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Lincoln Street. Some Late Victorian houses tended to become even
greater
architectural nightmares where the lots were larger. The key to
this
style is complexity and the borrowing of diverse architectural
elements. That
tower jars a bit juxtaposed on a nearly classical house. Again it is
quite likely that this place started as quite a plain building of
greater age that the modernizations. There is a bit
of everything here: Italianate, Gothic, and a Lunenburg Bump. The
only thing missing is a massive stick veranda. There are even some
fairly modern additions on the waterside of this structure.
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Before World War 1 building materials and labour costs were cheap, and
the local population was one of extremes in terms of wealth and
poverty. These houses, possessing all those ells and angles were money
pits to maintain. Following the war with its appalling casualties, both
labour and materials became dear, and they were no longer built.
The largest of them could only be kept as business operations and many
became hotels, restaurants, funeral homes, offices or sales outlets,
which is the case with this one.
While fascinating to behold
(and difficult to describe), the majority of them did not outlive the
advent of a Second World War. Notwithstanding, the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries have definitely seen an attempted revival of
this style, but no present-day millionaire could afford to duplicate
this much excess and eccentricity.
The style, if there actually is one, might be termed "Victorian
Strange." The key to the look is complexity and a tendency of
elements to appear as if partly absorbed by the general structure.
Usually these creations revived brackets, sticks and all sorts
of tacked on decorations from past styles.
The architectural rule here was: "There are no rules!" The worst of it
is, this attitude persists. In Bridgetwon, Nova Scotia there is a
French Romanesque tower almost completely absorbed by two flanking
wings. Guess what, the tea house at the bottom of Orchard Street built
in 2009 has one of these!
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When it comes to eccentricity, Mahone Bay
cannot compete with Lunenburg town. It has often cobbled a few disparate
elements together, but these buildings are small minor
eccentricities, and do not constitute an eyesore.
Nova Scotian architectural historian Allen Penney says that the
British landscape was relieved of this "plague" of eclecticism by
"a catastrophe - World War 1." In that country there was not enough
manpower left from the fray to allow these structures to be maintained.
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