Coach House for Prime Minister's Residence - Ottawa, Ontario
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Weathervane
N 45° 26.678 W 075° 41.567
18T E 445822 N 5032578
The Coach House is a very good example of a Gothic Revival building. It is described as a handsome, modestly scaled stone building with asymmetrically placed entrances and round-arched windows.
Waymark Code: WM12072
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 01/21/2020
Views: 3
The Coach House is a handsome, modestly scaled stone building with asymmetrically placed entrances and round-arched windows. Its picturesque roofline features steeply pitched gables, small hips and low chimneys. Constructed in 1867-68 in the Gothic Revival style, the Coach House was designed as a service building for Gorffwsfa, a large house on property overlooking the Ottawa River. The L-shaped Coach House stands in a prominent location on Sussex Drive facing the gates of Rideau Hall. Two formal one-and-a-half-storey stone façades (the outer faces of the L-shape) face south to Sussex Drive and west over the grounds of the Prime Minister’s Residence. The two-and-a-half-storey rear elevation of the Coach House, hidden from the road, contains garage entrances. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.
The Coach House is a very good example of a Gothic Revival building. Facing Sussex Drive the Coach House responds to its sloped site with a low massing, a picturesque roofline with steeply pitched gables, small hips, and low chimneys. Gothic influence is also seen in the asymmetrically placed entrances, round-arched windows, and contrasting treatment of the limestone walls. Originally U-shaped in plan, the building is now L-shaped since the 1956 demolition of its cliff-side east wing. The building presents two formal facades to the street (south) and towards 24 Sussex (west), and although front and rear treatments differ, the composition remains coherent. The building is of a good functional quality, and its layout clearly reflects the distribution of uses: stables (now garage) at the lower level and coach house (formerly residential space, now offices) above. It now operates as a RCMP garage and offices, the modern equivalent of a coach house. Craftsmanship and materials are very good and of high quality as seen in the exterior stone work, the chimneys, voussoirs, surrounds, headers, cornerstones, roof with its cedar shingles, the original wood windows and circular windows. The finishes and detailing of the surviving interior elements include the fireplace and wood trim. J.M Currier of Springfield Massachusetts designed both the Coach House and the Prime Minister’s Residence in its original form at 24 Sussex Drive. Architect A.T. Galt Durnford was responsible for its conversion into a residential building.
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