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Architectural Conservancy of Ontario – Port Hope Branch Newsletter – June 2015

President's Report

Respectfully submitted, Charles Wickett

What a winter! But our 26th February AGM – with guest speaker Geoff Cape – was a won-derful respite from it all. Geoff’s presentation

was engaging and thought provoking and many parallels could be drawn to opportunities in our Town. The AGM was also an opportunity to welcome three new Direc-tors to Executive: Jane Staunton, Moya McPhail and Terry Hill. Welcome! On to April when we had the 11th Annual Antiques and Artifacts Auction on the 26th. This year saw an-other hugely successful fundraising event. Well done and thanks to Joan Tooke, her whole Committee and corps of volunteers for their creativity and hard work. And of course thanks to the generous donors. (Pics page 5.) Just three days after the Auction, the annual Bus Tour – held jointly with Cobourg branch – headed off to enjoy the history and tranquility of Amherst Island and Bath. Thank you so much to our Patsy Beeson as well as Cobourg’s Gail Rayment and Honor Shepley for organiz-ing this interesting and enjoyable day! Meanwhile, work has commenced on the restorative work to the façade of 28/32 Walton Street. In the coming months we have the 8th Evening with the ACO & Friends on June 11th with John Shaw-Rim-mington presenting “Stone Alone”. One month later – on July 11th – the bi-annual Gar-den Tour is being held and has a selection of unique and beautiful in-town gardens on display. Tickets are now on sale at local retailers and through our web-site www.acoporthope.ca. August 13th is the date of our annual summer picnic and this year it will be held at the panoramic hilltop home of Helene and Don McQuigge. More detailed informa-tion about all three of these important and fun events is located on this page. In April 2014 one of our former members and a long-time Port Hope resident, Miss Barbara (Barb) Jones, passed away. Barb thoughtfully named ACO Port Hope Branch as a residual beneficiary in her Will. Through her generosity we have already received $30,000.00 for the Branch. These funds have been placed in a specifi-cally designated investment vehicle and we will work to identify a suitable recognition for her special contribution to our good works. Whether you knew Barbara or would like to know a bit about her, I am sure you will enjoy reading the brief article on page 3 of this newsletter. 2015 – our Branch’s 51st year – is off to an amazing start. My thanks to all of you for your invaluable support of our Mission to preserve the heritage of our beautiful Town.

Contents:President's Report .............................................................1ACO Summer Barbecue ...................................................1What’s Been Happening Lately .......................................2“Evening with the ACO & Friends” Stone Alone ...........3Obituary for Barbara Jones .............................................3Phillip H. Carter Honoured .............................................3‘The Masseys at Home’ Tour ...........................................4A Letter from Akira ..........................................................6House Tour ........................................................................6Biennial Garden Tour ......................................................7

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ACO Matters June 2015

ACO Executive & Officers for 2014

Executive Committee President ......................................Charles WickettVice President .............................Phil GoldsmithSecretary ..................................... Jo MathewTreasurer .....................................Dennis Hogarth

Directors Patsy Beeson ...............................Peggy BennettMatt Desbarbieux ........................Terry HillPeter Kedwell ..............................Moya McPhailJane Staunton

Committee Chairs Auction ........................................ Joan TookeBus Tour, Newsletter, Evenings ..Patsy BeesonGarden Tour ................................Mary Shaw-RimmingtonGovernance .................................Charles WickettHouse Tour ..................................Anna GrayMedia .......................................... Jo MathewMembership ................................Peggy BennettPier Group ...................................Phil GoldsmithProjects/Downtown Task Force ..Tom CruickshankProperty & HPH Rep ..................Ed PamenterScholarship ..................................Trish DoneySocial ...........................................Peter KedwellWebsite ........................................ position available

The ACO was incorporated in 1933 for the preservation of the best examples of architecture in the province and for the preservation of its places of natural beauty.

The highly successful Auction & Artifacts, Apr 26, 2015, with Blaise Gaetz (holding up the table), Peter Duck, and John Matthew

What’s Been Happening Lately

Twig & Found Object Settee by Robert McLeod

Members of the Bus Tour to Bath and Amherst Island, Apr 29, 2015, on the ferry back from the island

The Cedars, a house that was visited on Amherst Island

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8th “Evening with the ACO & Friends”Stone Alone: A visual exploration of the least valued natural resource we have in Canada and a probe into the singular method of best creating a ‘sense of place’ with itwith John Shaw-RimmingtonThurs, June 11, 7pm (NEW DATE)Port Hope Library

Come hear Port Hope’s favourite Rock Star on the subject closest to his heart! While it’s hard to leave them alone, in that

we all like to collect them, play with them, and many of us make things with them, the time has come to appreciate stone alone! With some basic skills, the art of ‘building with stone’ to create walls without mortar has started to take off in Canada. Let’s look at how ‘stone alone’ has been used just in the last twenty-five years.”John Shaw-Rimmington

$20 members, $25 non-members, includes Wine and Refreshments. Make out cheque to ACO Port Hope ‘Stones’, and mail/deliver to 8 King St., Port Hope, L1A 2R4 (include name, email, and tel. no.).

Thank you Miss Jones Barbara Seymour Jones – or “Barb” – was born in 1920 to Colonel Eric H. Jones, DCM, ED, and Madge Seymour Jones of Toronto. She attended Bishop Stra-chan School as a girl and then served three years in the WRCNS during World War II before returning to BSS as a faculty member. Barb made Port Hope her home in the 1970s before re-tiring from the faculty of BSS

in 1980. She became very active in the Port Hope ACO, most notably in the House Tour, encouraging many of her former colleagues to visit our town – her new home. Sue Stickley, a Past President of the ACO, remembers Barb as a “lovely, feisty, articulate woman”. Barb passed away in her 94th year – in April of 2014. She clearly thought much of Port Hope and the ACO, so kindly recognised ACO Port Hope as one of the residual beneficiaries of her estate. To date we have received $30,000.00. Thank you Barb – for all you did – and for your legacy. Charles Wickett

Phillip H. Carter Honoured at 2014 Port Hope Civic Awards

On Thursday 16 April 2015 at the Cameco Capitol Arts Centre, our own Phil Carter was honoured as a recipient of a Civic Award for Community Service.

The following is the testimonial to Phil’s lifework and com-mitment to our town. Phil joined Architectural Conservancy Ontario (ACO) in 1986 on his move to Port Hope. He became a member and chair of LACAC for 16 years and joined the Board/Ex-ecutive of the Port Hope Branch of the ACO in 2005 becom-ing its chair in 2010. He helped create the Projects Commit-tee and in 2012, the ACO’s Downtown Task Force of which he is still the face and champion encouraging the preserva-tion and restoration of heritage buildings. As an architect, he is responsible for the restoration of the Port Hope Library and the Capitol Theatre as well as numerous residential projects. Together, with others, he helped establish the Pier Group to save buildings on the Central Pier, undertook studies to save the Nicolson File Factory and to restore the use of the Opera House above the Royal Bank. Recently, in honour of the ACO’s fifty years in Port Hope (1964-2014), Phil compiled A Reason to Celebrate which acknowledges and documents a half-century of work by the local branch in preserving and restoring the heritage of Port Hope. Peter Kedwell

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ACO Matters June 2015

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On a beautiful day in June 2014, thirty people gathered at St. Mark’s Church in Port Hope, site of the grave of the Right Honourable Vincent Massey (seen below),

Canada’s first Canadian Governor General, to embark on a guided tour of two houses once part of his estate. Batterwood

House and Durham House are situated north of Port Hope on properties straddling the Ganaraska River. With some personal familiarity with both houses, I agreed to be a tour guide. As a young girl, I would visit Batterwood House with my aunt who was a personal secretary to Vincent Massey. Batterwood House has a certain regal elegance of a time past as did the man who built it. Vincent Massey grew up in a privileged life of old money and therefore responsibil-ity to his family, his country and his king. Anyone who read an article in Watershed this spring would have appreciated that a work ethic of doing good for the good of all was very much embedded in the family tradition. In Vincent’s case, he would find politics and become influential in the Liberal Party of Mackenzie King, and with that, the need for a retreat to entertain not only political colleagues but also family and friends who shared his many interests in the arts and educa-tion. Northumberland had been settled by past Massey genera-tions so perhaps was obvious territory in which to locate his country home. In 1917, a good friend, Professor George Wrong, introduced Vincent to the area north of Port Hope, encourag-ing him to acquire the adjacent farm, com-plete with pond and working mill on the Ganaraska River, where he proceeded to build a country home for relax-ation with his wife, Alice, two sons, Lionel and Hart, and his many intimates.

Built in the 1920s in two stages, Batterwood has the clas-sic symmetry of both the English and New England Colonial styles with a central entrance, balustrades, a coat of arms over the door and the letters VM and AM (the initials of Vincent and his wife Alice Massey) on either side. The centre hall (the dining room in the original farm building) leads to a grand sunken living room lined with wood paneling, with formal furniture, a grand piano and art hanging throughout. In Vincent’s day the art was almost entirely Canadian, with work by the Group of Seven, Morrice, Emily Carr, Peggy Nicol and David Milne to name a few, and many of these artists were guests from time to time. Vincent was also the patron of the Hart House Quartet which often performed in this room with Sir Ernest MacMillan conducting. The Library, also lined in beautiful maple wood, housed some 6,000 books collected by Vincent from childhood and reflecting his many interests in history, literature and art. This was a room in which he liked

to relax and entertained in-formally. The north-facing dining room was large and bright with windows over-looking the formal gardens behind and a view down to the pond below where two swans gracefully swam most of the year. Alice presided over this room as

a wonderful hostess, often entertaining 20 or more. This area was part of the second phase of the building and led to many small rooms in the building’s west end for servants, where the running of the house was managed by Anna (the cook) and Mircha (valet, chauffeur, etc.), although Alice was definitely in control. As a child I can still remember Anna making apple strudel in the old Austrian fashion and flavour. Today these rooms have been turned into a lovely bright open kitchen with an atrium much more in tune with today’s way of living. Upstairs on the second floor were many rooms for guests which were quite often filled to overflowing. On these occa-sions, the third floor, which was mainly unfinished, would take the ‘extras’ in beds lined up under the eaves. However, the new eastern wing of the second floor contained two large suites with bedroom, dressing room and bath. One, of course, for Vincent and Alice, while the other was used for special guests, the most important being Queen Eliza-beth and Prince Philip who visited on several occasions. Hence it was often referred to as the Queen’s Room.

‘The Masseys at Home’ Tour, June 2014

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West of the main house is the Badminton House where the family often gathered to play games or act out short plays, sometimes of their own making. Vincent enjoyed playing charades and loved to get all involved. There was also the farm with a number of houses for the employees who man-aged it, the gardens, and the upkeep of an active and successful country estate. As tour guides for Batterwood, Patsy Beeson and I found our group very interested and knowledgeable about the period and the area, which made the experience of sharing the history of the house a very enjoyable afternoon. Tea was served in the living room where the conversations flowed before departing for a tour of Durham House on the other side of the pond. Durham House belonged to George Wrong until financial problems obliged him to sell, at which time Vincent pur-chased the property. Built in the mid-1850s with a traditional centre-hall plan, it once had a circular drive up to the pillared

entrance at the south end, then used as the front entrance. The house remains largely as it was when Vincent took over, apart from several upgrades including a kitchen modernization which conserved the old fire place and bake oven. The living room and library are both beautifully appointed with crown moulding, wide pine floors and tall graceful windows.

(Continued from previous page)

Willowae, 7132 Campbell Road, Campbellcroft, ON L0A 1B0Ph: 905-797-2424 • Cell: 416-457-1205

moya@moyamcphaildesign.comwww.moyamcphaildesign.com

Guided tours by Will Ryan (pictured left), the present owner, and Ian Montagnes, were followed by a lovely cocktail party on the side courtyard overlooking the lawn leading down

to the pond. There Melodie Massey, Vincent’s charm-ing daughter-in-law and a former resident of Dur-ham house with her husband Hart Massey, joined us and reminisced about her experi-ences of the house and memories of Vincent.

Thank you to all who helped to make the day a perfect afternoon of history, architecture and camaraderie. Dale Hodge

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ACO Matters June 2015

A Letter from Akira, Our Student in London, England, to Trish Doney

It’s about half way into my heritage stone carving program here and I’ve been meaning to write an update of my prog-ress and my time here at City and Guilds, so here it is:

This may sound odd and I don’t mean this as a complaint but rather an observation; I was a bit surprised in my first term at how difficult it was to find time to carve stone. I was aware before classes began that the majority of our time would be spent with observational drawing, clay modeling, letter carv-ing, and art history. What I didn’t expect was that my time after class, which I had assumed I would use for stone carving, would be taken up by life drawing, anatomy lectures, and les-sons on British architecture. This left only time for one stone carving project for the first term. I understood that these courses aid in the skills essential to the foundations of stone carving and sculpture and this became very clear when the rigorous observational drawing of ornaments and life, the manipulation of light and shadow in clay modeling, and after-school life drawing started to have a noticeable effect on my carving in the second term. Additionally I was surprised at the strong sense of com-munity and how helpful many of the fellow students were. Students from different departments were always willing to discuss their work, and many in the second years were happy to help the new students get acquainted with the school and stu-dio, and on multiple occasions helped me get acquainted with London and the arduous task of finding a flat. The small school environment and class sizes definitely contribute to this and allow for ideas and knowledge to be shared among like-minded individuals, creating a very enjoyable dynamic at the City and Guilds campus. This heritage stone carving program is unique and from what I have learned about other carving programs in the UK, none of the other schools offer the courses taught, or by tutors with such a wide range of professional backgrounds, in an en-vironment that is not limited to stone carving. I feel extremely privileged to have this opportunity to take this program. And with the generous grant from the ACO I have been able to utilize the school space from open to close for about 11 hours a day and attend extra curricular lectures and events. If you or anyone else from ACO are ever in the London area please do let me know. I would be very happy to show you around the City and Guilds campus. All the best, Akira

House Tour

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary House Tour, the Port Hope House Tour Committee is holding a TWO DAY EVENT on Saturday, October 3rd and Sunday October

4th. Each day will showcase different historically significant houses. Tickets for this spectacular tour will be available in retail outlets in July in Port Hope, Cobourg, Peterborough and Whitby as well as on line at our website at www.acoporthope.ca. The House Tour Committee has also planned a Reception and Talk in the Sculthorpe Theatre, in the Capitol Theatre, after the Saturday, October 3rd Tour to begin at 4:15 PM fol-lowed by a presentation by Shannon Kyles. Ms Kyles is a Pro-fessor of Architecture at Mohawk College where her focus is on the History of Ontario Architecture and History of Western Architecture. Professor Kyles is also a columnist, appearing bi-monthly on CBC’s weekend programme Fresh Air. In her talk “The Changing Face of Restoration” she will discuss changing attitudes towards restorations, the importance of events such as Doors Open and show photographs of the many beautiful buildings that are being restored east of Toronto. To learn more about Shannon Kyles, please visit her website at www.ontario-architecture.com. A limited number of tickets for this event will be sold at $20 per person which includes cocktail food but a cash bar. Purchases may be made through our website at www.aco-porthope.ca using PayPal or by contacting Kathy Kobelski at 905-885-7971 PLEASE mark your calendars, purchase your tickets and join us for this exciting weekend event. Anna Gray Chair, House Tour Committee2015 HOUSE TOUR VOLUNTEER ALERT Because the 2015 ACO Port Hope House Tour on October 3-4th is a two day event with a magnificent list of houses for both days we will need an equally magnificent list of vol-unteers to man the houses. PLEASE mark your calendars, prepare to volunteer for whatever shift(s) you can manage and recruit your friends and relatives as well. Volunteers are VITALLY IMPORTANT to the success of this major event which raises funds for our on-going remediation work in Port Hope. Peggy Bennett or someone from her recruitment team will be calling you in July to ask for your help. If you need information about this year’s House Tour, please call the chair, Anna Gray at 905-885-7949 or Peggy Bennett at 905-885-7802.

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This summer the Garden Tour Committee is delighted to present ten lovely town gardens all within easy walking distance of one another. As with the remarkable inven-

tory of handsome homes presented each fall during the annual house tour, Port Hope has a wealth of exceptional gardens. The gardens are chosen for many reasons, among them the ways in which they differ from one another in size, age, style or purpose. We hope these lovely properties will inspire and captivate you! One is an 1860s home set on a large corner lot featuring original white pine, spruce, butternut, walnut and Norway spruce as well as recent stone features. Further down Bramley Street, you’ll find a beautifully designed one across the street from the exuberant family garden of one of Port Hope’s finest artists. Also very appealing are a new formal garden inspired by European principals and an old estate property featuring garden rooms with tennis court and pool. Toward the bottom of Dorset Street West you can stroll from one to another of a cluster of five gardens. On the south side two quite separate ones, designed and gardened by the same couple, show how an identical space can be treated quite differently. On the north side are three neighbouring gardens, each with a level street front sloping steeply downwards at the back. The last garden around the corner features both new and established ideas. As the owner says, “The old gardens are embracing the new.”

Patrick + Dee McGeeSales Representatives

We Specialize in“Unique” Properties

Chestnut Park Real Estate Limited, Brokerage

905-800-0321mail@mcgees.ca www.mcgees.ca

The Biennial Garden TourSaturday, July 11, 2015, 10 am–4pm

In addition to the gardens, we would also like to draw your attention to a public installation just off Dorset Street on Catherine Street. The Farley Mowat Boat-Roofed House was built in 2006 during the well-loved local author’s lifetime by an international team of professionals. Inspired by one of Farley’s later books, it stands as a “bookmark in stone” to his continued influence in the new millennium. The hope is that this monu-ment will be moved to a more public site in the years to come. A garden plate and dessert lunch is available on tour day at the Port Hope United Church for $12. This is a fundraiser for the church. Garden Tour tickets ($25) are available locally as well as through the ACO website by mail order or Paypal.

* * * The garden committee would also like to invite you to a second event the day of the tour. A wine and hors d’oeuvres reception will be held in one of the featured gardens from 5-7pm. Our guests will be Helen and Sarah Battersby, the well-know Toronto garden experts and bloggers (http://toronto-gardens.blogspot.ca) who are familiar with the garden and will lead a walk-through of the property. Tickets for the reception are available locally at 905-885-5778.

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ACO Matters June 2015

ARCHiTECTURAL CONSERVANCy OF ONTARiO PORT HOPE BRANCH

MEMBERSHiP APPLiCATiON FORMPlease enroll me as a member of the Port Hope Branch of the Architectural Conser-vancy of Ontario. I have indicated below my/our applicable membership category.

Name(s): ___________________________________________________

Address: ___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

Telephone: __________________________________________________

E-Mail: ____________________________________________________

Individual Member: $35 ___________

Household Membership: $40 ___________

Student: $12 ___________

Total Enclosed: ___________

House Tour Volunteer □ Receiving ACO Matters by email

□

Garden Tour Volunteer □ Antiques & Artifacts Volunteer □Web Site Design & Maintenance□ Publicity / Public Relations □Design & Mounting Displays / Outreach

□

Please fill out this form and mail it with your cheque to:

ACO–Port Hope Branch PO Box 563, Port Hope, Ont. L1A 3Z4

www.ACOPortHope.ca

905-396-731326 Bramley St N , Port Hope, ON L1A 1V3

www.etextimage.com patricia@etextimage.com

Patricia McCawGrAPHiC & WeB DeSiGN; WeBSite HOStiNG

The Friends of Wesleyville Village invite ACO members, friends and family to their 2015 events at the Wesleyville Church, 2082 Lakeshore Road, Port Hope.

Country Market and Nature Fest – Sunday, June 7th, 10 am – 4 pm Step inside Sunday – Sundays in July – Drop in at the Church. Open Noon to 4 pm Keynote Barbeque – Saturday, August 8th, 5:30 pm Churchyard Ghostly Visit – Saturday evening, October 24th, 6 – 8 p.m.Yuletide Carolling – Friday, December 4th, 7 p.m.The FOWV would also like to thank the ACO and its members for their ongoing support of Wesleyville Village conservation and revitalization.

MAJOR UPCOMiNG EVENTS‘STONE ALONE’, with John Shaw-Rimmington

Thursday, June 11th (see p.3 ) GARDEN TOUR

Saturday July 11th (see p.7 )SUMMER BARBECUE

Thursday August 13th (see p.1 )PORT HOPE FAiR BOOTH September 18th, 19th, 20th

HOUSE TOUR Saturday, October 3-4 (see p.6 )