HomeMy WebLinkAboutCL 49/01
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REPORT TO COUNCIL
FROM:
DATE: November 28,2001
Bruce Taylor, AMCT, CMM
City Clerk
REPORT NUMBER: CL 49/01
SUBJECT: Woodruff-Mackenzie House Designation
(Stonecroft)
2935 Brock Road
Concession 4, Lot 18
RECOMMENDATION:
1. That Report CL 49/01 regarding the designation of the Woodruff-Mackenzie House,
2935 Brock Road, Concession 4, Lot 18, be received; and
2. That the designation of the Woodruff-Mackenzie House be APPROVED.
ORIGIN:
Letter dated September 25,2001 from John Sabean
Letter dated November II, 2001 from Diane Tait
AUTHORITY:
Ontario Heritage Act, R.S.O. 1980, c. 337, Section 29.6
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
$300 - I Plaque - Acct. 2743-5400
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Heritage Pickering (LACAC) recommends the designation of the Woodruff-Mackenzie House.
BACKGROUND:
Please find attached to this report a by-law for designation of the Woodruff-Mackenzie House.
The Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee has reviewed this request and
recommends the designation of this home. A copy of the report prepared by Unterman McPhail
Associates, outlining the background of the home, property and family is attached.
The steps necessary for designation include:
a) Council to authorize designation by resolution.
b) Notice of Intent to Designate advertised three weeks in local newspaper.
c) Notice of Intent to Designate served on owner and on the Ontario Heritage Foundation.
d) Prepare By-law.
e) By-law passed by Council.
Report CL 49/01
Subject: Designation of the Woodruff Mackenzie House
Date: November 28,2001
Page 2
f) Notice of passing of By-law served on owner and the Ontario Heritage Foundation.
g) Registration of By-law.
ATTACHMENTS:
I. Letters from John Sabean dated September 25, 200 I and
Diane Tait dated November 11,2001
2. Woodruff-Mackenzie Report prepared by Unterman McPhail Associates
Prepared By:
f). %""t>U..--
Debbie Kearns
BT:dk
Attachments
Copy: T. 1. Quinn, CAO.
Recommended for the consideration of Pickering
City Council
Approved / Endorsed By:
/
B'ruce Taylor
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I ATTACHMENT # I TO REPORT #'(.~tlo II
73
928 Reytan Blvd.
PICKERING, ON L1 W 1 Y7
25 September 200 I
Debbie Kearns
Clerk's Office
One The Esplanade
PICKERING, ON LlV 6K7
Dear Debbie,
Heritage Pickering has been requested by Robin Mackenzie, the leaseholder, and son of the
former landowner, to seek a Heritage Designation for the Woodruff-Mackenzie House
(Stonecroft), 2935 Brock Road (Concession 4, Lot 18). The originally request came two years
ago and a report was prepared at that time by the consultant firm of Uoterman McPhail
Associates.
Having now the assurance that the Provincial Government, the present landowners, will not
oppose the designation, Heritage Pickering would like to proceed with the designation process.
Would you be so kind as to prepare the necessary papers?
Thank you,
,~l~
J)hn Sabean, for the Heritage Pickering committee
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I ATTACHMENT #...1:.,- TO REPORT #~I
Heritage Report
W oodruff-Mackertzie Residence
(Stonecroft)
2935 Brock Road, Concession 4, Lot 18
Town of Pickering
October, 1999
Prepared for:
Heritage Pickering
Prepared by:
Unterman McPhail Associates
Heritage Resource Management Consultants
540 Runnymede Road
Toronto, Ontario, M6S 2Z7
Tel: 416-766-7333
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Heritage Report
Woodruff-McKenzie Residence
Concession 4, Lot 18, Town of Pickerin~
Page 1
1.0 INffiODUCflON
Heritage Pickering retained the services of Unterman McPhail Associates to
prepare an architectural report on the Woodruff-MacKenzie House
(Stonecroft), 2935 Brock Road, Concession 4, Lot 18, Town of Pickering.
Unterman McPhail Associates conducted a site visit on July 2, 1999, with John
Sabean, Heritage Pickering. This report incorporates historical research
material on the property and Woodruff family provided by John Sabean. This
report does not include a description of the interior of the house.
The report is divided into four key sections. Section 2 provides a brief history
. of the property ownership and the Hawkins Woodruff family. Section 3
describes the architectural attributes of the house. Section 4 describes the site
context. Section 5 provides a summary of heritage interest.
2.0 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Woodruff Family
Hawkins Woodruff, son of early Pickering settlers Noadiah Woodruff and
Charity Powell, was born in Pickering Township on April 16, 1812. He grew
up at his father's home on Lot 17, Concession 2. In the early 1830s Hawkins
Woodruff married Mary Tool. She was born in Whitchurch Township circa
1817/18 and later moved to Pickering with her parents John Tool and
Catherine Wurtz. The Tool family were noted early Pickering settlers. The
Woodruff family was closely related to the prominent Lynde and Post
families of Pickering and Whitby. The children of Hawkins and Mary
Woodruff included: Elizabeth (born ca. 1837); John (born ca. 1838); Jemima
(born ca. 1840); Zelotus H. (born ca. 1842); Jerusha c. (born ca. 1844); Noadiah
(born ca. 1848); Mary M. (born ca. 1850); and Emeline/Emma (born ca.
1859/60). The Woodruffs were noted as adherents of the Friends Religion in
the 1861 Census.
Unterman McPhail Associates
Heritage Resource Management Consultants
October, 1999
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Heritage Report
Woodruff-McKenzie Residence
Concession 4, Lot 18, Town of Pickerin~
Page 2
Walton's Directory (1837) listed Hawkins Woodruff as an occupant of Lot 17,
Conce"ssion 2. He bought Lot 18, Concession 4 in 1849 and according to census
and assessment records he lived with his family on Lot 18, Concession 4 by
1851. Hawkins Woodruff died in 1878 and was buried in the Friends
Cemetery, Pickering Village. His wife Mary continued to live on the family
farm until the mid-to-late 1880s. By 1890 she had moved with a daughter to a
quarter acre site on Block B, No.5, south half Lot 23, Pickering. She died in
1906 and was buried with her husband in the Friends Cemetery, Pickering
Village.
Property History
The Crown granted a patent in 1798 to Mrs. Mary Elmsley, wife of Chief
Justice Elmsley, for all 200 acres of Lot 18, Concession 4, Township of
Pickering. Robert Isaac Dey Gray, Solicitor-General for Upper Canada, owned
the lot from 1799 until his demise in 1804. At that time the property title
reverted to the Elmsleys. Although land records indicate that Toronto lawyer
John Simcoe Macaulay bought all of Lot 18 in 1832, Hawkins Woodruff
bought fifty acres of Lot 18, Concession 4 from John Elmsley in 1849. He had
previously purchased the adjacent fifty acres of the north half of the south
half of Lot 17, Concession 4 in 1845.
The Assessment Roll (1851) notes Hawkins Woodruff as the owner and
occupant of one hundred acres of parts of Lots 17, and 18, Concession 4 and
the Census Return (1851) notes that the Woodruff family lived in a log house
at that time. Ten years later the Census Return (1861) noted the Woodruff
family were the occupants of a one and-a-half storey stone house. Seventy
acres of land were cultivated with fifty-eight acres in crops, ten in pasture and
two in orchards and/or gardens. The cash value of the farm was given as
$4,000. The Agricultural Census (1871) noted that Woodruff was the owner of
a village lot as well as one hundred acres of which ninety-four acres had been
improved. A house and a barn or stable were also noted on the property. The
Illustrated Historical Atlas (1877) notes a house on Lot 18 with A. Woodruff
as the owner / occupant.
Unterman McPhail Associates
Heritage Resource Management Consultants
October, 1999
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Heritage Report
Woodruff-McKenzie Residence
Concession 4, Lot 18, Town of Pickerin~
Page 3
It is believed that the Woodruffs operated a woollen textile cottage industry
from the rear addition to the house sometime in the nineteenth century. An
early water supply system was developed with the source located up the hill
to the east of the house. It was fed from the source by a lead pipe to the textile
production area.
After Hawkins Woodruff's death in 1878 his family farmed the property until
approximately the late 1880s. They then leased the property in the 1890s and
early 1900s. Tenants on the property include: Walter Neal in 1.890; R. A.
Carpentar from 1892 to 1896; John and James Aicken from 1897 to the early
1900s; and Thomas Knox in the early 1900s. After the death of her mother in
1906, Catherine Woodruff leased the property until she sold it in 1911 to
Thomas Reevely. Francis Simpson of Thornhill bought the 50 acres of Lot 18,
Concession 4 in 1912. A right-of-way across the southern part of the property
was sold to the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway the same year. The
Simpsons appear to have leased the property to various tenants throughout
their ownership. They sold the property to Allan and Elizabeth Mackenzie in
1939.
The Mackenzie family owned the property from 1939 until the Ministry of
Housing of the Province of Ontario expropriated it as part of the North
Pickering development project in 1974. After expropriation Robin Mackenzie
leased the property from the Ontario Government. During their ownership
the Mackenzies sold an easement for a transmission corridor to Hydro-
Electric Power Commission in 1947 and sections of property for aggregate
extraction to Standard Paving in 1941 and Cooper Concrete Aggregates Ltd. in
1953. Trans-Atlantic Pipe Line company took out an easement on the property
in 1952 for a pipeline. The farm raised Aberdeen Angus Cattle and later
Scottish Highland cattle introduced by son Robin Mackenzie. Robin
Mackenzie, a noted Canadian artist with many works in major collections
such as the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada, used
this site as the inspiration for much of his artistic work.
Unterman McPhail Associates
Heritage Resource Management Consultants
October, 1999
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Heritage Reporl
Woodruff-McKenzie Residence
Concession 4, Lo118, Town of PickerinK
Page 4
3.0 ARCHITECTURE
This building comprises a small vernacular stone house built circa 1850s that
was considerably enlarged latter in the nineteenth century by two additions
on ~he east end. The original house is rectangular in plan set on a high
basement wall. The masonry work is split and squared rubbles tone regularly
coursed. Large stone quoins accent the corners. Stone voussoirs with
keystones an~ located over the window and door openings. It displays a flat
arch of an earlier Georgian tradition over the front entrance with a simple
rectangular transom set within the door frame. The transom is divided into
three rectangular panes of glass. The low truncated hip roof has a plain boxed
cornice. A fascia board overlaps the top edge of the stone window voussoirs.
A large stone chimney is located slightly off-centre on the hip roof of the
original house. Originally built as a one storey house, the interior roof area
has been converted to a half story living space. On the north elevation one
narrow gable roof dormer has been added to the roof of the original house
while two are located on the roof of the middle addition.
Stone was a less commonly used building material in Pickering than frame or
brick in the early-to-mid nineteenth century. The Woodruff-Mackenzie
residence also has a hip roof that is atypical for the area. The more common
early-to-mid nineteenth century roof type found in Pickering is a shallow-
pitched front or side gable roof. Two contemporary examples of other stone
houses with hip roofs in Pickering include the former Tool house (circa 1830s,
now in a derelict and ruinous state) and the Dillingham-Lamorie house (circa
1850s). The Seneca Palmer house (circa 1840) also has a hip roof, however it is
of brick construction.
The stone, side gable, addi~on located on the east side of the house - now the
middle section - was built after the original house. This assumption is
supported by the fact that the north-south stone wall of the addition butts
against and partially obscuring the voussoir of an earlier exterior window
opening on the east elevation of the original house. The addition forms a
continuous stone wall with the original house on the north side. The south
elevation of the middle section is set back from the south elevation of the
original house creating an "ell" plan. The regularly coursed stone masonry of
Unlerman McPhail Associates
Heritage Resource Management Consultants
October, 1999
Heritage Report
Woodruff-McKenzie Residence
Concession 4, Lot 18, Town of Pickering
Page 5
this addition is similar to the original house. A second, smaller, inset stone
chimney is found at the east end of the middle addition.
Another addition of rubblestone masonry was added to the east end of the
house in the nineteenth century. This addition housed the cottage textile
industry operated by the Woodruff family. The gable roof, which was rebuilt
at some point, has a sheet metal covering and the roof ridge is slightly offset
to the north of the masonry wall peak on the east elevation.
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West Elevation (Original Front Elevation)
The front or west elevation of the circa 1850s house is divided into three bays
with a centre door and two window openings, one on each side. The above
ground level basement windows are located directly underneath the first
floor windows. A flight of straight stone steps leads up to the front door. The
centre six panel door is accented by a rectangular transom divided into three
glass panes. The simple door frame is set flush to the exterior wall without a
surround. This door has not been used as the front entrance for many years.
The window openings are flat with stone voussoirs and keystone. Each has a
simple wooden lug sill. The wooden window sash is divided into six over six
glass panes. Each window has a wooden storm sash with four over four
panes. The window frame is set close to the outside wall creating deep
window wells on the interior. The basement windows have a single sash
divided into 6 glass panes. Photographs from the 19705 show louvered
shutters on both west elevation windows.
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The initials "H W" (Hawkins Woodruff) are scratched into a bottom quoin of
the northwest corner of the elevation. Above these initials the following
inscription was chiselled into the stone by the Mackenzie family, "Allan
Hugh Mackenzie Stonecroft Farm, Obair a Larunh, the work of his hand".
North Elevation
The north elevation is one continuous stone wall incorporating the original
house and the two later additions. It has undergone several alterations and
changes. The original house has two first floor window openings and two
Unterman McPhail Associates
Heritage Resource Management Consultants
October, 1999
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Heritage Report
Woodruff-McKenzie Residence
Concession 4, Lot 18, Town of Pickering
Page 6
basement window openings identical to those described for the west
elevation. The window openings and sash in the middle addition are also the
same as the original house.
The juncture in the masonry wall between the front house and the second
addition is not clearly visible on this elevation. However, there is a marked
change between the regularly coursed and squared masonry work of the
original house and the middle addition and the rubbles tone wall of the rear
addition. A one storey stone entranceway to the basement is located at the
juncture of the front house and the addition. A former door opening ha's
been blocked in to the east of the basement entrance. Its location corresponds
to the location of interior staircase to the attic' rooms.
Large connecting stones and a change in masonry work mark the juncture
between the masonry walls of the middle addition and the rear. addition. The
window openings of the rear addition are lower than those of the front house
and middle addition.
South Elevation (Present Main Entrance)
The arrangement and configuration' of the ground floor windows on the
south side of the front house are the same as the north elevation. Unlike the
north elevation there is only one basement window which is located under
the east window.
The middle addition is set back from the south wall of the original house. Its
roofline extends beyond the exterior masonry wall over a verandah to create
an umbrage effect along the length of the addition. the main entrance to the
house is located on the west end of the elevation while a window opening
has been enlarged and altered on the east end.
The south elevation of the garage addition has several window and door
openings that have been altered over the years. The stonework has been
repaired in some areas over the years.
Unterman McPhail Associates
Heritage Resource Management Consultants
October, 1999
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Heritage Report
Woodruff-McKenzie Residence
Concession 4, Lot 18; Town of Pickering
Page 7
East Elevation
The east elevation of the original house appears to have had a middle door
opening with two flanking windows before the middle addition was built.
The masonry wall of the south elevation of the middle addition partially
hides the stone voussoir of the one exterior window opening still extant on
the southeast corner of the east elevation of the original house.
The middle addition had an exterior window on the south end and a door on
the .north end before the garage addition was built.
The east elevation of the garage is divided into a centre door with two
flanking windows. It has undergone several alterations in relation to its
window and door openings. Three wooden pipes rnn through the upper
masonry wall. It has been suggested that they are associated with the cottage
textile industry that the present garage area once housed.
4.0 SITE CONTEXT
The character of the associated landscape of the property (i.e., within the
present property bonndaries) is relatively unaltered. Set back from the east
side of Brock Road the property is screened from the road by trees and
vegetation. It is approached by a winding, tree-lined, gravel driveway that
leads to the south side of the house. A row of trees running north-south from
the end of the house to the driveway separates the front and side lawn from
the area in front of the garage. The south elevation of the house has
foundation plantings. Two overgrown yew trees obscure the original front
entrance of the house while other trees have been allowed to grow up along
the north elevation of the house. An extensive lawn area is situated around
the house and east to the barn.
The remnants of a herb garden established in the 1960s by Elizabeth
Mackenzie can be found on the north side of the house within a brick garden
wall. This herb garden is purported to be the first herb garden established in
Ontario. 1
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Heritage Resource Management Consultants
October, 1999
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Heritage Report
Woodruff-McKenzie Residence
Concession 4, Lot 18, Town of Pickering
Page 8
Behind the house to the southeast is a large bank barn with a gambrel roof.
The earthen ramp to the upper floor is located on the north side while the
remnants of a barnyard and outbuildings are located on the south side.
To the east of the house near the barn there are scenic vistas across the
surrounding fields, valley and to a high rise of land behind the barn which
has been marked by gravel extraction. The right-of-way for the former
Northern Ontario railway line abandoned in 1942 runs along the southern
part of the property.
5.0 SUMMARY OF HERITAGE INTEREST
The Woodruff-Mackenzie House was built by early settlers Hawkins and
Mary (Tool) Woodruff circa the 1850s during a formative period of the
agricultural settlement of Pickering Township. The Woodruff family owned
the property from 1849-1906. Both the Woodruffs and Tools were early and
important settlement families in Pickering Township. The Woodruff family
were closely related to the prominent Lynde and Post families, early settlers of
Whitby and Pickering, respectively.
The property is also associated with noted Canadian artist Robin Mackenzie.
"Stonecroft" was the source of much of his artistic work in the mid-to-late
twentieth century.
The Woodruff-Mackenzie house represents an excellent example of a mid-
nineteenth century, one and-a-half storey stone house in Pickering. It is a
visually attractive building with heritage merit in its composition,
construction detail, craftsmanship and stone building materials. The hip roof
is atypical for the area. The visual quality of the stone masonry, the simple
early Georgian style front entrance and six over six panes in the window sash
are important elements in establishing its heritage quality.
Although the house has undergone some. exterior alterations, primarily on
the middle and rear additions, they have not diminished the overall mid-
nineteenth century heritage character of the building. The rear addition of the
Unterman McPhail Associates
Heritage Resource Management Consultants
October, 1999
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Heritage Report
Woodruff-McKenzie Residence
Concession 4, Lot 18, Town of Pickerin~
house is noteworthy fo'r its association with a nineteenth century cottage
textile industry.
Page 9
The rural agricultural setting and character of the house and property have
not undergone extensive changes. Traditional relationships and historic
linkages within the farmscape such as the barn, fields, fencings and treelines
have been maintained.
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Donna Jean MacKinnon, "Stonecroft Miscellany", City & COlin try Home, April 1984, pp. 87-
98. Further research on the stated importance of the garden should be undertaken.
Unterman McPhail Associates
Heritage Resource Management Consultants
October, 1999
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