>>CITY OF STONE || Guelph, ON<<

[flar]

Guelph, Ontario
"The Royal City"
Guelph is a city of 115,000 located in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe. It is
notable for its fine stone architecture and because it is a planned city.





















































































STONED Series:
Fergus • St. Marys • Elora
Galt • Old Hamilton • Flamborough

[Evergrey]

I thought St. Marys was "Stone City"... but it appears Guelph has even more stone structures.... it's very intriguing

[shappy]

yeah, that's a nice town. Great job, flar.

[softee]

If I had to live somewhere within the 519 area code, I'd live in Guelph.

[someone123]

Guelph seemed pretty nice when I visited about a year and a half ago. It feels more like a town than a city. The state of the downtown is pretty mixed, with some exceptional buildings but also some run down properties and large empty lots. A little infill could go a long way there although this kind of thing is hideous:



Cheap, fake mansard roofs never turn out well, but people keep demanding them since they supposedly make new buildings "blend in".

[olga]

Interesting tour! Lots of beautiful old buildings, and lots of ugly young buildings (like that one ^).

[Denver Calling]

Wow, I had no idea that Guelph had such great architecture. I used to spend a lot of time in Hamilton, but I never got over to Guelph. Has it fared pretty well after some of the economic downturns that have hit the rust-belt US, and southern Ontario?

[boden]

Never been there but it looks like a pretty decent town.
Thanks for posting these flar.

[DC83]

Wow, what a great set. Thanks, Flar!

I used to visit friends at University of Guelph pretty often, but I never knew there was an indoor downtown "pedestrian mall"

"

When was this built? It's so nice!! Reminds me of the inside of Le Centre de Commerce Mondiale (World Trade Ctr) in Montréal.

[salvius]

Thanks Flar!

Guelph is quite nice, and the new is thankfully often separated from the old; the streetwall tends to be quite unbroken in places, but there is hideousness in places. Although not the most 'active' city, it does have street activity in the downtown area, and even pockets of Bohemia -- largely due to University of Guelph.

[flar]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

I thought St. Marys was "Stone City"... but it appears Guelph has even more stone structures.... it's very intriguing

St. Mary's has a lot of stone, but it's much, much smaller than Guelph (which actually has a metro of 127,000). There are a lot of stone towns in the central part of southern Ontario. A book came out last year called "A Heritage of Stone: Buildings of Niagara Peninsula, Fergus and Elora, Guelph, Region of Waterloo, Cambridge, Paris, Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough, Hamilton and St. Marys". All these places have many stone buildings. Fergus and Elora are just north of Guelph and are quite impressive towns. I've shown tours of Galt and Ancaster.

Originally Posted by Denver Calling

Wow, I had no idea that Guelph had such great architecture. I used to spend a lot of time in Hamilton, but I never got over to Guelph. Has it fared pretty well after some of the economic downturns that have hit the rust-belt US, and southern Ontario?

Guelph is a university town and historically has been more white collar, so it has fared well and continues to grow.

Originally Posted by DC83

Wow, what a great set. Thanks, Flar!

I used to visit friends at University of Guelph pretty often, but I never knew there was an indoor downtown "pedestrian mall"

"

When was this built? It's so nice!! Reminds me of the inside of Le Centre de Commerce Mondiale (World Trade Ctr) in Montréal.

At first I though it was actually an enclosed street, but it's fake. It was redeveloped from the old Eaton Centre Mall. There is a nice new arena attached to it, retail on the first floor, offices on the second floor and I believe the skylights are retractable. This mall looked promising, but in the end wasn't much different than a normal shopping centre. It could have been a lot worse, but it also could have been a lot better.

[Jimby]

Guelph looks like a very liveable small city. I love those 19th century stone houses in Ontario. Good pics, thanks for the tour.

[DetroitSky]

Small downtown for it's population, but still nice.

[the dude]

guelph is a quality town..."the royal city." st. marys is "the stone town." whatever, i could live in guelph even though it's a tad on the small side. thanks for the tour.

[arbeiter]

a nice refreshing lack of chain stores!

[Stephenapolis]

Very sharp town/city.
The only issue I have is of the statue of the woman and man playing basketball or football with the baby.

You've done it again, Flar. Awesome photos!

I like downtown Guelph. It's certainly the most happening downtown in the Golden Triangle area, as far as nightlife goes.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by DetroitSky

Small downtown for it's population, but still nice.

Eh? It's not a small downtown for 115,000 people at all. Upon what do you base your comment?

To another poster: The three "stone towns" in southern Ontario are Guelph, Galt and St. Marys. No other towns have such significant clusters of stone buildings as these three places do.

I've often felt I could live in Guelph, in spite of its somewhat hippy-dippy vibe. The residential neighbourhoods surrounding downtown are marvelous. If you had gone behind the main cathedral you would have ended up in one of the nicest century home districts in all of Canada.

Guelph also has one of the best and most unique used bikeshops in all of Canada (sorry for the incessant superlatives, but it's true): Backpeddling.

[flar]

Guelph's downtown is quite large in area, but perhaps lacking in highrises.

Stone predominates in the downtown buildings of Fergus and Elora as well as Guelph, Galt, and St. Mary's. Ancaster is predominantly stone too, but it's a village, and like some of the other places I listed earlier, stone can be found mainly on residential buildings. There are a number of stone buildings in Dundas, but brick predominates (I included a few stone buildings in my Dundas phototour)

[skylife]

That place looks great.