Deseronto Archives

Deseronto Town Hall

Built in 1904, as a branch of the Bank of Montreal, the main floor housed the bank and offices, while the upper floors provided accommodation for a bank employee. The Bank of Montreal first opened a branch in the town on September 16, 1893, although the location of the original building is not known. During the Great Depression it was common practice for banks to rationalize their branches and transfer customers to another firm This bank closed in 1932 and its customers were moved to the Canadian Bank of Commerce which, as CIBC, continues to have a branch on Deseronto’s Main Street.

Managers of the Deseronto branch of the Bank of Montreal were as follows:

August 1893-March 1896 F. J. Rogers
April 1896-October 1898 F. Williams-Taylor
October 1898-April 1902 F. J. Cockburn
April 1902 -May 1903 A. E. Wilson
May 1903-November 1923 J. P. Ashworth
October 1923-June 1924 W. S. Chisholm
June 1924-September 1925 W. C. Mitchell
September 1925-April 1928 B. H. Siddall
April 1928-November 1932 J. S. Harding

The bank manager’s house was located just north of the Presbyterian Church of the Redeemer and it still stands today at 161 St. George Street.

Frederick Williams-Taylor (1863-1945), who managed the Deseronto branch between 1896 and 1898, went on to manage the Bank of Montreal’s affairs in London, England in 1906. He was knighted in 1913 and became the General Manager of the Bank of Montreal in the same year.

After the bank’s closure in 1932 the building was taken over by the Town of Deseronto, although it was not immediately put into use by them. Alternative uses and the possible sale of the building were often discussed at Town Council meetings and during the Second World War it was used as a recreation room by the Royal Canadian Legion. The building became the Town Hall in late 1945, with the Council holding its first meeting there on November 15th, having spent $86 on repairs. The previous Town Hall was located on Edmon Street above the Fire Hall (a common location in the 19th century). It was built in 1886 and still stands on the northwest corner of Rathbun Park.. It is missing its tall, narrow tower which was used for drying leather hoses, and a flat-roofed addition has been added on the east side.

Architectural details

Exterior features:
Queen Anne Revival Style (please see insert on this style)
Yellow brick walls with stone detailing
Large plate-glass windows
Slate roof (visible from the Post Office steps)
Entrance stair with low, Kingston limestone wall (called a knee wall) and brass rail

Interior features:
Wood fireplace mantle in the manager’s office with art glass in the flanking cupboards
Coffered ceilings and pendant lamp in the main space
Impressive vault
Living space for bank employee on upper floors

Queen Anne Revival style

Deseronto Town Hall is a good example of the Queen Anne Revival Style. This was an extremely eclectic style that became prominent in Britain in the 1870s, rather than a style dating from the reign of Queen Anne of Britain (1702-14). In Canada the style was prominent from the 1890s into the first decade of the 20th century, although some of its features could be found in the 1920s. Often the style combined both medieval and classical motifs, but could also focus more on just the classical—albeit with proportions and assemblage that was not strictly classical. The latter is the case with Town Hall as expressed by the following features:

Palladian style window
A three-part window with a central section that has a semi-circular top and rectangular flanking windows as seen on the 3rd level, although at the 2nd level even this tri-partite formula has been played with as all are contained under a large rounded arch.

Pediments
Triangular forms such as over the main entrance, as well as the roofline dormer windows, not technically pediments but reveal gables, because the lower component of the triangle is broken.

Brackets
These were meant to support an overhanging component, but the exaggerated size of the curvaceous forms supporting the 3rd floor gables are characteristic of the Queen Anne Revival style, rather than truly classical. These are also non-structural as they are pressed metal.

Pilasters
Unlike a pillar or column that stands free of any walls, a pilaster is attached to the wall and could be curved or rectangular (such as at Town Hall). The added thickness of pilasters gave extra strength to the walls and, like a column, generally had a cap known as a capital. The capitals on Town Hall are made of stone and are present on either side of the main entrance (below the pediment) and, again playing with classical tradition, located mid-way of the 2nd floor windows, not supporting the gable or cornice.

Projecting bays
The multi-sided extension along the west side of the Main Street frontage, the former bank manager’s office/now Town Clerk-Treasurer, reflects the asymmetrical qualities desired with the Queen Anne Revival style

The Queen Anne Revival style was most often associated with houses, whereas at this time banks generally used a more strictly classical composition. No information has been forthcoming from the Bank of Montreal archives whether other of their branches used this style or if the floor plan was used in other centres. The use of the Queen Anne Revival style in Deseronto has interesting associations with the Mohawk connection with Queen Anne, originating with the visit of four Mohawk chiefs to her court in 1710. In 1712 Queen Anne gave a gift of communion silver which is still used by Christ Church, Chapel Royal of the Mohawk, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory [site 38], as part of an on-going Anglican and Loyalist legacy.