Yesterday's house...

In yesterday's post I showed you this picture. This was the structure I chose to feature for my architectural assignment. My mission was to pick out an example of Second Empire and talk about it.

Second Empire is named after the "Second French Empire" of Napoleon Bonaparte the Third. This empire did not last very long (about 18 years) and wasn't known for much except for really cool art and design. It is responsible for popularizing the Mansard roof, a style actually deveoloped back in the 17th century by Francois Mansart. However, it became extremly popular first in France around the 1850's and then spread out as a style to the rest of the world.

It's a very formal style when its all done up, but the addition of a Mansard roof makes it possible to use the attic story more efficiently. For this reason you'll also see it in much humbler styles, such as row houses, because it allowed more use of small spaces. I've seen it done "Pioneer" style too, out in Saskatoon. But the style mostly died out around the 1890's.

So one day in January, me and my lovely Assistant Jim went hunting for Second Empire houses in Toronto. And found out there was a lot of them around, some of which I may one day post here. This was one of the first ones we took and it got Assistant Jim so excited he insisted on taking several more - both on his cell phone and real camera. In fact even though I knew I'd be using this one - because I'm practically in love with it - Assistant Jim dragged me through several more hours of searching. It was not unlike shopping with my mother.

But since I love both my mother and my Assistant Jim I will not say any more about either of these activities.

But this house, this house I love. It was built in the 1870's as a duplex, so even though its built up in a very grand and formal design, it was meant for the use of two families and their servants.

See, here are the front doors- you can see how fancy the brickwork is by our standards, you've got a little bit of a look at the roof shape, and check out the windows. I think they look a little like eyes.

You'll also notice a small round plaque beside the left door. That tells you that this duplex is the childhood home of former Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (b.1874). Note that this is a heritage plaque. Because this house is listed, not designated. That means that its not safe from destruction.

Next, I'll show you my favorite bit of the house-

Isn't that neat? There's one on either side of the duplex so each household can have one. It's very likely the original kitchen, built so that the family would not have to endure cooking smells (because that was not considered part of a polite dining experience back then) nor would the family have to deal with heat of the kitchens in the summer.