28 Huron Street

28 Huron Street Centre
Two-storey, three-bay, (sandblasted) red-brick building with older, buff-brick, ground-floor piers, and with tall upper-floor with serrated arches and machicolated parapet (c. 1870/1900).

Ground Floor – RH pier is thicker, while all three (excluding LH pier, which is part of East Building) have moulded, local-limestone bases, piers built of unusual, large, buff bricks, and profiled wooden capitals at tops. Wooden cornice above spans full-width of building, breaking forward over outer piers. Original fascia and cornice are replaced (or hidden) by ply fascia with large back-lit sign. Aluminum-framed doors are set into old wooden frame with transom window above. Lower half of window apertures is boarded up, but old, thick sills and frames (LH side is repaired) may indicate former saloon, with purposely high windows.

Second Floor – A variation on the themes within bays to west. Upper wall is divided into three bays by brick pilasters. Large distance between shop-front fascia and upper level sills is decorated with square panels of brick, pseudo-basket-weave motif. Windows are single-pane replacements within original, round-headed apertures. Cast-stone keystones, imposts and stringcourse and sills are all painted white. At high-level, corbelled, segmental arches, most with serrated voussoirs, are as at building to west; and again, central bay projects slightly.

Parapet – Parapet steps forward above segmental-arch voussoirs. Machicolations above have unusual treatment at corners of projecting, central bay. Deep, galvanized-metal flashing at wall-head replaces original wooden cornice (as at buildings to west).

28 Huron Street East
Imposing, three-storey, buff-brick, corner building with ground-floor stone piers, brick quoins (north and east), but lacking original windows and modillioned cornice (c. 1870).

Ground Floor – Apertures are blocked with painted plywood decorated with false arches – totally inappropriate within masonry piers of this level. Stone piers, with both moulded-stone bases and capitals, are painted. Wooden cornice above extends across entire building, though still missing (even since Stokes Report) section at NE corner. Shop-front frieze is hidden or lost, and cornice is gone, and present fascia is an extension of plywood fascias to west.

Second and Third Floors – Improprieties continue at upper levels, with projecting brick quoins and stone sills painted blue, within an otherwise simple façade of Flemish bond, buff-brick masonry. Second-floor windows are inappropriate, single-pane units in round-headed arches with rubbed, buff-brick voussoirs. Original window cases, and pulleys, remain and are plainely visible from street level. At top floor, similar installations (one with operational hopper), occupy segmental-arch apertures under single band of rubbed, buff-brick voussoirs.

Cornice and Parapet – Parapet is utterly plain, modillioned cornice in Stokes Report (either wooden or metal), now lost. Only tell-tale marks of former anchor locations remain. Parapet masonry is in good repair and there is a narrow, galvanized-metal flashing at wall-head.

28 Huron Street West Building
Two-storey, two-bay, red-brick building with original shop-front cornices and brackets, stone trim and machicolated upper brick cornice (c. 1890).

Ground Floor – Replacement shop-fronts has recessed, modern doors at either side and low, brick stall-risers. Brick piers have carved stone bases with moulded, stone band above, the latter extending into party walls at doorways. Upper shop-front windows may be hidden by deep plywood fascias (over tongue-and-groove boards) now painted with bright, inappropriate images. Original frieze boards remain above, and decorative wooden brackets at piers are intact, with original, dentilled, wooden cornice spanning between.

Second Floor – Paired, round-headed apertures, with double hood-mouldings, contain dull, single-pane, replacement windows. Keystones, imposts and stringcourse, and sills are painted cast-stone. Brickwork is sandblasted throughout. At high level, two projecting, segmental arches span between simple pilasters, upper arch having serrated voussoirs.

Parapet – Deep, machicolations at wall-head, with small parapet above, are concealed by very deep metal flashing. (Stokes laments the “loss of the upper cornice” of which a remnant now remains only at 18 Huron St.). Staggered corbelling also occurs at central pilaster, and in stepped, corner treatment of outer pilasters.


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