Burlington Ontario Designated Heritage Sites

The Acland Houses (383 - 385 Pearl St.) A two-storey semi-detached brick structure with Italianate design details. Nicely carved supports under the roof. Bay windows. Fire walls with exposed parapets at the ends and between the units. Built in 1880 for William Acland, florist, as a rental income property. They were rented until the death of William Acland's son, Joseph, in 1915, when they were sold to separate owners. In 1897, A. H. Finnemore was hired at 50 cents per day to pump water into the tank of the Village watering truck to keep the dust down on the unpaved streets. The back half of the building has been demolished, but it looks like they are preparing to move the front of the building to a new location.

The Estaminet (2084 Old Lakeshore Rd.) Constructed prior to 1870 in the Georgian style, the Estaminet building is a three-bay frame structure with a truncated hipped roof, simple lines and minimal adornment reflective of the Georgian period in Canada (1820-1850). Photographs from the early 20th century depict a three-bay window projecting from the easterly elevation in a polygonal design. The north-facing (front) covered porch with slight bell cast roof and detailed scrollwork remains. It is likely that the bay window (no longer extant) and the porch were added to the structure in the very late 19th century/early 20th century. A single masonry chimney at the north easterly corner of the building is shown in early photographs. A chimney remains in this location today. 2084 Old Lakeshore Road contributes to our contemporary understanding of the evolution of Burlington's agrarian and port history. The Estaminet has weathered the evolution of Wellington Square's and downtown Burlin...

  The Stewart - Williamson - Peck House (2100 Old Lakeshore Rd.) Built in 1847 for 'John Stewart, farmer'. Originally a two-storey vernacular frame farmhouse, clad with board and batten. Bricked over in the late 19th century. The low-pitched end-gable roof has a plain boxed cornice and decorative bargeboard. The original windows have segmental arches and louvred shutters. The front door has a rectangular transom and side lights. The gallery addition at the west side, slightly lower than the original structure, is clad with board and batten. A one-storey addition at the east side has a multi paned bow window. Since 1987 the windows have been replaced with thermopanes with sliders and plain trim. The Treasury of Canadian Handicrafts opened in the front two rooms in 1960. The art gallery addition was built in 1961. This was the location of Robert Bateman's first one-man show in 1967. The upstairs gallery was added in 1978. The gallery closed in 1987 and has since housed medica...

  The Chrysler Carriage Shop (2101 & 2105 Old Lakeshore Rd.) A two-and-a-half storey brick structure with a high-pitched end gabled roof; the ends originally had chimneys. Replacement shutters, headboards over the windows and new awnings. The pattern of doors and windows on the front facade is greatly altered from the original; the bricking-in of the former windows is quite visible. A one-storey rear addition clad in board and batten with cedar roofing shingles. Built in 1859 (date stone) as a carriage shop owned by John Chrysler and later Mark Cummins, it has since been converted into a restaurant.

  The Sewage Pumping Station (2137 Lakeshore Rd.) A one-storey brick structure with a truncated hipped roof. The design is more restrained and severe than the Beaux Arts and Romanesque style of the Beach Pump House. Rather, the design is more inconspicuous, as is compatible with its lowlier function. However, the reliability of this Pump House is asserted by the balanced proportions and design of this structure. Regularly spaced "windows" with blind shutters under a running string course have stone sills. These are separated by unadorned brick pilasters. The wide eaves are simply finished. There may have been a decorative ridge on the roof, as on the Beach Pump House. Built in 1915 (date stone) beside Rambo Creek as the Sewage Pumping Station for the Village of Burlington, following the building of the Beach Pump House and the laying of mains and sewers in the village. 

  The Nelson Ogg - Jabez Clark House (2085 Pine St.) The first Roman Catholic services in Burlington were held in this house, since the parish was established in 1849, but the church was not built until Nelson Ogg donated the land at the north east corner of Pearl and Pine Streets. It was a mission church until 1925. It was demolished and replaced in 1952 by St John's Church on Brant Street (next to the later Ogg home) A one-and-a-half-storey end-gabled frame structure, reclad in stretcher-bond brick in the 1870s. The windows are segmental 6/6 wood sash with (replacement) louvred shutters and stone lug sills. A small gabled front dormer and a large shed-roofed rear dormer. The recessed front door has a rectangular transom. The chimney on the west side is original. Built in 1847 for Nelson Ogg, Cooper. According to Turcotte, The Growing Years, pp. 182-3, Nelson and his brother Joseph Ogg came from Quebec. Nelson first settled in Kilbride and then moved to Wellington Square. Nelson ...

  The Inglehart House - Mitchell Dairy (416 Pearl St.) A one-and-a-half storey brick structure of a very interesting shape with an angled recessed doorway within a three-sided verandah and symmetrical wings angling out on each side providing a partly enclosed front verandah The original windows are 2/2 wood sash, with radiating voussoirs and dressed stone sills. The front door is paneled and has a segmentally arched transom and sidelights. Built in 1875 for Sylvester Inglehart, carpenter. The Ingleharts were a pioneer family who moved from Pennsylvania to Nelson Township in the early 1800s. At Sylvester Inglehart's death in 1898 he left his adopted daughter three lots on Pearl Street, including this brick house, a frame house, and a vacant lot. The frame house was demolished for the development of Village Square, but this house was incorporated into the development. This was the Mitchell Dairy in the early twentieth century. There were large barns in the rear for the horse and deli...

The Robert Hammond House (491 Pearl St.) A typical example of a one-and-a-half-storey vernacular Carpenter Gothic house. The end gables and the steeply pitched central front gable have fine "gingerbread" bargeboard trim, which was featured in the LACAC Poster, "Gables of Burlington” (1989). The window in the front gable is arched. It and the other windows, double-hung, have their original frames. A small window at the rear and the many-paned side window in the original summer kitchen are also original. The rectangular windows have simple drip edges at the top. Most of the original shutters remain and are in good condition. The interior has been altered, but many original doors, including the front door, remain. The original interior door casings are simple but well made. The original baseboards have been partly retained and repaired. There is a low-ceilinged basement beneath the front half of the house, with a rubblestone foundation. The house was built in 1873 (accordin...

The Old Metcalfe House (2083 Maria St.) Built of brick on a rubblestone foundation, with the high-quality brickwork still in fine condition. Its simple lines and pleasing proportions are enhanced by the arched upper windows, door transoms, and front bay. Both the front and side door (also facing front) are original. Side and rear additions have been completed in a manner compatible with the original structure. John Medcalf or Metcalfe, as it was later spelled, was born in Nelson Township and married Ceclia Wheeler of Appleby. Some of the Wheeler family were buried in the old church yard on Appleby Line. Their three children remained in Burlington taking active roles in the community. William was a carpenter, Chief of the Volunteer Fire Brigade, foreman of the village works department, and a member of the Sons of England Lodge. Edgar was a plumber, with a shop in the 1920s at Brant and James Street. His daughters and grand-daughters worked there. This property was designated in 1992.

  The Betty Taylor House (2040 Emerald Cr.)  This house was built circa 1938 in the Art Moderne style. The two-storey stuccoed flat-roofed structure is well proportioned but simple and unadorned by historical design motifs. Art Deco elements include the recessing of the paired windows, enhanced by the multiple-level recessing of the front entrance, and the curved corner with grouped small sash windows. This style is relatively rare in Burlington, making it an exceptional landmark and strongly contributes to the heritage value of the Hart Survey, registered in 1922. This house was built for Elizabeth “Betty” Taylor, a famous track and field athlete, shortly after her retirement from her record-breaking career as a brilliant competitor in women’s hurdles events. Her international career began at the age of fourteen in her triumph at the 1930 British Empire Games in Hamilton and ended in a photo-finish bronze medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. This property was designated in 2...

  The Ellis Hughes Cleaver Jr. House (2085 Caroline St.) The Ellis Hughes Cleaver Jr. House is a good example of a two storey brick Georgian Revival style house. It has a hip roof, two chimneys at each end of the roof, and a symmetrical three bay façade with central main entrance. The house displays Arts and Crafts influences in its dark red brick colour, projecting hood with radiating wooden beams in the gable located over the entrances (front and rear), and wide tiled stairs leading to the main entrance. The subject property is associated with Ellis Hughes Cleaver Jr., a prominent lawyer, local businessman, developer, and politician. In 1893, the property was bought by Ellis Hughes Cleaver Sr., who was a lawyer and father of E. H. Cleaver Jr. The property was granted to E. H. Cleaver Jr. from his father (Ellis H.Cleaver Sr.) in 1922. The house on the property was built in circa 1924 for E. H. Cleaver Jr. and his wife Ariel Shapland. He was a lawyer and worked alongside his father...

  Oreland McIntyre house (524 Emerald St.) This two-storey neo-Georgian stuccoed structure with a low truncated hipped roof has a symmetrical three-bay front elevation with a central front entrance. The overdoor light is rectangular, and there are no sidelights. The reproduction door frame has Roman Ionic columns and pilasters. Pairs of eight-paned casement windows with stone sills are arranged symmetrically on the front and side elevations. The upper-level windows are located close to the eaves. The fine proportions and details of the front elevation continue on the sides and rear. Two side additions are compatible in materials and general proportions. This lot was part of the Crosby Farm, surveyed by Daniel P. Crosby in Plan 78, registered in 1887. Subdivided from the property for 2063 Caroline Street, built in 1890 for Ellis Hughes Cleaver. This property was designated in 1995.

  The Ellis Hughes Cleaver Sr. House (2063 Caroline St.) This two-and-a-half storey Richardsonian Romanesque brick structure with Queen Ann elements was built in 1890 for Ellis Hughes Cleaver Sr., the youngest son of James Cleaver of Lowville. The round corner turret has an aconical roof clad with the same arched wooden shingles as the large broken-pediment front gable. The high hipped roof is also set off by two tall side chimneys. The front entrance is recessed beneath a round arch, whose form is echoed by the arched window above. The slight projection between the doorway and turret is pierced by two small windows: circular and diamond-shaped. The large grounds have a curved drive to the entrance and at the street, there is a low cobblestone wall which continues to Emerald Street. Mature evergreen and maple trees conceal the building, but it is a familiar landmark. Cleaver was a well-known barrister and solicitor of Supreme Court, Notary Public, Commissioner of Oaths, and King's ...

  The Hart House (2057 Caroline St.) This two-and-a-half storey solid brick structure, built in a Second-Empire style, has many distinctive design features. Its Mansard roof has small dormers with arched windows in ornate frames, which have fluted pilasters supporting gabled cornices. The wide eaves are supported by paired wood brackets. The windows and doors have segmental heads with interrupted buff brick accents above and dressed stone keystones. The dressed stone sills have stepped buff brick supports. The quoins are formed of buff brick with red-brick imitation masonry lines between. This familiar landmark building is set back from the street, with a long front avenue lined with mature Norway Spruces, which were pinched long ago into “candlestick” forms. The Hart House and its well-preserved landscape features make a very strong contribution to the streetscape of Caroline Street. This is an essential complement to the neighbouring property, the Cleaver House. These two histori...

  The Laing - Fisher House (490 Elizabeth St.) Built in 1855 for James Laing, this house is a mid-Victorian neo-classic solid brick structure with Edwardian rear additions and second and third storey. The first-level Victorian windows are grand in scale and well proportioned, each containing eight large panes for that period. Many of them have the original hand-made glass. The large front verandah is supported by squared columns with neo-classical details and distinguished Edwardian balustrades at the second and third levels. The central front entrance has a fan transom and sidelights with classically detailed pilasters. The hipped roof presents a complex mixture of gables and dormers, accented by two very tall double chimneys. The strongly dentillated eaves suit the massiveness of the building. This house was sold in 1873 to Jacob Harmon Fisher, a retired farmer who was the nephew of M. J. H. Fisher, cousin of Murray Fisher, and brother of Peter Fisher.

  The Laing - Speers House (482 Elizabeth St.) This two-storey three-bay brick structure with its low-pitched end-gabled roof with end chimneys is a good example of the gracefully proportioned Neo-classic style. The gable ends are pedimented with protective close eaves shielding the upper-level windows. The central entrance preserves the rectangular transom and sidelights with panels. The bay windows probably date from Dr Speers' renovations in 1902, and the 1/1 sash windows probably replaced earlier multi-pane windows at that time. Some interior features were lost in the library renovations in the 1950s. The house has a distinguished history. It was the home of two families - James and Christina Laing and then Dr Austin Hager Speers. In 1952, the property was purchased by the Town from Dr. Speers' estate and renovated to become the new location of the Burlington Public Library for the next 20 years.

  Knox Presbyterian Church (461 Elizabeth St.) The main building is a solid brick structure with dichromatic pilasters, mullions and radiating voussoirs with drip edges above the Gothic lancet windows. A bulls-eye window with radiating dichromatic brick projecting drip labels in the front gable of the steeply pitched roof. A large octagonal bellcote with weathervane, small dormers and a flared roof supported by brackets. The front entrance vestibule (1910) has heavy wooden doors with Gothic arches on either side, a large memorial window with heavy mullions and the same label treatment as the main gables. The original structure has a lower-pitched gable roof with eaves returns. The windows have segmental arches with projecting drip labels. There is a double arched window in the centre, where perhaps the entrance door was originally and a restored square tower above the front gable. Knox Presbyterian Church: The original frame structure, now fronting on to James Street, was built in ...

  The John Taylor House (2031 James St.) Built in 1876 by John Taylor, a mason, this building was originally a one-and-a-half-storey brick structure on a rubblestone foundation, in Ontario vernacular style. The front elevation on Elizabeth Street has a centre gable above an arched window. The other windows are 2/2 wood sash with dressed stone lintels and segmentally arched headers with radiating brick voussoirs. The front door has a segmentally arched transom. A one-storey rear addition, clad with vertical board and batten siding, is compatible with the original building. The unused windows have been closed with blind shutters. 

  The Iron Duke (451 Elizabeth St.) Built in 1858 as the Methodist Episcopal Church, this Gothic revival vernacular structure was the first Methodist Episcopal Church in the village. Its high front-gabled roof has an oval date stone, a panel edged with raised brick, and a decorative raised brick gable border. Gothic windows and centre door, set in a gabled porch, have finely proportioned raised brick drip edges. After a fire in 1980, the stained-glass windows were replaced with clear single-paned glass. The divided mullions in the Gothic windows were not restored. The front doors were replaced, and the former arched transom filled in with solid panels. The basement windows have been bricked in. Part of the south wall was painted white when a lean-to addition (since removed) was there. Shed-roofed addition at the rear. The Methodist Episcopals were American immigrants and quite distinct from the Wesleyan Methodists, who were immigrants mostly from Britain, with some from the New Eng...

  The Bastedo - Redmond - John Kenter House (423 Elizabeth St.) According to the Burlington Historical Plaque, this building was constructed in 1880 for Joseph Redmond, shoemaker. However, the property was owned by John Thompson Bastedo from 1855 to 1873, and the house may have been built as early as 1855 for Bastedo. It is shown on the '1836' Map of Wellington Square (circa 1856). It may have been renovated and enlarged in 1880 for Redmond. In 1871, Joseph Redmond is listed in the Assessment Rolls as a Land Agent and in 1885 as a shoemaker. The building is a one-and-a-half storey front-gabled structure of hand-made brick. The front entrance, located for a side-hall layout, has side lights and a three-piece transom with leaded glazing and heavy articulation. A hipped-roof semi-octagonal bay window is visible at the first level. The windows are segmental 2/2 wood sash with radiating brick voussoirs and dressed stone sills. The gabled roof has gingerbread and corbelled chimneys a...

  The Stinson-Morrine House (417 Elizabeth St.) This building was originally constructed as a frame one-and-a-half storey cottage circa 1850 for Joseph Stinson. In 1888, John Morrine moved here with his family from Grimsby and made alterations to the building, including cladding the frame structure with brick and installing the dormer. A shed-roofed dormer with one round-arched window and two smaller flat-headed side windows (each with 12 panes) were also added. The front door is at the south gable end where there was a porch. The lower windows have segmented arches with shutters to match: 6/6 sash. The building was successfully incorporated into the Village Square shopping district in 1977, where it has been adapted into a restaurant. Additional alterations that have since occurred include two-storey additions constructed to the north and east (rear) elevations of the house and various modern exterior features such as new window awnings and a new asphalt shingle roof.