Page 13 - toronto arch.CDR

13 | The Architectural Fashion of Toronto Residential Neighbourhoods
RASEK ARCHITECTS LTD

BAY AND GABLE

A Bay-and-Gable is a distinct architectural style of house that
is ubiquitous in the older parts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It
was one of the most common forms of house built in late
nineteenth and early twentieth century Toronto. The style was
well suited to the layout of the city and the tastes of
Torontonians. Toronto architectural tastes in this era were
dominated by the various Victorian Revival styles, especially
Gothic Revival. The older parts of the city such as
Cabbagetown and Little Italy are still home to many hundreds
of examples.

IDENTIFYING FEATURES
The classic bay and gable is a red brick semi-detached structure that
is two and a half storeys tall, though many variations also exist. The
style was also very flexible. The typical bay-and-gable house was
made out of brick, but ones made completely out of wood were also
easily produced. Bay-and-gable houses were most often built as
semi-detached buildings, but the basic design could also easily be
modified into a stand-alone or row house format and many
examples of both exist in Toronto. There are many variations on the
bay-and-gable found in Toronto. One of the most common
simplifications on the style is to replace the bay window with a flat
wall.