The Buildings of Canada : A Guide to Pre-20th Century Styles in Houses, Churches and other Structures

A fine clean copy, appears almost unread. 13 pp. A note on the publishing history is needed before the description. The book was written by Barbara A. Humphreys and Meredith Sykes, with illustrations by Michael Middleton, and was originally published by Reader's Digest as part of the book Explore Canada before being issued by Parks Canada as a standalone publication. The Parks Canada edition carries the imprint of Environment Canada and the date 1974 in some library records, with a revised and expanded edition appearing in 1980, also under Parks Canada, with the ISBN 0-660-50200-2, running to 116 pages in softcover. A 1986 PDF edition is held by Government of Canada Publications. The edition most commonly encountered in the secondhand book trade is the 1974 or 1980 Parks Canada softcover. The Archivaria review of the book, written by Harold Kalman, appeared in 1978, placing the first Parks Canada standalone edition before that date. Barbara A. Humphreys (1919–2017) was a Saskatchewan-born Canadian architect and specialist in historic preservation who founded and served as chief of the Canadian Inventory of Historic Buildings — a Parks Canada initiative begun in 1970 to identify buildings of historical and architectural significance across the country. Her co-author Meredith Sykes worked alongside her in the same program. The book grew directly out of that inventory work and was designed to make its classificatory framework useful to the general public. The book's purpose is stated plainly in its foreword: the Canadian Inventory of Historic Buildings is an ongoing computer-based survey to locate a valid sample of surviving historic buildings throughout Canada, primarily designed to provide data enabling the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada to judge the significance of individual buildings and compare them with others of similar style and value. The Buildings of Canada was intended to place the Inventory's classification system in the hands of anyone who shared a concern for Canadian heritage — architects, historians, urban planners, preservationists, and interested members of the public alike. The book is organized as a pictorial field guide to pre-twentieth-century architectural styles as they manifest in Canada, moving from the earliest colonial and vernacular forms through the major revival styles of the nineteenth century. The styles covered include French Régime, British colonial, Georgian, Neo-Classical, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Romanesque Revival, and Queen Anne, among others, with each style identified by its characteristic features as they appear in houses, churches, commercial buildings, and other structures. Michael Middleton's line drawings are integral to the identification function of the book, providing clear visual reference for the diagnostic features — window forms, rooflines, decorative elements, massing — that distinguish one style from another in the field. The Algonquin College Architecture subject guide lists it as a concise guide to Canadian architecture and a standard reference for students of heritage preservation, a status it has maintained in the field for over four decades.…