Notice of Intention to Designate a Heritage Property - 34 Victoria Street North

Notice of Intention to Designate a Heritage Property

The Town of Saugeen Shores intends to designate 34 Victoria Street North, Southampton further described as TP Lot 3 Pt Lot 2 West Victoria, as a Heritage Property under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Description

Located on the northeast corner of Victoria Street North and Thompson Lane, the property contains a Regency-Style lawn bowling clubhouse constructed in 1913 as a one storey, wood-frame building. The clubhouse retains its original orientation and position on the site, as well as its most important Regency-Style attributes, specifically its original one-storey rectangular form with a hip roof extended by a gently sloping canopy roof over the former verandah (which has been enclosed). Four of the original neoclassical verandah pillars are maintained. Alterations include the addition of walls on three sides to enclose the verandah, the replacement of exterior stucco cladding with clapboard siding, the addition and replacement of windows and doors, and the addition of a porch at the rear (south elevation). A small shed has been built near the east side of the building. The landscaped property is dominated by well-groomed and maintained bowling greens.

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value

Design and Physical Value

The property has design value as a representative example of a Regency-Style lawn bowling clubhouse built in 1913. Architectural features include the rectangular form with a hip roof gently sloping in canopy style over an enclosed verandah, with four original neoclassical-style columns conserved. Regency is important as a nineteenth-century style that is particularly characteristic of the historic architecture of Southampton; it also became a common style for lawn bowling clubs in colonial Canada, making ours in Southampton an integral representative of the sport.

Historical and Associative Value

The property has a direct association with The Southampton Lawn Bowling Club (formed in 1907), continuing today as The Saugeen Shores Lawn Bowling Club. The clubhouse was designed and built by the internationally known Alfred Richley, an accomplished contractor and manager of large construction projects in Ontario and the United States. The club is also associated with important individuals in the community who helped found the club, including manufacturer Charles Martin Bowman, M.P.P.

Contextual Value

The property has contextual value in three main areas: a) it helps to define and support the socio-cultural institutional character of the area (which includes churches, schools, and a museum); this manicured recreation facility was and remains strategically located in the centre of the surrounding spiritual, educational, and recreational facilities of the Southampton community; b) it supports and contributes to the community’s long history of sports and recreational activity, with nearby facilities and playing grounds for tennis, curling, baseball, ice hockey, and (historically) lacrosse and cricket; and c) it supports and enhances the residential context of mainly nineteenth-century homes on narrow lanes, as the property’s pastoral, park-like landscape adds an aesthetically pleasing and environmentally desirable amenity to the residential area.

Further information respecting this notice of intention to designate the property is available by contacting the Clerk’s Division.

A notice of objection to this Notice of Intention to designate the property may be served on the Clerk within 30 days after the date of publication of the Notice of Intention.

The Clerk’s Division may be reached at Town of Saugeen Shores, 600 Tomlinson Drive, P.O. Box 820, Port Elgin, Ontario, N0H 2C0, by email at clerk@saugeenshores.ca, or by phone at 519-832-2008 ext. 102.

Dated January 2, 2025