Looking for old Ontario

About this book

Looking for Old Ontario guides the traveller through the vernacular landscape of the province, to look in a new way at barns and fences, jails and post offices, inns and mills, canals and railways, roadsides, cemeteries, and much, much more. To McIlwraith's trained eye, even the most ordinary features of the cultural landscape can communicate social meaning. He shows us how to date a house. He explains the popularity of brick in the province. He notes the economical use and reuse of materials and ponders their meaning. He helps us look with fresh eyes at 'the unexceptional, the ordinary, the vernacular,' for it is there, he believes, that we may uncover the character of those who have built and rebuilt old Ontario. This book will be useful to general readers anywhere who are interested in recognizing the broader meanings of their communities' heritage, as well as the students of geography, history, and planning.