340 Woolwich Street

Bylaw: (2011)-19271

Legal description: Lot 21, Plan 38

Designated portions

The following elements of 340 Woolwich Street are to be protected under Part IV, Sec. 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 L-shape footprint;
  • All original door and window openings;
  • The stonework around all windows and doors;
  • All original window sash elements; and
  • The brick chimney in the southeast 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 340 Woolwich Street is located on Lot 21 of the Peter McTague Survey – part of lands purchased by McTague from the Canada Company in 1834. Built in 1875, 340 Woolwich Street is a single-storey Ontario cottage built of pick-faced, coursed and tuck-pointed local limestone. The house features a hip roof and 2-over-2 (front) and 6-over-6 wood sash windows. The building, in conjunction with three other stone cottages (344 and 348 Woolwich Street, and 12 Mont Street) has become a local landmark to those living in the area.

The building at 340 Woolwich Street is associated with the McTague family, one of the original pioneers to the Guelph area, and remained in the family until the late 1890’s. The construction date of 1875 is based on the enormous jump in assessed property value of the land that occurred between 1874 and 1875 and also a reference to house construction in the newspaper of that time period.

Renovations to the house at 340 Woolwich Street have included the demolition of a small summer kitchen at the rear of the building to accommodate a rear basement access. This renovation has not altered the overall symmetry of the earlier building and as such does 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 340 Woolwich Street display: design or physical, historical or associative and contextual value.