Notice of Intention to Designate 262 MacNab Street North, Hamilton

The City of Hamilton intends to designate 262 MacNab Street North, Hamilton under Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, as being a property of cultural heritage value.

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value or Interest

262 MacNab Street North is the northern-most section of MacNab Terrace, a six unit row house on the east side of MacNab Street North in downtown Hamilton, Ontario.

262 MacNab Street North has heritage value for its architectural, associative, and contextual elements. Commissioned in 1879 by noted developer and barrister Henry Larkin and built between 1878 and 1879 by significant Hamilton architect James Balfour, 262 MacNab Street North (and MacNab Terrace) has architectural value as a stone, brick, and wood row house incorporating Classical (Palladian and Italianate) and Romantic (Gothic Revival) design. Particularly interesting is the two-and-a-half storey, hierarchically stacked, and three-level, four-sided projecting bay that is capped by a cross-gable ornamented with a finial, quartrefoils and repeating keyhole bargeboard. Beneath the gable are paired semi-circular headed windows while the bottom two levels of the projecting bay feature paired windows with segmental arches and wood ‘keystones’ that are flanked by Tuscan Order pilasters. These levels also have cornices supported by thick modillions or consoles.

In addition to the expert craftsmanship evident in the construction, the house has a high level of heritage integrity and has seen few modifications to its interior or exterior. Although surrounded by other heritage structures, in its preservation and polychromatic hues, 262 MacNab Street South contributes to MacNab Terrace as a local landmark. Historically, it is connected to the middle and working class who lived and worked in the downtown core of Hamilton at the height of its industrial and commercial development, and to MacNab Street, which was once regarded as a ‘stately thoroughfare’ and named for prominent Hamilton politician, land speculator, and military hero Sir Allan Napier MacNab. Three other units of MacNab Terrace were designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act in 1989.

Cultural Heritage Attributes

The key attributes that support the heritage value of 262 MacNab Street North include its:

• Two-and-a-half storey massing combining stone, brick, and wood construction;
• L-shaped, side-hall plan incorporating a main block and rear wing;
• Three-level, hierarchically stacked, four-sided bay decorated with segmental and semi-circular arched windows with wood keystones, Tuscan Order pilasters, panels, cornices, modillions and consoles, and perforated bargeboard and running trim;
• Segmentally arched windows and entrances with voussoirs on the brick walls;
• Raised firewall with combined chimney stack, brick corbelling and carved stone skew-corbel;
• Gable roof with cross-gable over the bay, a dormer with gable roof and projecting eaves and shoulders, a lucarne with shed roof, and a skylight; and,
• Interior features including two stairways with rounded wood railings, turned newel posts and balusters and curvilinear brackets on the outer string, fireplaces and mantles, double and single-leaf wood panel doors, transoms, and original moulded baseboard and architraves.

Written Notice of Objection

Any person may, within 30 days after the date of the publication of the Notice, serve written notice of their objections to the proposed designation, together with a statement for the objection and relevant facts.

Dated at Hamilton, this 22nd day of December, 2017.

R. Caterini
City Clerk
Hamilton, Ontario

Contact:
Chelsey Tyers
Cultural Heritage Planner
Phone: 905-546-2424 ext. 1202
Email: [email protected]