Old Toronto Houses - Hardcover

Cruickshank, Tom

4.21

19 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1552977315 ISBN 13: 9781552977316

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2003

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A guided tour of the city's most interesting homes.

Urban skyscrapers and suburban sprawl identify Toronto as a typical modern city. Yet, there exists another Toronto. Rich in character, it's a hidden city of quiet, tree-lined streets, graceful houses and appealing neighborhoods.

Old Toronto Houses is illustrated with brilliant color photographs that explore the signature styles of Toronto's urban architecture. It opens with Henry Scadding's rough-hewn log house built in 1794, then progresses through the city's landmark styles: Georgian, Regency, Gothic, Victorian, Greek Revival, Dutch Colonial and art deco. In all, more than twenty architectural styles are discussed and illustrated.

The book next explores the houses of ten distinct Toronto neighborhoods including laborers' cottages in Cabbagetown, Yorkville's Second Empire terraces, and St. George Street's Romanesque mansions. Many of these older houses are beautifully restored inside and out, preserving their original character. Each one is an example of a time in Toronto's richly-diverse history.

Featuring 250 houses and 400 color photographs, this book offers a loving look at how old houses add beauty and grace to modern city.

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From the Author:

To a photographer the delightful assignment to photograph some 250 old Toronto houses, as delightful as it most certainly is, nevertheless presents some specific problems. Several of the houses will, of course, face north. This means that the sun will shine on their facade for only one period of time during the summer. And, because the early light is the most desirable light, it means getting up very early indeed... The very pleasant part of that is that nobody else is up yet so that for at least an hour or so one can drive around with ease and work in terrific 'peace and quiet.'

Toronto is favored with many beautiful, tree-lined streets. The problem that this presents, however, is that many of the trees stand right smack in front of and very close to the houses! In order to get a good photograph of such houses one is therefore limited to taking the picture in late fall, winter, or early spring.

Another circumstance one learns very quickly is the garbage collection and on which day of the week it happens in different parts of the city. As lovely as a well-separated collection of blue-box material may be to garbage collection fans, a street-long line of blue boxes does not add much quality to a photograph...

But all in all, the experience of really seeing such a variety of architectural styles, such a collection of interesting color schemes and so many houses obviously so lovingly maintained has been very rewarding, indeed.

John de Visser

About the Author:

Tom Cruickshank is the editor of Harrowsmith Country Life magazine and worked for many years at Century Home magazine. He is the author of Rogue's Hollow and The Settler's Dream.

John de Visser's photographs appear in more than forty books including At the Water's Edge, Muskoka and Grand River Reflections. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators in Communication.

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