I 1-1. Staff Comment Form. Heritage Impact Assessment 7764 Churchville Road (Robert Hall House)

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1 I 1-1 Staff Comment Form Date: March 25, 2013 To: The Brampton Heritage Board Property: Applicant: Daniel Colucci and Larysa Kasij Brampton Heritage Board Date: April 16, 2013 Subject: Heritage Impact Assessment (Robert Hall House) This staff comment form has been prepared for the heritage resource at 7764 Churchville Road. The request for an Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) came from the Churchville Heritage Committee. The HIA was undertaken to determine whether the building could be demolished or if it contained enough heritage value to warrant retention. The attached HIA satisfies the City s requirements for a scoped HIA. HIA Details: Prepared By: Final Submission: Phillip H. Carter, Architect and Planner, and Paul Oberst, Architect March 2013

2 I 1-2 Subject Site o The 7000 sq ft lot is located on the west side of Churchville Road, north of Church Street, in the Churchville Heritage Conservation District (HCD) o The village of Churchville is designated under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act o The principle structure is a 1½ storey building with a side gable roof and shed dormer on the front slope o The house is characterized by a three-bay front façade, porch with hipped-roof, and aluminum clapboard siding o The surrounding landscape is characterized by mature conifers, and a concrete and earthen floodwall that separates the house from the Credit River along the west edge of the property o Currently zoned for single-family residential use o The Official Plan designates the property as Village Residential, and as a Unique Community o Section 5.2 of the Churchville Heritage Conservation District Plan includes the property in the list of buildings of heritage significance Report Highlights (excerpts taken directly from report): o The construction date of the house is unknown o Contradictory accounts of local history date the house to either the 19 th century, the 1920s, or the 1930s and 1940s o Exterior of the house offers little evidence of the date of construction o Exterior alterations include new roofing, siding, fascia, soffits, windows, and front-entry door o Interior provides little evidence of construction date o Interior alterations include new door and window trims, and replacement of some interior doors o Some doors are typical of the Craftsman Style of architecture, popular in the period o Based on professional opinion and physical evidence, the report finds that the house was constructed much later than other early village houses o The property should not be included as a building of heritage significance in the District Plan or By-law Report Recommendations: o There are no heritage reason to deny a demolition permit for the property at 7764 Churchville Road

3 I 1-3 o The replacement house will be built on the exact footprint of the existing house, in order to comply with Credit Valley Conservation regulations o The design of the new house will require a heritage permit and will be subject to r the Churchvile HCD Plan Staff Recommendations: o That the demolition of residential dwelling on be permitted o That the doors typical of the Craftsman or Bungalow style be salvaged o That the new residential dwelling erected on the property comply with the Churchville HCD Plan o That the new residential dwelling be respectful of the surrounding properties, having regard for scale, massing, composition, building material, and design features in order to ensure continuity and integration of the heritage character of the Village of Churchville

4 I 1-4 Heritage Impact Statement, Churchville City of Brampton Front view of Phillip H. Carter Architect and Planner Paul Oberst Architect March 2013 page 1 of 10

5 I 1-5 Engagement: We are architects and heritage consultants. We were engaged by Daniel Colucci and Larysa Kasij, the owners, to produce a heritage impact statement regarding the property at 7764 Churchville Road, Churchville, in the City of Brampton. Contacts: Phillip H. Carter Architect and Planner Larysa Kasij Table of Contents 1. The Proposal 3 2. Location 3 3. Historical Context 4 4. Current Development Controls 5 5. Property Description 6 6. Existing House Description 7 7. Heritage Assessment 7.1 Documentary Evidence Physical Evidence 9 8. Recommendations 10 page 2 of 10

6 I The Proposal It is proposed to demolish the house at in Churchville and to construct a replacement dwelling on the same footprint. The property is within the Churchville Heritage Conservation District. 2. Location The property is located on the west side of Churchville Road near the centre of the residential hamlet of Churchville in the City of Brampton. Aerial photo. Property is outlined in red. The bridge is just below the lower edge of the image. Image from City of Brampton page 3 of 10

7 I Historical Context Churchville is a rural hamlet in the south-west corner of Brampton, Ontario. Like many early Ontario settlements, the proximity of a road to a watercourse provided the opportunity for development of a water-powered mill, and in 1815 Churchville was founded by Amaziah Church, a United Empire Loyalist who built a grain mill on the Credit River near the intersection of two concession roads the predecessors of today s Steeles Avenue and Creditview Road. Street fabric from Reg d Plans TOR-6 and TOR-11 is seen in this map from the 1877 Historical Atlas of the County of Peel. The course of the River is not what it is now. Red dot is approximate site of the subject property. page 4 of 10

8 I 1-8 Churchville followed the pattern of other early Ontario milling centres, where the mill provided employment, the employees required housing and amenities, and farmers bringing their grain to market required hostelry, and all this activity generating local development. The village grew to include a slaughterhouse, a tannery, a school house, a wooden boardwalk, several churches and small hotels and a cemetery. Amaziah Church is buried in Churchville Cemetery. Late 19 th century changes in manufacturing and transportation led to an economy based on larger-scaled enterprise, and the intensely local mill-based enterprises were unable to compete. Churchville, like other similar villages stopped growing, and became a small residential hamlet within the larger community, blessed by a scenic setting on the banks of the Credit River. In the late 20 th century, the large expansion of the Toronto conurbation began to threaten the historical character of the village with surrounding suburban development. The City of Brampton responded in 1990 by creating the Churchville Heritage Conservation District, under part V of the Ontario Heritage Act. Further development of highways and housing, and revisions to the Ontario Heritage Act led the City to undertake a new study of planning and heritage issues in 2007, and amendments to the Official Plan (OPA and OPA ), the Zoning Bylaw (Bylaw ), and the Churchville Heritage Conservation District Plan (Bylaw ) were enacted. 4. Current Development Controls a) The official plan amendments designate the property as Village Residential, and being within a Unique Community, and as being within the Churchville Heritage Conservation District. b) Zoning Bylaw , designates the zoning for the property as Rhm2 Section Rhm2 is Residential Hamlet 2. Section 1386 requires compliance with the regulations of Credit Valley Conservation. c) Bylaw amends the Churchville Heritage Conservation District Plan. Section 5.2 lists 26 properties as buildings of heritage significance. The subject property is included in this list. We believe this is in error, as will be outlined below. Section 6.3 designates the subject property as being within Landscape Unit A Village Core. This section contains only one recommendation that applies to the subject property: There is also a list of tree species suitable for planting in the area. page 5 of 10

9 I Property description Survey of the subject property dated February 15, 1985 The property consists of parts of Lots 31 and 32 within Churchville, Concession 3, Plan 6 in Toronto Township. The Credit River flows along the west edge of the property, with a concrete and earthen floodwall between the house and the river. The property is in the middle of a group of properties on the west side of Churchville Road in the heart of the historic village. There are conifers at the southeast and southwest corners of the house. View of the southwest corner of the house from the top of the floodwall. The flood wall is an earthen berm with concrete sections around the rears of the houses. page 6 of 10

10 I Existing House Description The house is a small 1 ½ storey building approximately 24 feet wide by 16 feet deep, with a one storey tail that is approximately 19 ½ feet wide by 10 feet deep. The roof on the main body of the house is a side gable, with a shed dormer on the front slope that is about 70% of the width of the house. The roof of the tail is a shed roof sloping towards the back, which intersects the back wall of the main house about 8 inches below the eaves of the main roof. The front elevation has three bays, with the entry door offset to the south. There is a hipped roof front porch centred on the façade. Each side elevation has one window on each of the floors, and the south elevation has a side entry door into the tail near its intersection with the main body of the house. Front (east) elevation. A symmetrical design except the placement of the front door. The house is clad in 8 inch aluminum clapboard siding, and the soffits and fascia is prefinished aluminum. The roofing is asphalt shingles. There is a brick chimney on the south elevation. The main body of the house has two rooms downstairs, with the entry into the smaller south room. Upstairs are two bedrooms. The tail has a kitchen on the south side and a bathroom on the north side. There is a low basement under the main body of the house, and a crawl space under the tail. View from the northwest. View from the south. page 7 of 10

11 I Heritage Assessment 7.1 Documentary Evidence The documentation on this property is thin. No Tax Assessment Roll records have survived for dates between 1865 and the 1930s, the date range needed to provide property value evidence. The Brampton Heritage Board files provide differing dates in two documents: Churchville Reminders of the Past, published by the Board in 1984, date the house to the 19th century. The property entry in the inventory file, dates it to the 1930s or 40s and refers to a circa 1909 photograph that shows the site as a vacant lot. The owner attended the Brampton Archives, but the archivists were unable to locate such a photograph. The Chair of the Churchville Heritage Committee, Marianne Galliford, has reported a conversation with Thelma Manser, a long-time resident, regarding the property: She told me that the original cottage at this address was torn down and the house was built at the same time as Bob Crouch's cottage. This was the early 1920s. This is all she remembers about the house, and she has no pictures of the house. Churchville Reminders of the Past dates the house as mid to late 1800s. The Heritage Board Files date the house to ca s, and refers to a circa 1909 photograph which shows the site as vacant land. page 8 of 10

12 I Physical Evidence The exterior of the house offers little evidence of date of construction. The roofing, siding fascia, soffits, windows, and front entry door are all modern replacements. The placement of the front door off-centre to accommodate a larger north room is not typical in 19th century cottage styles. In addition, the interior has been altered over the years, leaving little general evidence of a construction date. However, in the basement the original foundation and first floor construction is open to view. The foundation under the main body of the house is constructed of parged brick. The ground floor construction, visible from the basement, is sawn dimension lumber with tongue and groove subflooring. Although many 19th century houses have fieldstone foundations, Churchville has early houses with brick foundations. So the foundation does not provide dating evidence. However, the ground floor structure is of a later period. Earlier framing would most likely have had more random dimensions, and the subfloor would have been wide flat boarding. Foundation bricks are visible where the parging has come away. Ground floor construction: dimension lumber and tongue and groove sub-floor page 9 of 10

13 I 1-13 Most interior detail has been lost or obscured over the years. In particular, door and window trims have been replaced or had modern trims installed overlapping what was original. Many of the original interior doors have been removed or replaced. However there are a number of doors that are older. Significantly, they are in secondary locations, where the urge to modernize might not have reached. These are the side entry door and bathroom door in the downstairs tail, and the bedroom and closet doors upstairs. All of these doors are typical of the craftsman or bungalow style, which was popular in the period. This is consistent with Thelma Manser s recollection of the construction of the house in the early 1920s. See illustrations below. 8. Recommendations In our professional opinion, the physical evidence found in the house at 7764 Churchville suggest that it was constructed much later than the early village houses, and more than a century after Amaziah Church founded his town. We believe that the date found in Churchville Reminders of the Past is in error, and that the inclusion of the property in the list of buildings of heritage significance in By-law is inappropriate. In our professional opinion, there is no heritage reason to deny a demolition permit for the building at Churchville Road. The replacement house will be built on the exact footprint of the existing house, in order to comply with the regulations of Credit Valley Conservation. The design of the new house will require a heritage permit, subject to review under the Churchville Heritage Conservation District Plan. Upstairs bedroom door at 7764 Churchville Road For comparison, a modern Craftsman style replacement interior door Side entry door at 7764 Churchville Road For comparison, a modern Craftsman style replacement entry door page 10 of 10