In my never ending quest for something that appears to be related to the truth, I want to report on a feature of an earlier building chronicalled here in this junior journallette. In March, I posted this post about an interesting building which I have since learned is bound for the wreckers due to an interesting development that will take place behind and incorporate this row of buildings. The work is being done by the intellegent and sensitive group that has done other great work in keeping the downtown heritage alive and promises that the yellow facade has little historical merit which, as a brick building in the area, is not unlikely. I have read that the ugly blue block next to it to the right is the really important building, having incorporated within it some early beam and post construction that will be exposed in the new development.
Anyway, that is a long winded way to point out what I noticed this morning when off to brunch at Morrison's Restaurant. Illustrated above and contextualized right is a largish tap and spout spouting out of the front of second story of the yellow facade - for which I have no idea of a purpose. Any ideas?
Below is a couple of images from a display at the lobby of the Princess and King Royal Bank lobby. The caption reads:
Clarence Street Row: 1841-1973An 1841 limestone double building on Clarence Street, which provided housing and business quarters, was demolished in 1973 to make space for the Whig-Standard's circulation and mailing departments. "Whig-Standard is Expanding: This is the third building on Clarence Street we have had to demolish, but because this one is limestone, it was a more difficult decision.
Comments
portland - April 18, 2004 6:02 PM
in the old days, in the new world, they'd fill up buildings with pancake syrup. upper canada was famous for this. the rivers ran thick with sap from leaky trees and, as everybody knows, there were numerous lightning storms then, like the one that ben franklin discovered. so, whenever there was a lightning strike, and the rivers became, for a while, viscous with the sweet stuff that resulted, famous explorers (who I'm sure you've heard of) would pay the indians to gather it up in baskets and put it into the buildings that they had just built for which there were not a lot of people. of course, it would have been more practical to put it in barrels, but you have to remember that this was the time of the napoleonic wars and back in england the duke of wellington need all the coopersmiths that the empire could provide him to ship gravy to feed his troops in france. the troops, of course, were housed in canvas tents so builders were plentiful and a lot of them immigrated to the new world where they ended up making these so-called "spigot buildings," some of which still stand today but are not, since the advent of plastic, used for storing pancake syrup.
any other questions. I'm always so glad to help.
Alan - April 18, 2004 6:23 PM
Something akin, then, to the ill-fated vat wars of the early 1800's porter brewing trade. Interesting.
Alan - April 19, 2004 6:15 PM
Again out on reconnoiter at lunch, I got this rear view of the block:<p><img src="images/2004/spoutrear.JPG" hspace="20" vspace="20"><p>The yellow facade is the slumped red shingle roofed building to the right with the silver roofed neighbour being the blue box. Interesting to note over the top of the right end of the the top of an old limestone wall which is incorporated into the back of the larger but later National Bank Building shown in this photo at the right at the corner of Brock and King. If you go to that street corner you will see this cornerstone below which clearly does not relate to the bank building but must be a remembrance of that earlier limestone shown now only in the white edging above red shingling.<p><img src="images/2004/wg1837.JPG" hspace="20" vspace="20"><p>Below is a couple of images from a display at the lobby of the Princess and King Royal Bank lobby. The sat in the now empty parking lot above. The caption reads:<blockquote class="smalltext"><b>Clarence Street Row: 1841-1973</b><p>An 1841 limestone double building on Clarence Street, which provided housing and business quarters, was demolished in 1973 to make space for the Whig-Standard's circulation and mailing departments. "Whig-Standard is Expanding: This is the third building on Clarence Street we have had to demolish, but because this one is limestone, it was a more difficult decision.</blockquote><p><img src="images/2004/clarence2.JPG" hspace="20" vspace="20"><p>Both the 1841 building and the 1973 building are gone.