HomeMy WebLinkAbout286Article, 18 pages, taken from The Noman's Globe and Mail, Toronto, Thursday,
February 6, 1969, by Mary Jukes.
"Brougham, now a community of 293, located north-west of Oshawa on highway 7,
was once a thriving village. In the 1850's, it boasted a sawmill, distillery, weaving factory,
patent medicine and pill business and four hotels. Only one of the inns was frequented by the
Sons of Temperance. All of these businesses, plus two of the four hotels have long since
vanished, but out of this bustling, nineteenth century town came a monument to a prosperous
man. The Bentley house still stands on the south-west corner of Brougham's crossroads.
The original parcel of two hundred acres, deeded by the crown to Henry Smith in 1799,
was sold in 1821 to Thomas Hubbard. In 1846, one acre was sold to William Bentley.
Bentley arrived in Brougham in 1829. He came from Upstate New York and located on the
sixth concession. His two brothers followed him to Canada. James Bentley, who arrived in
1835, joined William in opening a store. Bentley's Corners was the name given to the hamlet
serviced by their business and Brougham was a mile or so to the east. When the Brougham
post office moved to their store, the village became known as Brougham.
The sale of patent medicines was popular in Bentley's store. James and William joined with
Nelson Woodruff in manufacturing ""National Pills and Pain Removers."" Woodruff was by this
time William Bentley's brother-in-law. A bottle
"
"with ""Woodruff, Bentley and Co., Brougham, C.W."" was found during recent excavation.
In 1850, township assessment records list William as a ""pill peddler"" and his brother James
as a ""pill maker."" On completion of his house, his occupation became the more elegant
""vendor of medicines.""
Assessment records suggest that the Bentley house was completed by 1854 as the
assessment jumped from £50 to £300. within two years. As pointed out in Rural Ontario.
a two story brick house, with two or more fireplaces or stoves, was the most highly taxed.
William Bentley died in 1860 and James in 1866. The medicine business was sold to a
Toronto firm that became known as Milburn, Bentley and Pearson.
The house passed through numerous owners until 1914, when Doctor Lafayette Bentley,
James' son, bought it. He was a prosperous Toronto doctor and raised his family in Brougham
until his death in 1924. The present owners, Mr. and Mrs. D. Gibson, purchased the house from
Lafayette's daughter in 1959.
The house to-day looks much the same as it would have upon completion, although years of
repairs and alterations have changed it slightly. It is a large, imposing residence topped by a
belvedere and is 45' long, 33' wide and 31' to the top of the hipped roof. These proportions
could suggest
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"a Georgian influence, with a symmetrical main facade, central entrance,
transom and sidelights and nine window openings. The entrance, set in three feet from the
outside wall, has classical elements. There are two free-standing columns and two engaged
half-columns of the Corinthian order. They are slender, fluted, wooden shafts swelling to meet
the cast iron capitals of young acanthus leaves. This blending of styles and eclecticism,
found throughout the interior and exterior is summed up by Blake and Greenhill in the following
way: ""It has already been pointed out that the middle decades of the nineteenth century saw a
great deal of building in most of the southern part of Ontario. It was during these years that
there evolved a vernacular-architecture which was spread across the province,
showing just enough regional differences to make these variations an interesting study.
To some extent this was a synthesis of various imported fashions, and the resemblances
therefore can be traced to buildings in various parts of the United States, in Britain, or even,
occasionally in Quebec.¹
The fact that Bentley was originally from New York State would seem to have a direct bearing
on many details of his house. He would have seen large homes around his birthplace and
would wish to emulate them when he built and these, in turn, would be re-interpreted by
¹Blake and Greenhill.Rural Ontario p. 36
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"local builders and carpenters. Doorways in New York of the 1820's and 1830's are very
similar in style to the Bentley house and many colonial homes in the eastern seaboard states
are direct antecedents of his house in Brougham.¹ The Pickering Dodge House in Salem,
Massachusetts², built in 1523, has the same symmetry and Corinthian order in the entrance,
a Palladian window over the front door, the same type of windows and placement of them and
both have a shallow hipped roof.
A love of Greek taste was common in Ontario of the 1850's as seen in the
Peter Duncan House, Oxford county, built in 1857. The builders in the case of the Bentley home
seemed well acquainted with Corinthian capitals, coffers on the recessed jambs and soffits
and Greek inspired mouldings. In comparing details of the entrance to drawings done by
Palladio three hundred years ago, one sees quite a resemblance, especially in mouldings.
It is doubtful whether the builders would have access to such volumes. Copy and pattern books
of the time would probably be their inspiration.
Palladio was definitely the influence for the window over the entrance: ""About 1850,
the round-arched Palladian
¹see plates 62, 98, 118, 119, 122, 143 and 149
Howells, J., Lost Examples of Colonial Architecture
²see p. 216, plate 176
Kimball, F., Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies
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"window is again part of the builder's repertory and Gothic variations on the theme have
become common.¹"" The type of Palladian window in the Bentley house was peculiar to
Markham and Pickering townships, as seen in the Major House, Pickering, and the
Phillips House, just south of the town of Markham. The same carpenter was no doubt
responsible for all three.
The twelve paned windows were common in the 1850's but different sized panes were used
in the upper and lower stories. The shutters flanking each window were not originally white,
as seen in the older photograph.
Also common in Ontario Vernacular architecture was the use of coloured brick as a decorative
device. Corners and windows are well defined with a tooth-like pattern of cream on red brick
and the checkerboardunder the eaves forms a cornice element. This type of design was used
extensively in building of the 1840's. Another phase of the ""Picturesque"", the Italian or
Bracketed style, is found to some extent in the Bentley house. The front peak and eaves are
delicately bracketed in small, shaped bars while the belvedere displays a more flamboyant
scroll. It was as if the builder became more sure of this style as he progressed.
All of these brackets are separated by moulding in an egg and dart motif.
¹Blake and Greenhill, Rural Ontario p. 20
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"Known as a Captain's locker, sunroom or cupola, the belvedere at Brougham was
mainly constructed as a decorative element. It does not light even the shallow attic story.
The round-arched windows echo the Palladian shape and rounded pilaster pieces between
the windows are repeated on the interior fire surround. It is an uncomfortable place, by access,
size and exposure to the elements, but it affords a superlative view of the surrounding country.
Its value as a prestige item in the 1850's was no doubt great.
The entire facade of the Bentley house was built to impress. From the handsome cut stone
foundations, apparently done by a convict from stone quarried in Kingston, to the top of the
bracketed belvedere, this multi-windowed house is imposing. It was at one time surrounded by
an elaborate wooden fence and people travelling the Brock and concession roads, stopping at
the inns or going about their business in town, would be very conscious of its presence.
The porch over the entrance, apparently added later, seems to detract from the grand
appearance of the house. The squared, clumsy pillars, grouped in three's, with ornamental
fretwork on the capitals and pilasters, mask the patterned brickwork and finely detailed
entrance. The joining of the porch members to the house was poorly done.
The whole was topped by an ornamental balustrade, complete
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"with corner filials. Evidence of the existence of this High Victorian addition can still be seen on
examination of the porch area.
In West Flamborough, is a house very similar to the Bentley home. The McKinley
house¹, with an almost identical facade, shows no evidence of such a porch. Its absence
makes the house appear more gracious, and Bentley was striving to achieve this effect.
Upon entering so grand a house, one is disappointed in the size of the interior.
The entrance hall is very shallow, opening directly to a parlour on the right and a dining room on
the left. The stairway, directly ahead, is devoid of decorative woodwork, but typical of the
Regency Vernacular style. The parlour, however, offers detail in fireplace, window panelling,
baseboard and mouldings quite similar to the Elliott House in Milton²
. The mantel and fire surround bear a great resemblance to Regency Vernacular of Ontario in
the 1830's and 1840's. The carpenters of the Bentley house were well acquainted with this
style of subtle, substantial joinery. The fireplace in the dining room has been removed to
facilitate the installation of central heating, but it was of similar design.
Behind the parlour is a study and during Lafayette's
¹McRae, M.,
The Ancestral Roof, p. 208, plate 182
² Ibid., P. 201
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"time, this seems to have been divided for use as a. doctor's office and waiting room.
Partition marks are still evident and worn floor boards point to a one time door to the left of the
existing door.
A large kitchen with pantry and servant's quarters is directly behind the dining room.
At one time a large stove for cooking and heating was used and the pipe hole to the chimney
is still present. There was also a stone sink with a cistern below and a well and pump outside.
Throughout the entire ground floor, one is aware of the presence of a great deal of light pouring
in the thirteen windows. The effect is similar to many picture windows found in modern homes,
but the aesthetic quality of small panes with their imperfections, cannot be duplicated to-day.
The second floor, with two bedrooms, ante room and ballroom, has less detail in door and
window trim. There are no decorative panels under the windows and the convex and concave
mouldings are here replaced by flat, simple contours. Stoves were again used in each room for
heat and therefore no heat holes were needed between rooms. One is still conscious of the
presence of light, especially from the Palladian window with its eastern exposure.
What a sight to see the Gothic tracery silhouetted on the wall at sunrise!
"
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"In order to use the ballroom for dancing, the interior wall of this room had to be well supported.
For this reason., a rubble stone and brick wall, two feet thick, runs the width of the house from
the dirt floor basement to the ceiling of the ground floor. This would have alleviated a great deal
of the sag in the wide planked floors.
The coach house, near the back of the property, which had been expanded to two acres,
had to be taken down recently, but it spoke of elegant times, with carriages pulling up and
people arriving from neighbouring towns to dance to the tune of a fiddle. This elegance is still
very much present in the Bentley house and recent restorations carried out by the Gibsons,
have in no way destroyed its charm. Walls have been added and doorways moved,
closets have been put in bedrooms and the ballroom divided into bedroom and study.
Dispite these changes, very little evidence of twentieth century technology exists.
All mouldings and panelled doors have been reproduced with the greatest of care and period
wallpaper patterns used. The ante room, now a bathroom, has modern conveniences,
as does the kitchen, but these comforts do not detract from the authenticity.
One would think it safe, after one hundred and twenty-years, to refer to the Bentley house of
Brougham as the Gibson home.
"