PORT COLBORNE ARCHITECTURE

PORT COLBORNE ARCHITECTURE

An Essay by Izzy Sommers for November, 2005

This is a follow-up to the one about architctural features of old homes in Welland. Of course, Port Colborne has some architectural gems which are also worthwhile seeking out. I found a stone house on King Street that has features of houses built in the 17th century, which for me makes it the oldest house around. Another is the one room tiny prison near the carousel in Port Dalhousie. All along the shores of the St. Laurence River, tiny stone 400 year old houses can be spotted from Gaspe to Lake Ontario and the other Great Lakes. I believe they were built by Marquette and other Frenchmen who explored North America along the waterways. Most of these are one room smoke houses, bakeries, prisons and even churches. Sometimes, you can spot grey foundations of rough hewn, irregular stone on which brick or wooden houses have been built after the 1600's. In Old Montreal and Qhebec City, many of the old office buildings have such foundations, even if the higher stories have been built later.

Sugarloaf Street in Port has some magnificent houses built in the 19th century, mainly by wealthy Americans from Western New York State, who also were responsible for many of the beautiful old summer homes along the Lake Erie Shore, east and west of Fort Erie, through Long Beach and on to Cayuga, Dunnville and Simcoe, and beyond to Leamington. Some old mansions along King Street are spectacular; many of them are now Bed & Breakfast establishments.

Like Welland, a lot of the master bricklaying and other beautiful masonary and wood work, from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, can be spotted almost anywhere in Port, but mainly on the old streets near the Lake or the Canal. When the Tall Ships were in town, the architecture was befitting. The mansion on Felding which now houses a playhouse and a restaurant and a lounge for live jazz, is beautifully maintained. There's house after house on streets like Steele and Clarence and in the areas behind Sugarloaf and Tennessee, which are lovely, preserved, and well-maintained and full of old architectural features.

Even more than Welland, the working lift bridge over the canal at Clarence evokes strong images of 150 years of shipping throught the important Welland Canal. It's too bad the train bridge is gone. However, for the future, the rails just north of Clarence have been removed and the railbeds have been paved for one of the most interesting bicycle trails in the world. From Port, east, west and north, beautiful bicycle and motorcycle trails and all terrain vehicles paths are worthwhile exploring with lots of old landscapes and seascapes, as well as old and new architectural gems along the way. It's like eye candy for the pedestrian, bicyclist and slowly driving motorist.

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