12 Mont Street

Bylaw: (2011)-19270

Legal description: Lot 23, Plan 38, s/t debts in ROS385955, Guelph

Designated portions

The following elements of 12 Mont Street are to be protected under Part IV, Sect. 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, R.S.O. 1990, Chapter 0.18:

  • All exterior stone walls of the original building;
  • The existing roofline and the original T-shape footprint;
  • All original door and window openings;
  • The stone around all windows and doors;
  • All original window sash elements;
  • The existing front porch;
  • The brick chimney on the southwest wall.

It is intended that non-original features may be returned to documented earlier designs or to their documented original without requiring City Council permission for an alteration to the designation.

Property history

The house at 12 Mont Street is located on Lot 23 of the Peter McTague Survey – part of lands purchased by McTague from the Canada Company in 1834. Built in 1874, 12 Mont Street is a single-storey Ontario cottage built of pick-faced, coursed and tuck pointed local limestone. The house features a hip roof, a symmetrical 3-bay front façade, 4-over-4 wood sash windows, and an added front porch. The building, in conjunction with three other stone cottages (340, 344 and 348 Woolwich Street), has become a local landmark to those living in the area.

The building at 12 Mont Street is associated with the McTague family, one of the original pioneers to the Guelph area. The property is historically associated with 348 Woolwich Street and, to date, both buildings remain in the ownership of McTague descendants. The construction date of 1874 for 12 Mont Street is based on the enormous jump in the assessed property value of the land – an increase from $75 to $700 – which occurred between 1873 and 1874.

The building has undergone minor renovations over the years. It features the original stone structure and kitchen tail at the rear, but also has two later additions – an enclosed frame porch on the southwest wall, and a small red brick room on the northeast wall of the tail, which expanded the original T-shape floor plan. These renovations have altered the overall symmetry of the earlier building, but do not detract from its physical value. The property has the potential to provide important evidence about the kinds of houses built for pioneers of early Guelph society.

The subject property is worthy of designation under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act as it meets three of the prescribed criteria for determining cultural heritage value or interest, according to Ontario Regulation 9/06 made under the Ontario Heritage Act. The heritage attributes of 12 Mont Street display: design or physical, historical or associative and contextual value.