Ever wonder about the Lumbers Building and its place in Toronto? This building doesn’t have much written about it. We can still look at the wider picture of construction in Toronto at the time.
By the late 1800s, brick was popular for homes in Ontario. Before that, brick was rare in Canada. Around that time, only fourteen percent of buildings used brick.
After the mid-century, bricks were easier to get. This made them popular for stores and homes in Toronto. By 1880, few homes used stone.
Early brick homes looked like stone or frame houses. They had end gables. Their front looked balanced with a door in the middle. There was a chimney and a gable over the door with a window.
Later, brick homes changed. They often had a gable at the front. They used an L shape for the layout. Some had a verandah. Bay windows and hip roofs were common. They also had Italian-style details.
Then came frame houses. These used more sawn lumber. Builders made walls of wood. They used brick facing instead of solid brick. The facing had two or three layers of brick. It was hard to tell how many layers there were. It depended on what the homeowner knew.
Most brick homes built in the 1860s had two brick layers.
Early brick homes used local bricks. There were brickyards nearby with good clay. Brick sizes varied. Some were big. Some were small.
Early bricks were light red, sometimes pink. Some were orange. Yellow bricks were used for door and window trim.
Some Canadian buildings used alternating red and yellow bricks. The colors were soft and consistent so it looked good.
Keeping up old brick buildings needs special care. You need to know how they built them back then. A small mistake can cause big problems for the building.
Remember the Lumbers Building and others like it. They remind us of Toronto’s past. The Lumbers Building stands as a testament to time. It embodies Toronto’s architectural evolution.