IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO HERITAGE ACT
R.S.O. 1990 CHAPTER 0.18 AND
CITY OF TORONTO, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO
6 FRANK CRESCENT
NOTICE OF INTENTION TO DESIGNATE
Take notice that Toronto City Council intends to designate the lands and buildings known municipally as 6 Frank Crescent under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.
Reasons for Designation
The property at 6 Frank Crescent (Chester B. Hamilton house) is worthy of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for its cultural heritage value, and meets Ontario Regulation 9/06, the provincial criteria prescribed for municipal designation under all three categories of design, associative and contextual value.
Description
The property at 6 Frank Crescent contains the former Chester B. Hamilton house (1924), a two-and-a-half storey brick house, located on the west side of Frank Crescent between Hillcrest Drive and Bracondale Hill Road.
Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
The Chester B. Hamilton House has design value as a rare example of a Georgian Revival style house combining elements of the Arts and Crafts style. Designed with the Georgian symmetrical plan and principal elevation, the two-and-a-half storey brick clad house exhibits a high degree of craftsmanship in the articulation of the classical porch with its central bay stepping forward emphasizing symmetry, its Tuscan columns, the eaves with the traditional cornice returns and mutules, windows which feature Palladian arrangements and double hung, multiple-paned sash. The artistic merit is present in the introduction of the Arts and Crafts style present in the surprising asymmetrical main entrance, the six-over one window sash and the large eyebrow window in the roof.
The Hamilton house has associative value with three generations of the Turner family who first settled on the ridge in the 1840s, building the Bracondale Hill estate, establishing the Village of Bracondale, its post office and library, and then creating the Bracondale subdivision registered as Plan D1366. It is also valued for its association with Chester Brown Hamilton Jr., a mechanical engineer, founder of the Hamilton Gear and Machine Co. which was located on Dupont Street until 1996. Hamilton was an innovator who contributed the Allied War effort in World War II and whose book on mechanical gears remains an international standard for the industry today. The property is also valued for its association with the partnership of Craig & Madill Architects, who, as architects and educators, made a substantial contribution to the City of Toronto, as well as the province of Ontario, through their commissions and professional leadership. Finally the property is valued for its second owner, Claire Lorraine Mackay, the award winning children’s author who owned the property with her husband Jackson Mackay for over forty years.
Contextually, the Hamilton house is important in defining and supporting the character of the Bracondale Hill garden suburb as it contributes to the consistency of the neighbourhood period and scale. Its Georgian Revival style stands in contrast with the other houses which are more typical in their Arts and Crafts stylistic roots, it enhances the variety and quality of the design of houses in the neighbourhood. It is functionally, historically and visually linked to the surrounding Bracondale neighbourhood.
Heritage Attributes
The heritage attributes of the property at 6 Frank Crescent are:
EXTERIOR:
• The setback, placement and orientation of the building, mid-block on the west side of Frank Crescent
• The setting which includes the location of the house set back from the street with a narrow pathway passing from the sidewalk to the front door between a deciduous and conifer tree with a lawn and low planting and a wide side yard to the north, viewed from the street
• The scale, form and massing of the two-and-a-half-storey building on a raised basement with a gable roof. The massing is further modified by the wide eyebrow dormer window on the east side of the roof and the four columned porch, with two pilasters and a central bay stepping forward on top of a raised platform approached by steps, as well as two chimneys on the side (south and north) elevations which feature buttress elements with stone capping as they narrow progressively from floor to floor, and a third plain chimney at the rear of the south elevation.
• The materials, comprising brick cladding, stone and wood
• The brick cladding features a string course of vertical headers between the first and second floors. Vertical headers are also featured in the basement story
• Stone is featured in the window sills and in the caps on the buttress-like sections of the chimneys.
• The following elements constructed of wood including the porch comprising four Tuscan Doric columns, two pilasters and an entablature with a plain frieze and a deep projecting cornice, the windows frames including vertical piers between the wood window sash and the muntin bars, the eaves and cornice with mutules (flat bars on the underside of the cornice overhang) and the cornice returns on the side elevations and the curving moulded overhang of the attic window
• The arrangement of openings on the principal (east) elevation is symmetrical and comprises a central entry bay marked by a porch with a door at the left side with a long window directly above at the second floor and an adjacent shorter window to the north. To either side of the central bay are Palladian style windows at both the ground and upper floors. Above in the attic storey is the central eyebrow window
• The pattern of window glazing on the principal (east elevation) including the Palladian windows with their central six-over-one sash flanked by two-over-one sash, the central windows above the porch with their three-by-five and three-by-four glazing sections. The attic storey features five narrow bays of two-by-three glazing sections per sash (note the ends sections have been truncated due to the curve of the roof) All sections have curved heads corresponding to the curve of the eyebrow window
• On the north (side) elevation, the symmetrical two bay window in the gable, the elongated openings in the first floor level and the small opening adjacent to the chimney and at the first floor level, the door from the living room and adjacent window
• On the south (side) elevation, the two-bay window in the gable, the double hung-sash windows in the bedrooms and the smaller window adjacent to the chimney, and the first floor windows comprising the small windows flanking the fireplace, the side door and double-hung sash window at the rear
• On the rear (west) elevation, the windows with the double-hung sash following the patterns of the side elevations.
A notice of an objection to the proposed designation may be served on the City Clerk, Attention: Ellen Devlin, Administrator, Toronto and East York Community Council, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, 2nd Floor, West, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 2N2, within thirty days of November 20, 2017, which is December 20, 2017. The notice must set out the reason(s) for the objection, and all relevant facts.
Dated at Toronto this 20th day of November, 2017.
Ulli S. Watkiss
City Clerk