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

Gothic Revival in Canadian Architecture

by Mathilde Brosseau

Gothic Revival in the Beaux-Arts Manner

The object of the last section of this study is to analyze the final manifestations of the Gothic Revival in Canadian architecture during the first decades of the 20th century. This work is heavily dependent on the data collected by the Canadian Inventory of Historic Building from 1970 to 1976; but at that time the Canadian Inventory of Historic Building had set their historical limits at 1880-90 for eastern Canada and 1914 for the West. This section will appear less specific than the preceding parts, since the lack of data gives little opportunity to thoroughly examine all the regions of Canada or all relevant types of buildings. Nevertheless, the Canadian periodical Construction, which appeared for the first time in 1907, partially makes up for this deficiency in that it provides ample comments and illustrations on the great architectural projects of the time. By examining the first twenty years of publication of this monthly periodical, we have been able to establish guidelines that explain the mutation of the Gothic Revival of the first decades of the 20th century and analyze the buildings that are most representative of our subject.

All through the 19th century, architecture in the Western World had been governed by the principles of picturesqueness and renewal of past style. Architects have been actively engaged in reviving the formal concepts from bygone architectural eras and using them to create composition based more on the silhouette than the plan. In the last years of the 19th century, this trend died down; there arose a need for discipline and a return to basic principles governing both the plan of the building and its outer walls. This new spirit explains the enthusiasm of North American architectural circles for the academic tradition of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. While still giving preference to the renewal of bygone styles, the Beaux-Arts encouraged many architects to design the plan according to a strict system of corresponding axes. This concept of discipline arises partially from a desire to emphasize the monumental character of public architecture, frequently expressed by an articulation of rectangular wings arranged symmetrically on either side of a central block and joined visually by a colonnade and classical pilasters.¹

Through the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, this fashion quickly took over the public architecture of North America. The distinct preference of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts for the classical repertoire of forms was to have a lesser effect on religious and institutional architecture, whose inherent functions still pointed to an association with the Middle Ages. Since the Beaux-Arts school of thought was perfectly open to the idea of reviving styles from the past, it was a simple matter to combine the ideals of discipline, order and monumentalism with a Gothic Revival repertoire.

Several architectural firms specialized in this type of adaptation. One of the most influential was incontestably the American firm of Ralph Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue.² Cram, who was gifted with both a philosophical and artistic turn of mind, even worked out an ingenious theory alleging that the English Gothic style had not come to a natural demise. It had supposedly been undermined by the simultaneous occurrence of the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation at a time when, it was still a vital force in the country's architecture. Cram therefore suggested the resumption of Gothic evolution from the time of its disappearance under Henry VIII and its adaptation to modern needs.³ Cram and Goodhue broadened this vision in their churches by using typical motifs from the two phases of the Gothic era that best materialized the concept of monumentalism upheld by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts — the 14th century (Early English) and the 15th century (Perpendicular). Their churches were almost always built of stone and they were characterized by their simplicity of articulation and the preponderant proportions of their naves, extended by a chancel and flanked by aisles and a transept. At the point of intersection, the transept was dominated by a square tower with a low elevation (in relation to the overall mass) and a flat roof in almost all cases.⁴ This scheme was also accompanied by an emphasis on the amplitude of flat surfaces, the visual effect of volumes penetrated by very wide windows and a horizontal rather than vertical line effect. As a whole, these features gave the building an impression of solemnity and recumbency — the exact opposite of the spirit of High Victorian Gothic.

The influence of the Cram and Goodhue firm quickly spread to Canada. This is demonstrated by two large church projects for big cities — the Anglican cathedral of All Saints in Halifax, built in 1906,⁵ and St. Alban the Martyr, for which the plans were prepared for Toronto in 1913⁶ but were never put into effect (Fig. 112, 113). Each is a good illustration of the direction Gothic Revival religious architecture was to take from then on. In smaller churches, several Canadian architects expressed the same concern for simplification by emphasizing a pure, highly geometric arrangement of volumes. In compositions of this type, the Gothic Revival formal repertoire gives way to an amplitude of masonry surfaces that heighten the monumental character of the composition (Figs. 114, 115).

Attracted by the reputation of Cram and Goodhue, some Canadian architects completed apprenticeships in their shops. One of these architects was the young Torontonian Henry Sproatt, who followed the example of 19th century architects by completing his education with a study tour in Europe.⁷ Back in Toronto in 1893, he worked with the prolific architect Frank Darling before going into partnership with the engineer Ernest Rolph, thus founding one of the firms that were to perpetuate the new visage of Gothic Revival in Canada and particularly in Ontario. The greatest influence of Sproatt and Rolph was in the institutional sector, where their first great success was the construction of Victoria College Library, built in Toronto in 1909.⁸

By 1910, their prestige was such that Vincent Massey, a philanthropist and known anglophile, called upon their services to realize one of the most ambitious projects of this final phase of Gothic Revival. The project was Hart House, a building for the University of Toronto campus, which would house all sorts of extracurricular activities with a view to drawing together the various aspects of student life.⁹ The complexity of the project lay in the fact that spaces with a great variety of purposes and sizes had to be arranged under the same roof: swimming pool, library, dining room (seating 350), theatre and shooting range.

The result was thoroughly in keeping with the great student houses that were being built during the same period in American universities. One of these, Campbell Hall at Princeton University, was actually the work of Cram and Goodhue, who had previously made Beaux-Arts Gothic Revival official in this field with their large extension project for West Point Military Academy (N.Y.). With Hart House, Sproatt and Rolph followed suit. True to the grand tradition of English medieval colleges, they adopted the medieval quadrangle plan with the various functions of the building arranged on either side of a courtyard according to a plan that followed the tradition of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Hart House also applies another cherished principle in this tradition: the external disclosure of internal functions. Thus the wing of the building that houses functions of a domestic nature is characterized by specific Tudor manor features: large windows with multiple mullions, bay windows and sharply defined chimneys, whereas the wing designed for sporting activities has a more austere appearance. As a whole, the building's horizontality and its sense of balance and stability give it the monumental effect recommended by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (Fig. 116).

With the interruption of the war years, the construction of Hart House extended from 1911 to 1919 and consumed a budget of several million dollars. Once completed, however, the building was a masterly actualization of the architectural conception of the architects and their client. For the quality of their composition, Sproatt and Rolph received the gold medal of the American Institute of Architects and were awarded honorary membership in the Royal Institute of British Architects.

During the decade of Hart House construction and through the 1920s, Gothic Revival in the Beaux-Arts manner gradually took root in Canadian universities and schools. At the University of Toronto, the second Knox College built by Chapman and McGiffin was a harmonious complement to the composition of Sproatt and Rolph.¹⁰ From the University of Toronto, the style spread to other Ontario universities such as Queen's University in Kingston¹¹ and the University of Western Ontario in London.¹² Department of Education architects brought the style to Ontario schools. During the same period, versions that were often more austere also appeared on the Prairies; examples are the University of Saskatchewan complex¹³ or the Government Normal School, Regina College and Chad's College in Regina,¹⁴ or again the Institute of Technology and Art in Calgary¹⁵ and the Manitoba School for the Deaf in Winnipeg¹⁶ (Figs. 117-19).

Actually, this style of Gothic Revival became so closely associated with the educational sector that some competitions instructed architects to use a specific Gothic phase endorsed by proponents of the academic manner of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Thus the article offered to readers of Construction on a competition for the construction of a university at Point Grey, Vancouver, relates the following reasoning:

Among other features which influenced the final decision of the jury was the suggestion that one of the three distinctive styles, late Tudor, Elizabethan or Scotch Baronial should permeate the whole design. One competitor was thrown out by producing a classical scheme of grandiose and palatial character.¹⁷

Each of the buildings of the winning project submitted by Sharpe and Thompson, bore the distinctive features of the Tudor era adapted to the strict tradition of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

With the exception of the Parliament Buildings, Gothic Revival had not been associated with public architecture in Canada. It may have been for this reason that the classical character of the Beaux-Arts tradition had so much more success than the Gothic repertoire in public architecture, as demonstrated, moreover, by the appearance of new legislative buildings in the Prairie provinces. However, as fate would have it, the embodiment of this new Neo-Gothic spirit was to be realized, as in the 19th century, in the most important public edifice in the country — the Parliament in Ottawa. The fire that ravaged the central building of the Parliament complex in 1916 provided a unique opportunity to use again a formal Gothic concept along with basic elements of the Fuller and Jones composition while integrating them in a new building reflecting the architectural tenets of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.¹⁸

This new composition designed by architects John Pearson and Omer Marchand is a striking example of the evolution of tastes in interpreting the Gothic Revival style. The first building was brilliant in its portrayal of forms devoted to the creation of picturesque effects. It had a strong impact on the observer with its contrasting textures, colours and shapes. The second version resembles its predecessor in its use of a rhythmic arrangement of mansard-roofed towers and similar motifs and materials. However, the overall impression is much more intellectual than sensual: the formula of corresponding axes in the interior plan can be immediately seen in the exterior composition. Like the masonry treatment and tower design, the visual effects have a rigid character that would seem to indicate that Gothic motifs were used much more for their symbolic effect than their picturesque potential (Fig. 120). The reconstruction project for the central building gave the Parliament complex a new value from the architectural viewpoint in that it combines two distinct periods in the history of the Canadian Gothic Revival on one of the most impressive sights in the country.

Commercial architecture was scarcely touched by this new aspect of the Gothic Revival. Rare examples of this stylistic change are identified by a preference, in terms of materials, for smooth white stone that accentuates the abstract nature of the composition. Purified and schematized Gothic motifs are seen in the arrangement of bays and decorative panels on a commercial building in Montreal (Fig. 121), and even by the design of its gargoyles, which are positioned on the roof cornice in a way that emphasizes the horizontality of the composition.

The inherent Beaux-Arts propensity for monumentalism promised a more prolific development in public architecture than in the domestic sector. In the first decades of the 20th century, grand residences with very ordered plans and rather solemn compositions revealed the influence of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Most of these residences were to revive a repertoire of classical designs. The English-speaking clientele, however, was attracted by the prestigious impression produced by the old stone manors of the Tudor era. For these dwellings, typical motifs were borrowed from that period: entrance turrets, crenelations, tapered chimneys and multiple mullion or bay windows. A regular composition was obtained by a very orderly plan enclosing spaces like a cloisonne enamel. These houses made no attempt, as in the 19th century, to reproduce the picturesque charm of buildings made up of a series of aggregated additions. The Ainsley house, built on a vast domain at Eglinton, in the suburbs of Toronto, is a perfect example of this stage of the Gothic Revival in domestic architecture¹⁹ (Fig. 122).

Homes of the substance of the Ainsley residence were, in fact, limited to an elite enamoured with the splendour of the vast dwellings of the medieval English nobility. Their number is limited. At the turn of the century, the trend in North American architecture was more toward flexible, informal interiors. However, there was a taste for combining this type of spatial arrangement with houses influenced by another Tudor style — the half-timbered houses built at the same time as the large stone manors, but for a less affluent population and in regions where timber was more plentiful, such as Cheshire and Lancashire.²⁰ These houses, their exteriors combining half-timbered second stories with brick-faced first stories, owe their presence largely to the talent of Samuel Maclure, the architect who made them popular among the new middle classes of Vancouver and Victoria²¹ (Fig. 123). They are also seen in many well-to-do neighbourhoods developed between 1910 and 1920 in the cities of the Prairies, Ontario and even Quebec (Fig. 124).

After the visual outburst of High Victorian Gothic, the Gothic Revival thus continued on into the early 20th century by adhering to the architectural tenets of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The result is a recumbent, monumental atmosphere after the agitated silhouettes of buildings derived from High Victorian Gothic. As a result of the impact created by the Chicago World's Fair, this change came to Canada more through the United States than directly from Europe. Similarly it is important to note the example of the large American architectural firms, which demonstrated that the Gothic Revival repertoire could be conciliated with the approach recommended by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Canadian architects immediately followed this example. Here, as in the United States, the particular character of the Beaux-Arts manner had its greatest effect on the expansion of existing universities and the construction of new schools and universities called upon to meet the needs of an ever-increasing student population. Its repercussions are also visible in religious architecture — a sector that had long been synonymous with the repertoire of the Gothic Revival. Other areas of public architecture had often preferred to perpetuate the classical repertoire generally associated with the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Finally, in private architecture, this new visage of the Neo-Gothic style affected only the design of a few grand residences that reproduced the distinctive features of the Tudor era.