Bylaw: (2011)-19273
Legal description: Lot 19, Plan 38
Designated portions
The following elements of 348 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 walls of the original building, including the roofline and the original footprint;
- All door and window openings;
- The projecting stone surrounds of the window and door lintels;
- The projecting rock-faced quoins in the front façade of the building;
- The front door transom window; and
- The stone chimney shaft on the northwest wall.
Property hHistory
The house at 348 Woolwich Street is located on Lot 19 of the Peter McTague Survey. Constructed in 1866, this single-storey house is an excellent early example of Ontario cottage style built of local Guelph limestone. The front façade is squared, pick-faced limestone with two regular, ashlar courses corresponding to each projecting front quoin stone. The side exterior walls are also pick-faced limestone roughly squared but in varying sizes that have been tuck-pointed to a random pattern within equal course heights corresponding to the larger quoin stones. The cottage features a medium pitch hip roof (with the ridge parallel to Woolwich Street), a symmetrical 3-bay front façade, as well as projecting front window and door surrounds in carved stone featuring a haunched, segmental arch cornice and a flat window head over the front windows and door. The remainder of the windows and doors in the exterior stone walls have a smooth and flush stone lintel.
The building at 348 Woolwich Street is associated with the McTague family, one of the original pioneers to the Guelph area. To date, this building remains in the ownership of McTague descendants. The property is also historically associated with 12 Mont Street, which has been passed on through the family of Ralph Gore (who married Bridget McTague, one of the daughters of Peter McTague) since Gore first bought the lots in 1858. The building, in conjunction with the other three stone cottages at 340 and 344 Woolwich Street and 12 Mont Street, has become a local landmark in the area.
The building at 348 Woolwich Street has undergone various renovations over the years. There was once a small, frame summer kitchen at the rear of the building, which was torn down in 2005 and replaced by a stone veneer addition in keeping with the overall heritage character of the cottage. The building originally featured two end chimneys, but the southeast shaft has since been demolished. The current owner has replaced all windows with modern hung sashes with a 6-over-6 pane arrangement. The iron cresting at the roof ridge is not original. Almost all of the interior trimwork has been replaced but extant original interior features include the high ceilings, original pine plank floors which have been carefully restored. These renovations have not altered the overall symmetry of the original building and as such do not detract from its physical value. The property has 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 348 Woolwich Street display: design or physical, historical or associative and contextual value.