HomeMy WebLinkAbout2265Article, dated 2000, regarding the Bentley-Gibson House, taken from Tom Cruikshank. Old
Ontario Housed: Traditions in Local Architecture. Photographs by John De Visser. Willowdale:
Firefly Books, 2000. P. 79.
“In most old communities, the most prominent building in town is a church or public hall, but in
Brougham, a crossroads hamlet that today seems perilously close to the inevitable
northeastern expansion of Toronto, the honour goes to the William Bentley House. It stands
proudly at the four corners, partially obscured by shrubbery, but its lofty rooftop belvedere never
fails to attract the gaze of passersby. Architecturally, the house has even more to offer, with its
generous windows and Georgian countenance. The impressive façade is enhanced by a
gothicized Palladian window.
Bentley could easily have taken his cues from an 1865 edition of The Canada Farmer, which
featured plans for a similarly styled ‘straightforward square house’, but he is actually thought to
have built the house in the mid-1850s. His patent-medicine factory stood across the road.”