Georgian Architectural Styles appear on the Island – Part 3

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The Central Plan House – continued …

For me this post is most exciting because it introduces the description and discussion of the Classical Orders – Doric, Ionic and Corinthian – as they appear on Island houses, interpreted and manipulated by the hands of the builders who employed them.

The classical orders were introduced into European architecture through new study and interpretation during the Renaissance, especially through the works of architects like Andrea Palladio’s Four Books on Architecture in 1570, and those of Alberti, Serlio and others. They all wrote books on architecture illustrated with huge, engraved plates, and these books were then all translated in the European languages and inspired new classical trends everywhere, with the Georgian style in England crossing the Atlantic to British North America.

In the illustration below are found the orders as interpreted in Renaissance sources. All three of them, often in the most elementary or primitive way, were used by Island builders in the Georgian period that ended on the Island around the time of Confederation.

Detail of plate from Adams, p. 69.

 

Following my chronological format I established to study Island architecture, it happens that in this post and the next, covering the years 1834 to 1869, examples of these three styles appear. The first in our series, in the remote countryside of Springfield, a rustic Corinthian order, appears once and only once, on the farmhouse of an Irish immigrant.

 

The Irish Haslams
establish the
Community of Springfield.

Thomas Haslam (1783-1865)
From History of Springfield, p. 10

 

Thomas Joseph Haslam was born in 1783 in Clonaslee, Rosenalis, County Laois, Ireland. On March 5, 1810, he married Elizabeth Moore (1789-1848), who was born in the same locality in 1789. There, they had four sons, William (1811–1888), Joseph (1812–1902), Thomas (1815–1898) and John (1816–1870).

In 1818 they decided to emigrate to Prince Edward Island where, after four months of being becalmed at sea, they finally settled in St. Eleanor’s in May. There, they had five more children: Benjamin (1820–1908), Jane (September 7,1822– September 5, 1888), Mary Ann (1822–1906), Margaret (1824–1893) and Robert T (1827–1894).

It was at this time that they decided to move to Lot 67. In 1826 the long-awaited road from Charlottetown to Princetown was being constructed, and on hilly, agriculturally rich land adjacent to the new road Thomas bought 100 acres from the Misses Fanning who had inherited Lot 67.

 

 

Thomas had various money-making schemes in mind inspired by the great increase in traffic to and from Princetown and Charlottetown. An inn on the main route, one of several along the way, would be quite lucrative. Later this would be augmented by a postal outlet in the house. On this land he built a house in 1828 and moved there in January with his family. It was here that his last child, Samuel (1828–1882) was born on 11 Jun 1828.

 

The Haslam settlement in Springfield, from the 1863 Lake ATLAS.

 

The area in Lot 67 where the Haslams settled was on post-glacial ground rich in springs. A lot of glacial stone deposits had to be cleared and were used to build raised boundaries or dykes to stabilise the landscape. You can see the different levels of moisture in the ground in this Google satellite photo. The new community in the wilds of Lot 67 was then called Springfield.

 

The Haslam home farm, Springhill, from Google Maps.

 

By 1834 business was so good that Thomas decided to build a new house, moving the 1828 house one property over for one of his sons.

Haslam’s Inn, c. 1900
From History of Springfield, p. 10

 

This new house on the edge of the Malpeque Road had 11 rooms. Thomas hired a builder who had arrived from Devon a short time before. He was only 18 years old but already had the skills to oversee the erection of this huge frame structure, all with mortice and tenon joints, enclose it, and add the most extraordinary decoration. He was called Thomas Essery. Stagecoach inns like the Haslam house served many functions in a community in those days. Government business could be conducted there, postal services provided, and, with no church, arrangements for religious activities necessary in a community. The Haslams were Anglican and soon, at a junction in the road, Saint Elizabeth’s Church was built with the help and donations of the community.

Thomas Haslam died on April 14, 1865, at the age of 82. His wife Elizabeth Moore predeceased him by 17 years, dying on March 8, 1848, aged 59.

 

Haslam’s Inn, Springfield, designed and built by Thomas Essery, 1834.
Photo by R. Porter, c. 1985.

 

The Unique Appearance of
the Corinthian Order
on Island Domestic Architecture

The year 1834 is very special for a number of architectural reasons. Isaac Smith designed, and constructed Government House fronted by a tall Ionic portico and in the heart of the Island, in land-locked Lot 67 a settler from Ireland had a builder from Devon, Thomas Essery, build a house that sported eight Corinthian capitals over the corner pilasters.

Thomas Essery was born on 15 January 1816 in Devonshire, England. That family name is associated with the town of Essworthy in the district of Hatherleigh, Devon, which is south of Bideford and Appledore. He may have heard of the Island from the various shipbuilders who were emigrating from that area to Port Hill and Bideford on the Island around that time. We are not sure of his background, but it is evident that he was apprenticed from childhood to a builder or carpenter. Somehow, in a very tight time frame, he made his way to Prince Edward Island, possibly lived in St. Eleanor’s, and established such a reputation that in 1834, at the improbable age of 18, he was hired to build Thomas Haslam’s new house in Springfield. The house he built was central plan Georgian with three bays, and possibly a veranda. At first sight it is very ordinary, but also majestic, perched on the top of the hill overlooking the surrounding countryside.

 

The former Haslam’s Inn as it appears today. From Google Maps.

 

Photo c. 1995 by R. Porter

What was amazing about this house was the way Thomas Essery chose to articulate the corners of the house. Using the usual wide corner boards associated with the fashionable Greek Revival style, he topped them with Corinthian capitals, cut in outline, and topped by an architrave block.

 

Photo c. 1995 by R. Porter

The effect was astonishing. It is the only known instance in the history of PEI domestic architecture where a Corinthian capital is used. The fact that this occurred in the remote countryside, and not the town, where you would expect innovation, makes it even more remarkable.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_order

 

How did Essery know about the Corinthian style, and why did he decide to use it on the Haslam house? As an apprentice he most surely would have become aware of the classical orders, and from childhood in Devon would have seen them on many kinds of buildings. To be sure his version on this house is crude, but instantly recognizable for what it is. The capital is 24 inches wide at the top and 21.5 inches tall. Why did he choose this, and not a less pretentious order? In historic architecture the Corinthian style is used only on the greatest buildings. Is the young and imaginative Essery telling us something about his ambitions?

It was recently pointed out to me by Isabel Court that when Port Hill House, named after a house of that name in Bideford, Devonshire (Rayburn p. 100) was first built in Prince County in the early 1820s by Thomas Burnard, it was described as having two storeys with a central staircase and “… decorated with carved corner pilasters of softwood. (Greenhill, p. 66)” The inspiration for this must have come from home, so it would not be surprising that Thomas Essery simply imitated the sort of thing he had seen back home, or even in the Bideford area of the Island, among fellow countrymen.

In the 1985 History of Springfield, we are told that Essery went on to design several more buildings in the area. I have never heard of these but will, in the future, see if any remnants or even memories can be found. They are a vital part of the missing record.

These unique and very special and intriguing Corinthian capitals, along with their pilasters, were removed from the house in the 1990s when it was bought by a Dutch farmer who covered it with plastic siding. Only one of the 8 capitals survives, and it hangs on my wall. By the greatest good chance, I found it in the farmer’s woodpile when in horror I stopped to discover that had happened to this building. The farmer kindly gave it to me saying the other 7 had all been chopped up for firewood.

Thomas Essery was to spend his life as a Prince Edward Island builder, with buildings in Charlottetown still standing, yet in all the writing on architectural history that has been done to date not a single book or article places him and his accomplishments among the builders and architects who gave the island its domestic face.

Essery kept in touch with the Haslam family and on 13 Apr 1852, when he was 36, he married in Springfield Thomas Haslam’s daughter Jane (1822–1888) who was 30 years old. Soon after their marriage Thomas and Jane had four children: Elizabeth (1853–1900), John Thomas (1854–1874), Sarah (1856–1933), and Mary Ann (1859–1940).  Jane would be his life companion until her death at the age of 66 in 1888 at their home in Charlottetown.

In 1861 Thomas Essery was still living in Lot 67 after his marriage in 1852. He next appears in the Royal Gazette, Wednesday December 13, 1865, in a court case involving £270 with interest owed to him by the late Joseph Crabbe’s estate.

In the Royal Gazette of Wednesday January 24, 1866, he is listed, among prominent city citizens, as having been elected to the Board of Directors of the Charlottetown Mutual Fire Insurance Company. From these references in the media we might assume that he was living and working in Charlottetown by the 1860s.

He next appears as an established builder in Charlottetown in 1871 when he built or supervised the building of the very grand Italianate house at 45 FitzRoy Street for Alex Brown (Rogers p. 77). Today it survives as FitzRoy Hall, a very posh bed and breakfast and one of the finest houses in the city.

In 1875, at 218 Kent Street, Essery built another grand house in the Italianate style for Mary Breynton (Rogers p. 155). When the craze for Queen Anne Revival was at its peak, a later owner, C. Leonard MacKay who had bought the house in 1914, a year later built a round tower on the west side of the building following a plan by the prominent Charlottetown architects Chappell and Hunter. The result was not felicitous. Today Essery’s bastardised Italianate palazzo is another posh bread and breakfast called, curiously, The Duchess of Kent Inn. It is considered one of the architectural sights of the city.

 

In 1877 Thomas was living on Kent Street and local residents drew up a petition that was reported in the Daily Examiner of Thursday November 29, 1877, complaining about the gravel path he had leading to his house. The residents wanted boards to walk across, like in other parts of the city.

Thomas and his family appear in the late Nineteenth Century censuses. In 1881 he was listed as Architect and Builder and in 1891 listed as Builder and House Joiner living in the Charlottetown Royalty (this information provided by Faye Pound). It would be interesting to know what building projects he worked at in that last decade. Hopefully , in time, that will emerge.

Thomas Essery only outlived his wife Jane by three years. He died on May 3, 1891 and was buried two days later in the Sherwood cemetery.

 

Some are chosen and some are left behind. In the history of Island architecture published in the last 50 years, Essery is mentioned three times in disconnected fashion, and despite the eminence and importance of the three buildings we know about, and which I have mentioned above, he is still unknown, and his building career uncatalogued.

 

VIVAT THOMAS ESSERY!!!

 

There is a story in Vitruvius about the architect Callimachus who, going by a girl’s tomb and seeing a basket with a tile on top being engulfed by an acanthus plant, was inspired to invent the Corinthian order. Did Thomas Essery know this story?

J.-B. Coignard, 1684, Paris. Illustration for Claude Perrault’s Vitruvius.

 

 

The Essery Corinthian capital survives, for the time being, as the crowning element of my dining room. When I go, who will care enough to give it – and his name – a special and public home?

 

 

PATRONS

Kind persons have provided support for the expenses incurred in producing this blog. I wish to express my deep gratitude to these individuals who have helped me cover the costs of archival scans, photographs, learned journals, books and professional services.

Marcel Carpenter
Scott Davidson
Trevor Gillingwater
Henry Kliner
Earle Lockerby
Dr. Edward and Sheila MacDonald
Robert L. Scobie

 

 

 

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