Central Elgin is home to 16 designated heritage buildings. We also have one designated cemetery, "The Seminary Cemetery", on Sparta Line at Centennial Road.
Heritage properties are eligible for a tax deduction. If you would like to add or remove a property's Heritage Designation, please see our Heritage Review Process Guidelines and Heritage Tax Reduction Information Package. A Heritage Application/Correction Form is also available.
Undesignated properties that are of cultural or historical significance are included on the Clerk's List of Heritage Properties.
Norman-Lyndale |
Buildings B12120, B12123, B12124, B12125, B12126, B12127, B12128,B12129 and B17901 of the St. Thomas the Psychiatric Hospital Complex were selected for their design and craftsmanship. The complex owes its origins to a collaboration between architect William Lyon Somerville; Minister of Highways and Public Works T.B. McQuesten; and Premier Mitchell Hepburn. These three were reshaping the landscape of southern Ontario with major projects such as the QEW. Of the many buildings and institutions Sommerville designed, the St. Thomas the Psychiatric Hospital Complex stands out for its scale, the sophistication of its plan and design, and the quality of its materials. The complex is one of the best surviving and most intact examples of Sommerville's work. |
Port Stanley |
The Port Stanley Breakwater Lighthouse was designated heritage lighthouse in 2016 under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act. The lighthouse is an iconic structure in the Port Stanley community, and represents the close economic ties we have to Lake Erie. It has served mariners in the region for over a century.
Windjammer Inn: 324 Smith Street (Shepard House)
211 Main Street (Russell House)
215 Main Street (Axford Building)
The Kettle Creek Inn was built circa 1849 by Squire Samuel Price, Justice of the Peace, who used it as a summer inn. The two and a half story building is finished with wooden clapboard siding and corner boards. A skirt roof wraps around the façade and part of the south wall.
The building served as the community's first library from the 1870s until the early 20th century. Theproperty also housed the medical practice of Dr Clinton A. Bell, who served as the community physician in the mid-1900s. While the building is not a landmark, it does have a significant place in the history of the community. 232 Colborne St is one of the oldest and best maintained residential properties in the Village of Port Stanley, and it represents the early period of economic and social growth and development.
Bostwick House at 16 Cornell Drive, Port Stanley was built in the late 1820's by Colonel John Bostwick, the most important early settler in Port Stanley. The house is a rare example of exposed post and beam construction with brick nogging.
194 Main St (Harbour House)
183 Main Street (Cork Kiln) |
Sparta |
The Sanderson House was built between 1818 and 1820 by John Kipp, an early Quaker. The home was used for Quaker meetings before the first meeting house was built. The house was purchased by Dr. R.L. Sanderson in 1859, and expanded to include his doctor's office. The house is one-and- a- half storeys high, with a full basement. It sits on a fieldstone foundation and measures 18.5m long by 11m deep. The building is a clapboard frame house with corner board detailing. The doorway features Doric pillasters and sidelights.
Sparta House was built in the 1840's by David Mills, an early Quaker. It was a hotel built in the American Colonial style featuring a double veranda with classical proportions. Note the dentils under the eaves, eave returns, boomtown, plastered doorway, and clapboard siding. It has housed the first library, a general store, a furniture shop, a funeral parlor, a hardware store, a barbershop, a pub and a tearoom.
The Louws' House was built in the late nineteenth century, reportedly by a member of the Fishleigh family. The house was originally constructed as a single dwelling farm house, and continues to be used as a private home. The structure sits on a fieldstone foundation and has a full basement. It is a two storey building and has an extension on the east side. It is made of brick and supported by a wooden frame. The brick at the corner of the exterior walls includes quoins, and the base of the walls project in the form of a plinth. The main section is roofed by a medium gable. The building has projecting eaves, moulded soffits, moulded fascia, and wooded verges.
Temperance House was built in the 1840's by a Mr. Hitchcock as the Sparta Hotel. In 1851 it became the Elgin House owned by Isaac Moore, and later by John MacDowell. In 1872, it was renamed Ontario House and owned by Freeborn Taylor. It was Sparta's busiest hotel but its bar was closed by the Temperance Society in 1901. They took it over and ran an ice cream parlor and reading room. Later it served as a dance hall, an apartment building, a factory, and shops.
The Martin House was built in 1855 and epitomizes the Provincial Greek Revival style. It has pilastered doorways with entablatures, side lights, and a solid frieze, similar to other houses in the village. The building is a clapboard frame house with corner board detailing. The roof is a simple, medium gable with projecting eaves and moulded fascia and soffit. Very few alterations to the exterior have been made.
The Abby was built in the early 1840s. It served as a residence for the Moedinger family, and a storefront for Louis Moedinger's furniture and coffin shop. It now serves as the private home and studio. The Abby is constructed in the Colonial Style. The structure sits on a sculptured cement block foundation and has a full basement. It is made of clapboard and supported by a wooden frame. The building has projecting eaves, wooded verges, plain fascia, moulded soffits, and plain frieze.
The Hiram Burley Tailor Shop was built 1846. It has a basic gable roof with projecting eaves, plain fascia and soffit, and a frieze decorated with projecting dentals. The facade is trimmed in wood, with projecting verges, moulded fascia and plain soffit, returned eaves, and a projecting dentals motif on the frieze. The facade also has a small half-round window in the upper storey, and the sides of the building have blind windows, as well. Inside, the main salesroom still contains the original pressed-metal ceiling, as well as the original shelving and floors. The original sales counters are still present, including a cash drawer, and an embedded brass yardstick for measuring cloth and other goods.
The Davey House was constructed at some point between 1845 and 1855. The simplicity of the building epitomizes the Provincial Greek Revival style in which it was built. It also has pilastered doorways with entablatures, and a solid frieze, similar to other houses in Sparta that date back to the 1850s. The building is a clapboard frame house with corner board detailing. The roof is a simple, medium gable with projecting eaves and moulded fascia and soffit. There are projecting verges on the house, which also have moulded fascia, soffit, and frieze; there are also returned eaves, as was common in the Greek Revival style. The protruding bay on the west side was added in 1887. This bay features Italianate brackets on moulded fascia, soffit and frieze. The upper windows are still the 6x6 paned, two being original and the other two were reproduced using old glass and wood. The Davey house is an excellent specimen of its type, and the rear extension, added in the 1940s is sympathetic to the original structure being clad in clapboard. The property on which the Davey House sits was originally deeded by the Crown to the Honourable James Baby. Baby sold the property to the Jonathan Doan in 1813, who then sold it to his son, Israel Doan in 1843. The Martin House in Sparta which is designated was also built by Israel Doan in the same style In 1850s. The Wade and Vera Davey purchased the house in 1990 and have made considerable effort to restore it.
The H. B. Smith (Martyn) house was completed in 1865. The house is a three bay Georgian style building with a centre hall and balanced rooms on either side. It features a centre door with three paned sidelights and a five paned Roman arched transom light above. The walls are three layers of strawberry handmade brick thick with a 6 layer pattern, 5 layers with the sides facing outward and one with the ends facing outward. The windows are 6 over 6 paned with Roman arches above in brick. The details are of the Regency period with the original door recessed. The Smith house is an excellent specimen of the Georgian type. Very few alterations to the exterior have been made. |
Union |
The Solomon V Willson Home is a stately yellow brick home constructed in the late Victorian period, circa 1890. It has fine bays and verandah, a steep roof, and gingerbread trim. It has been well maintained by a succession of responsible owners; it retains its charm. It is located at 6289 Sunset Road, just north of Union Pond. This dwelling was constructed by Solomon Van Willson (1836-1922). He was the owner of grist and woolen mills which obtained their power from the harnessing of Beaver Creek, a main tributary of the Union Pond. Solomon married Hannah Haight (1861- 1905). They had two children, Hannah Marguerite and Charles Edward. Upon Solomon's death, the property that Soloman owned was divided between the two children. Hannah (1870- 1939) (nicknamed "Etta") married a distant cousin, Edgar Freeman Willson, in 1909. This house is a fine example of the architecture of this period. |