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| 227 Nepean, from behind |
227 Nepean Street was built some time between 1878 and 1888 if we are to rely on its first appearance on the Goad maps. Mr. Goad shows it thus in his 1912 reprint...
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| Goad sheet 38, detail |
I didn't take this photo to highlight anything extraordinary about #227, rather to point out a feature common to so many smaller Victorian era houses in this city — the summer kitchen. This appendage appears in the photo as the pitch-roofed section directly behind the main house, set off-center from that structure, probably to simplify laying the foundation. Goad shows both the main house and summer kitchen in yellow bordered with red — wood construction veneered with brick. The summer kitchen is marked "1
½", indicating one full floor plus a "half floor", that is, one without a full-sized ceiling. Proceeding north therefrom and coloured in grey, we have a probable wood/coal-shed, a likely tool-shed and, marked with an "X", the horse-shed, or as some people would call it, a "stable"*.
The idea here (as I've been led to understand by people who actually know about these things) is that houses like these were configured to rely on kitchen stoves for much of their heat. This became a problem in summer, when cooking and baking continued apace,
sans microwave,
sans AC — hence the need to get the offending appliance at least partway out of the house.
I've seen enough photo's of families carting their wood stoves with them on picnics to be convinced that moving one from the main kitchen (main floor rear) out to the adjoining summer kitchen would have been no big deal,
viz the James Ballantyne family out for an excursion in Rockcliffe Park.
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| circa 1893, James Ballantyne fonds, via |
Note the wood-burning stove at the left of the image. Incidentally, I've researched this photo and anyone wishing to stage a re-enactment should set things up right about
here.
*
This cluster of sheds has given way to what looks like a more recent granny-shed or "granny-flat".
