“‘All the ‘pretty things’ and ‘jolly bits’”: Gothic eclecticism in late-nineteenth-century Toronto houses

The late nineteenth century was characterized by an abundance of architectural influences. The plethora of choices at the time was described by contemporary observers as confusing, and the period as a whole as transitional. In England and in North America, battles raged—in the press and in bricks and mortar—as to which style was best suited to contemporary life, and as to which would form the basis for a new, modern architecture. Rather than wholeheartedly adopting one style or another,  however, many architects and patrons sampled from different historical periods, with heterogeneous and eclectic results. Gothic, as one of the leading styles of the earlier nineteenth century, continued to be used in various guises.

This contentious movement, now known as High Victorian Gothic, has been very little studied in the context of Canada, particularly as most of its products have long-since been demolished. As a result, to posterity, it seems as though Gothic waned in popularity for secular commissions in the late nineteenth century, but archival materials paint a different picture. This paper seeks to shed light on this fascinating style through an examination of the Toronto architect William George Storm (1826–92), who exploited Gothic for his domestic commissions throughout the 1870s and 1880s. Through the lens of Victorian Toronto, this paper will examine the varied reasons behind the selection of Gothic, how Canada fit into international debates over style and how Canadian architects, like Storm, reconciled the past with contemporary expectations.