Victorian Architecture - An Obsession of Torontonian (1)

28 Elgin Avenue is an old house located in Yorkville (Image A). Built in 1893, this 30-feet frontage semi-detached house has never been renovated in 60 years. Being a heritage designated property in Toronto, the facade and exterior of the house is strictly protected and cannot be modified. In most people mind, this house is barely worth 2 million dollars: semi-detached, garage-less, can't even be demolished or rebuilt. However, as bizarre as it sounds, this property was sold for an insane price of 4.9 million dollars! Has the buyer gone out of his mind? Or does this house possess some kind of treasure that is invisible to non-Torontonian?

You might have thought, 'What would my dream house be like if I have 5 million dollars right now?' The answer for most people that's not from Toronto would be a brand new 4500 SQFT mansion in a nice neighborhood, maybe in North York or Oakville, some suburban area, right? Well 5 out of 10 Torontonian that was born and raised here will tell you something different. They would want to move into a century-old, classic-looking, renovated Victorian house in a historic district.

But what exactly is a Victorian Architecture? Why are people willing to pay so much for these antiques, instead of building a brand new house?

Victorian architectures in Toronto are mostly built in 1870-1900, when Queen Victoria was the queen of Great Britain, thus the name "Victorian". Victorian Architecture is actually a collective of architectural styles that were popular back in those days. The followings are some of the examples of a Victorian architecture:

1. Second Empire Style

2. Bay-and-Gable

3. Romanesque

4. Gothic Revival

5. Queen Anne

Here are the respective visual characteristics of each style.

Second Empire Style

Second Empire Style are usually 2 to 3 storey houses with mansard roofs, and a fairly flat facade.

Bay-and-Gable

Bay-and-Gables have the lines of the two-storey bay window aligned with the crowning gable of the home, the bay window often times taking up more than half the front of the facade of the house, resulting in most bay-and-gables to appear skinny, but tall. Usually a row house or a semi-detached.

Romanesque

Romanesque architecture is characterized by massive stone and brickwork, thick walls, and round arched windows.

Gothic Revival

Inspired by Gothic churches, the most commonly identifiable feature of the Gothic Revival style is the pointed arch, used for windows, doors, and decorative elements like porches, dormers, or roof gables.

Queen Anne

Queen Anne buildings almost always have a steep roof with cross gables or large dormers, an asymmetrical front facade, and an expansive porch with decorative wood trim.