G
ganjavih
Guest
Terra-cotta kaleidoscope: 61 Elm Ave.
By Christopher Taylor Jones
Saturday, March 20, 2004 - Page M6
Details celebrates aspects of Toronto's architectural heritage. It will appear in this section as an occasional feature.
For a residence, the level of detail is astonishing, even by Rosedale standards.
Prominently positioned on a corner lot at Elm Avenue and Glen Road (one block west of Sherbourne, north of Bloor), the building's façade is a two-dimensional kaleidoscope of flowers, leaves, patterns and faces. Two lovely terra-cotta cherubs grace either side of the main-floor corner window, watched over by a trio of grotesques carved in grey sandstone.
The house was fashioned in 1890 by Jeremiah Bedford, an architect and builder who developed several adjacent properties. The building at 61 Elm Ave. was Bedford's masterpiece, a lavish example of late-19th-century Romanesque architecture.
The year the home was constructed fell neatly in the middle of what author Alec Keefer (Terra Cotta: Artful Deceivers) calls terra cotta's "red decade" (1884-1894). Mud was pulled from the Humber and Credit rivers, set in moulds and fired into myriad shapes and patterned tiles by a handful of local firms. Terra cotta literally means "baked earth;" it can be red, grey or white (the CITY-TV building at 299 Queen St. West is a particularly striking example).
Red terra cotta was especially popular in the Annex neighbourhood -- Rosedale's rich tended to favour a more sober approach -- which is why the giddy ornamentation of 61 Elm Ave. stands out so delightfully.
By Christopher Taylor Jones
Saturday, March 20, 2004 - Page M6
Details celebrates aspects of Toronto's architectural heritage. It will appear in this section as an occasional feature.
For a residence, the level of detail is astonishing, even by Rosedale standards.
Prominently positioned on a corner lot at Elm Avenue and Glen Road (one block west of Sherbourne, north of Bloor), the building's façade is a two-dimensional kaleidoscope of flowers, leaves, patterns and faces. Two lovely terra-cotta cherubs grace either side of the main-floor corner window, watched over by a trio of grotesques carved in grey sandstone.
The house was fashioned in 1890 by Jeremiah Bedford, an architect and builder who developed several adjacent properties. The building at 61 Elm Ave. was Bedford's masterpiece, a lavish example of late-19th-century Romanesque architecture.
The year the home was constructed fell neatly in the middle of what author Alec Keefer (Terra Cotta: Artful Deceivers) calls terra cotta's "red decade" (1884-1894). Mud was pulled from the Humber and Credit rivers, set in moulds and fired into myriad shapes and patterned tiles by a handful of local firms. Terra cotta literally means "baked earth;" it can be red, grey or white (the CITY-TV building at 299 Queen St. West is a particularly striking example).
Red terra cotta was especially popular in the Annex neighbourhood -- Rosedale's rich tended to favour a more sober approach -- which is why the giddy ornamentation of 61 Elm Ave. stands out so delightfully.