Apart from exceptions like St. John's College in Winnipeg, the few large Gothic Revival schools and institutions appear much later than elsewhere during the construction boom that followed the turn of the century, at a time when High Victorian Gothic had become considerably less popular.

Domestic Architecture

The High Victorian Gothic fashion also affected domestic architecture by first modifying the treatment of the different types of houses in the early 19th century tradition. Thus, in the Atlantic provinces, the centre-gabled Gothic Revival house began to be treated with more picturesque effects. This tendency was expressed in a variety of ways: a slow trend from the horizontal to the vertical in handling of proportions, a tendency to break up the rectangular box plan with more and more pronounced projections and also by particular attention to a more dynamic roofline, with more gables and added finials (Figs. 82, 83). In bolder designs, High Victorian Gothic led to new arrangements of masses and slightly unbalanced effects (Fig. 84).

The Ontario brick houses, drawn from the same tradition introduced a further element of the picturesque: polychrome effects. These appeared in the 1860s and multiplied in the 1870s in the form of a strip of motifs under the eaves, window arches that often included drip mouldings, as well as decorative corner piers, always taking the form of yellow brick worked into the red brick of the walls (Figs. 85, 86). A few rare examples show polychrome patterns worked into the entire façade (Fig. 87).

In Ontario and Atlantic provinces domestic architecture, the High Victorian Gothic period is characterized by the construction of a type of house with an asymmetrical plan more in keeping with the picturesque requirements. This is an L-shaped building favouring an interior arrangement with two communicating sitting rooms in the wing of the house. In addition, the flexibility of this plan allows a one-and-a-half storey arrangement for the same number of rooms as were normally found on two storeys and thus save on taxes, since taxation was at that time based both on the number of storeys and the number of fireplaces, in addition to the wall materials.⁸ The first issue of Canada Farmer, published in 1864 gave its readers an illustration of an L-shaped house composition with several Gothic Revival characteristics: gables with varied slopes edged with fretwork fascia boards, windows with drip mouldings and sometimes bay windows.⁹ This basic configuration was very much in vogue in Ontario both in cities and in the country. It included some quite sophisticated versions, such as Earnscliffe, that were usually brick-faced, sometimes in stone or wood (Figs. 88, 89). Around 1870-80, this type of house also began to be decorated with polychrome touches (Fig. 90).

Although domestic High Victorian Gothic leans more toward picturesque features than eclecticism, the latter trait does appear in a variety of ways. The house at 76 Main Street East in Ridgetown, Ontario, illustrates the most common type of eclecticism in this kind of building; the L-shaped plan so popular at the time is recognized immediately, as is the Gothic Revival fenestration. At the intersection of the two wings there is a tower with the mansard roof associated, as we have seen, with the Second Empire style (Fig. 91). In the Atlantic provinces, there is a similar tendency to introduce Gothic Revival features to a Second Empire composition (Fig. 92).

The L-shaped plan also shows up in the Atlantic provinces, where the wooden version (often board-and-batten siding) predominates. Even though this plan was less popular in these regions than the rectangular Gothic Revival house, its arrangement and details were executed with all the inventive fervour of the Carpenter's Gothic tradition, and the result is one of the most picturesque illustrations of the style (Fig. 93).

Religious Architecture

This new architectural taste was quickly assimilated by religious architecture. Unlike the school sector, it was expressed not so much in terms of eclecticism as through a propensity for exploring new combinations of volume and experimenting with the textures and colours of materials in order to obtain a maximum of picturesque effect.

This stylistic change of direction is strikingly expressed in the churches of Ontario, where it started in the late 1850s, accelerated through the 1860s and coasted on for another twenty years thereafter. Toronto played a predominant role in the development of this new aspect of the Gothic Revival and its dissemination through the province. In 1857, the architect Frederick Cumberland produced one of the first versions of High Victorian Gothic in Canadian religious architecture by building the chapel of St. James-the-Less for the cemetery of the same name in Toronto.¹⁰ Creative energy abounds in the design of this building, in which each element of the plan meets a ritualistic need as well as a desire to take full advantage of the contrasting shapes and scales provided by the plan: the enveloping, compact form of the nave, sharply jutting porches, diagonal buttresses and the dramatic sweep of the spire, that asserts its independence by surging upward from the overall mass with a sort of aggressiveness (Fig. 94).

St. James-the-Less is one of the first examples of High Victorian Gothic in Ontario. But its highly refined character also sets it apart from the fashion. Other architects were to spread this new visage of Gothic Revival throughout the province by adapting it to the tastes (perhaps more conservative) of the client. Among these architects, special mention should be made of Henry Langley, who was trained by William Hay, an assistant to George Gilbert Scott on the Christ Church Cathedral project in Newfoundland. In many ways, Langley's talent is comparable to that of George Gilbert Scott. He had a similar innate gift for socializing that attracted a very large clientele, and he also had the same talent for keeping in step with contemporary tastes and adapting them to the client's needs; like Scott, he had a long active life that allowed him to extend his works to numerous towns and regions of Ontario and even Quebec.

In 1865, Langley applied this new spirit of the art to a church design with a basic arrangement still inspired by the small English churches of the 13th century (Fig. 95). Then, in the same year, he tempered the individualistic aspect of the style in applying it to a neighbourhood church in Whitby. This church retains the typical Cambridge Camden Society combination of form and, in accordance with one of the three, practically standard plans Langley was to use from then on. It has an asymmetrical west façade characterized by the breadth of the triangular volume of the nave and the vertiginous height of its flanking tower. The details are elegant without demonstrating the same order of originality as Cumberland's compositions. Also, the taste for polychromy is adapted to the restrictions of a small budget by inserting yellow brick details in the red brick walls (Fig. 96).

Through forty-four years of practice, Langley was to apply the mark of High Victorian Gothic to Gothic Revival religious architecture in Ontario. Indeed, his work for the Anglican, Methodist, Baptist and Catholic denominations was to contribute to the popularity of the style throughout the religious sector.¹¹ In little towns like Brockville, for example, it is not unusual to come across churches of different religious denominations such as the First Presbyterian and First Baptist churches built almost simultaneously in 1878, each illustrating, through contrasting shapes and sizes and interpenetrating masses, the vertical thrust and coloured accents peculiar to this Golden Age of Gothic Revival (Figs. 97, 98).

In a more subdued fashion, the new style of Gothic Revival also marked Ontario country churches which, while adhering to more traditional schemes, made a variety of concessions to the new stylistic pace. The United Church in Crown Hill illustrates the very simple formula of the rectangle and gable roof with the west façade in one of the narrow walls. In this case, the building design demonstrates the evolution of the style in two ways: by raising the basement to give the building more of a vertical thrust and by using contrasting brick colours to accentuate the bay details (Fig. 99).

Either by historical coincidence or through common tastes, High Victorian Gothic thus affected almost all types of churches in Ontario. Such a resounding success could not be expected in Quebec. We have seen that Gothic Revival had filtered into Quebec at a time when the native tradition was running out of breath. Except for a few well-known examples, the influence of the Cambridge Camden Society remained minor and, during the last decade of the 19th century, the influence of High Victorian Gothic was to be checked in the Montreal area by the battle waged by Bishop Bourget to reinforce the Catholic faith by encouraging construction of Neo-Baroque churches.

In Quebec, most Catholic churches that took on Gothic Revival form in the last decades of the 19th century adhered to either the dual tower formula resulting from the success of the church of Notre-Dame in Montreal or the traditional scheme of the single, central tower on the west façade (Fig. 100). The new aesthetic taste was to affect only the handling of proportions and, at times, superficial details. The proportions gained increasingly in height, thus creating the impression of a narrower façade; sometimes, the decorative details tended to multiply and obscure the lines of the building. In large cities like Quebec and Montreal, churches differed from those of Ontario in the widespread use of stone instead of brick, and stone lends itself more to textural contrasts than colour contrasts. As a result, details were often executed in cut stone that stood out against the split stone walls.

On the other hand, the Protestant denominations gave their churches forms that adhered more closely to this phase of the Gothic Revival. Let us consider St. Martin's Anglican Church built in 1874 on St. Urbain Street in Montreal¹² (Fig. 101). The treatment of shape is quite close to that of the churches influenced by Langley and other Ontario architects specializing in High Victorian Gothic: the same asymmetrical arrangement of the west façade characterized by the powerful thrust of a highly ornate bell tower and the same impression of organic unity in its interpenetrating forms. However, like most churches in Quebec, it has a more conservative aspect in the handling of surface effects and it replaces polychromy with textural effects.

In the Atlantic provinces, religious architecture accepted High Victorian Gothic with less hesitation than in Quebec, but less enthusiasm than in Ontario. The longevity of the Carpenter's Gothic tradition may be a partial explanation for this fact. However, where this new treatment of form appears in wooden churches, its handling of volumes is slightly more aggressive and the asymmetrical tower is more widespread. An emphasis on the vertical is seen in the walls of the nave, which are much higher than in the middle of the 19th century, and the sharp angle of the gable roof. There are nevertheless many churches of this type that remain faithful to the local tradition in the use of clapboard rather than vertical board-and-batten siding and the arrangement of the main entrance at the centre of the west façade rather than the asymmetrical tower (Fig. 102).

Although the number of wooden churches remain dominant in Atlantic religious architecture until the end of the 19th century, there is a significant increase in the number of masonry churches (primarily stone, sometimes brick). Local sandstone was increasingly used on Prince Edward Island during the last decades of the century.¹³ These large blocks with rough-hewn surfaces give these churches a monumental effect that is reminiscent of the Neo-Romanesque style of the famous American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Apart from a larger scale and the use of a material that increases their monumental appearance, such churches are not really very different from the wooden version of High Victorian Gothic (Fig. 103). Catholic cathedrals are consistent in their clear preference for the two symmetrical towers on the west façade. This type of church has an abundance of surface details and their proliferation recalls the flamboyant Gothic era in France (Fig. 104).

In the East, the influence of High Victorian Gothic begins to fade toward the 1890s, but it is exactly at this time that it reaches the Prairies. The effect is seen in the new towns that were rapidly built and populated following the completion of the first transcontinental railway. However, the late arrival of the style in this part of Canada seems to have deprived it of some of its finery. The vitality of form that animated the best examples of the style is rarely seen on the Prairies, where there are only a few, almost standardized compositions. The best works of this type (which are often the oldest as well), such as St. Paul's Cathedral in Regina (1895), show a survival of individualistic, exploratory treatment of form (Fig. 105).

The first decades of the 20th century are accompanied by the appearance of a more ambitious type of Gothic Revival church with a heavy, massive effect that is out of keeping with the vitality of form characteristic of this style. Interaction of volumes is often confused by the awkward envelopment of the church in a rectangular block that sometimes houses several storeys. Most of these churches retain the asymmetrical articulation of the west façade with a very broad nave flanked by a tower that is often cut short in its vertical thrust by a fiat roof. Some also have an L-shaped plan with a tower at the intersection; this plan is often seen on street corners (Fig. 106). Apart from the dissemination of a similar type on a smaller scale, High Victorian Gothic had little influence on the construction of wooden churches in small localities and rural areas of the Prairies.

On the West Coast, Gothic Revival religious architecture offers more variety than in prairie cities. There are several faithful examples of the new taste, such as the church of St. John the Divine in Victoria, which was built as late as 1912 and has high-reaching proportions, forms integrated in an organic whole and a flair in the treatment of wall surfaces that were still in keeping with the style (Fig. 107). As in the Atlantic provinces, there is a preference here for the double tower west façade on Catholic cathedrals, as the public tends to associate this articulation with the era of the great medieval cathedrals of Europe (Fig. 108).

Through this brief overview of religious architecture it can be seen that High Victorian Gothic had a general influence embodied in a more picturesque treatment of forms with an emphasis on variants in the silhouette of the building. However, apart from the sporadic apparition of polychrome effects, there is little direct visible influence from the writings of Ruskin, who was in favour of drawing inspiration from Italian Gothic.

Strange as it may seem, the Gothic style, influenced by the Venetian palaces of the Middle Ages, was to be more visible in commercial architecture. Its effects can be seen on the flat or mansard-roofed buildings that make up a continuous street front. On these buildings, the only Gothic effect is often a window design that takes the form of a Gothic arcade (Figs. 109, 110). However, in some cosmopolitan cities like Toronto, several commercial buildings give bolder illustrations of Ruskin's principles (Fig. 111). These examples actually only constituted a tiny portion of the commercial buildings of the period. This phenomenon can be explained partially by functional and psychological considerations. One of the imperative requirements of commercial architecture at that time was to allow a maximum of daylight to reach the largest possible interior area, and pointed bays obviously gave less daylight than rectangular or shallow-arched bays of the same size. Moreover, the public had easily accepted the idea of using the Gothic Revival style for religious or institutional buildings, but this may not have been the case for ordinary buildings devoted to the concept of profit.

The period of High Victorian Gothic allowed the Gothic Revival to free itself from the strict archaeological models propounded by the Cambridge Camden Society in the 1840s to give reign to the growing taste for varied forms and eclecticism that developed in architectural circles through the latter part of the 19th century. At the turn of the century, North American architecture took on a new direction that was to toll the passing of the taste for the forms associated with the High Victorian Gothic style, while perpetuating for a limited time the formal repertoire of the Gothic Revival.