The house located at 149 Queen St. (on the northwest corner of Queen and Essa Streets) was built pre-1900 in the Ontario Vernacular Cottage style. It was once the home of the Bales family. The 1½-storey, three-bay ‘cottage’ has a simple, rectangular form with a symmetrical façade and a centre hall plan. It has a medium-pitched, gable roof and a lack of decoration and porch addition. The replacement windows have the original, plain, wood lug sills and trim. Metal storm windows and the door are later additions. The structure also has a one-storey addition that was built at a later time. This structure has stucco cladding on 4” poured-in-place, concrete walls and a parged, stone foundation. According to the 2000 inventory, the modest dwelling requires painting and landscaping. (1, 3)
This mid-block building located at 24 Queen St. was built pre-1880 in the Gothic Revival style. The one-storey cottage has an ‘L’-shaped plan with a centre hall. It has an asymmetrical façade, a medium-pitched, gable roof and off-centre gables at the front and side façades. A covered, open porch extends beyond the façade projection to shelter the entrance at street level. It has a shallow, hip roof supported on narrow, wood posts with decorative gingerbread brackets and a plain, wood railing. The centre entrance is set into a simple, rectangular opening. Narrow, double-hung windows with low floor to ceiling heights are set into rectangular openings with plain, wood frames and sills. There is an angular, bay-window projection on the north side that has a truncated, hip roof. The 2/2 windows are original. Decorative, painted, wood half-timbers are found on the exterior walls (at both the front and side gables) and the centre, brick chimney is original. Wood frame construction has stucco cladding and there is a parged, stone foundation. According to the 2000 inventory, the concealed foundation indicates that the house was built prior to the construction of the existing street and town services. It also notes that the house is in good condition with many original details. (1, 3)
The Thompson Fisher House is located at 37 Queen St. (on the northeast corner of Queen and Rebecca Streets). It was built around 1880 in the Eclectic Neoclassical style. It belonged to J.C. Wood in the 1950’s. He was the principal at the original, adjacent Bradford High School. The two-storey, rectangular building has a symmetrical façade and a centre hall plan (Neoclassical features). A medium-pitched, hip roof with a wide overhang and a full-width, awning roof at the porch are Regency Revival features. The house has large window openings with high floor to ceiling heights. Ground-floor windows and the entrance door have transom lights. The arched shutters may be original. Decorative details at the porch columns, a busy verge board, and paired, soffit brackets (over new metal soffits) appear to be twentieth-century additions. The house has solid brick construction as well as the original wood banister, doors, and 12” baseboards. According to the 2000 inventory, the decorative trim is excessive and without precedent in the community. It also notes that while some degree of eclecticism is not out of place, the total effect on this well-maintained building is unconvincing. (1, 3, 5)
Photograph of the Thompson Fisher House with the previous Fred C. Cook Senior Elementary School/ Bradford High School in the background. The Thompson Fisher House was built in the 1880s. Thompson Fisher was an insurance agent in Barrie and Alliston, and live to the age of 91 in 1944.
