Intention to Designate 85 King Street East, Dundas

Description of Property

The irregular polygonal-shaped 0.154 hectare property municipally-addressed as 85 King Street East, Dundas, is comprised of a one-storey stone structure built circa 1846-48 and two frame outbuildings built in the twentieth century. It is located on the north side of King Street East in Dundas, between the intersection of Court Street to the west and Thorpe Street to the east, in the community of Dundas, in the City of Hamilton.

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value or Interest

The one-storey building located at 85 King Street East, Dundas, was originally constructed circa 1846-48. The property has physical value as a representative example of a nineteenth-century stone cottage influenced by the Regency style of architecture. The property has historical value for its associations with prominent Dundas residents, including John Fairgrieve, Margaret Grafton, Joanna Chapman and Catherine Gibbon, and the early heritage conservation movement in Dundas.

The stone dwelling at 85 King Street West was originally built prior to 1848 for John Fairgrieve (circa 1813/1811-1875), who worked as a wharfinger with business interests in the Desjardins Canal, served on Dundas’ town council in 1850.  By 1855, Fairgrieve dissolved his business interests in the Desjardins Canal and moved to Hamilton. In 1859 Margaret Grafton, the mother of the historically prominent business of Grafton & Co. Ltd.’s co-founder James Beatty Grafton (1826-1909), purchased the property and it was affiliated with the Grafton family until it was sold in the 1880s.

In the late-1970s, the property was part of a campaign to prevent the demolition of several significant heritage properties including 79-85 King Street East, to facilitate the construction of an apartment building. The Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, the Dundas Heritage Association, and the King Street East Citizen’s Group were active in their efforts to preserve the properties and the green space they provided. Advocates were able to negotiate for the sale of 85 King Street East to conserve it, and in 1980 Joanna Chapman (born 1939) purchased 85 King Street East to rent it to Catherine Gibbon (1949-2021). Joanna Chapman is a prominent Dundas resident who has served on Dundas’s town council, owned Chapman and Prince Booksellers (later Chapman Books), founded the Urquhart Butterfly Garden, and has been active in Dundas’s environmental and historic conservation movements. Catherine Gibbon, a notable community advocate, landscape artist, student and teacher at the Dundas Valley School of Art, and co-founder of the Carnegie Gallery) resided at 85 King Street East from 1980-2021, having purchased the property from Chapman in 1988 or 1989.

The property at 85 King Street East is important in defining the historic industrial character of the surrounding area and is historically and visually connected to the development of the Desjardins Canal. The nineteenth-century stone dwelling is one of the oldest existing dwellings in the east end of Dundas and is connected with the early town development planned in the Cootes Paradise Survey. The well-preserved stone façade, which stands out as an immediately recognizable nineteenth-century heritage structure in the surrounding streetscape, combined with the unique topography and wooded character of the property maintains the historic character of the early settlement area.

Key attributes that embody the physical value of the property as being and representative example of a nineteenth-century stone dwelling with Regency influences, and its long-standing association with prominent residents and the heritage conservation movement in Dundas, include the:

• Front (south), and side (east and west) elevations and roofline of the circa 1846-1848 stone dwelling, including its:
  • One storey massing;
  • Low hip roof with a side (east) brick chimney and projecting eaves;
  • Rear rectangular field-stone summer kitchen wing with an end-gable roof;
  • Symmetrical three-bay front façade;
  • Cut-stone even coursed front façade with corner quoining;
  • Broken-course fieldstone side and rear walls;
  • Covered front porch with a low hip roof supported by Ionic wood columns atop concrete-block piers;
  • Flat-headed window and door openings with decorative rounded brickmoulds, stone voussoirs and tooled stone lug sills;
  • Six-over-six hung wood windows with wooden storms and functional wood shutters; and
  • Central front entrance with its:
    • Four-panel solid wood door and original hardware, including letter slot, doorbell, and doorknob;
    • Four-pane wooden transom; and,
    • Flanking sidelights with three upper glass panes and wood panels below.

Key attributes that embody the contextual value of the property as a defining feature of the historical character of King Street East and Dundas, include its:

• Deep setback from the public right-of-way;
• Location fronting onto King Street East;
• Proximity to the Desjardins Canal;
• Siting of the stone dwelling on the raised topography; and,
• Wooded character with mature trees.