The Ontario Cottage: Perfect of Its Kind - Author Event and Fundraiser

TICKET INFORMATION TO COME
 

In this illustrated talk, authors Lynne DiStefano and Dan Schneider will share their fascination with the Ontario Cottage, one of the most recognizable historic houseforms in the province and the subject of their new book The Ontario Cottage: Perfect of Its Kind. The book, which includes 75 full-page photographs and many other illustrations, examines the design lineage of the cottage, its proportions and distinctive parts, and the reasons for its enduring appeal. Lynne and Dan will highlight several examples of Ontario Cottages from Prince Edward County, including one of Demorestville’s significant buildings – John and Sophira Howell’s c. 1843 home on Water Street, which they feature on the front cover! This “Ontario cottage” is described in The Settler’s Dream as the Howell/Anderson/Rowan House, “[o]ne of the most pleasant architectural surprises along the road approaching Demorestville … perched on a rise marking the entrance to the village.” Now, thanks to Lynn’s and Dan’s new book, this County gem and others will be appreciated province-wide!

Presented by the PEC Heritage Conservancy, in partnership with County of Prince Edward Public Library & Archives, this event is a fundraiser for the HASPE Digitizing Project, which aims to digitize the Historical Architectural Survey of Prince Edward – records of a remarkable 4,000+ heritage properties held in over 100 binders at the Wellington Archives. All of the gathering of this research (only a fraction of which was published in book form, in 1984, as The Settler’s Dream) was commissioned by the Municipality as a Bi-Centennial Project to mark the 1784 founding of both the Province of Ontario and the County of Prince Edward. Digitizing the HASPE Collection will preserve this invaluable resource and make it more accessible to County residents, historians, genealogists, planners and consultants.