BROCKVILLE, Ontario

[flar]

B R O C K V I L L E - O N T A R I O



Brockville is easily one of the most impressive towns I've visited, with a substantial downtown area, a plethora of Victorian mansions,
old rowhouses and a nice urban feel. It is quite old, one of the oldest towns in Ontario, settled by American refugees (United Empire
Loyalists) in 1785. Brockville is located in Eastern Ontario along the St. Lawrence River opposite Morristown, NY.






































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[Kingofthehill]

Excellent lighting and even better subjects. A+

[ColDayMan]

What a wonderful little town!

[Thundertubs]

What a town! I had no idea. It's astonishing how much healthier it looks than it's counterparts on the NY side of the river, such as Massena or Malone. The St. Lawrence area is much more on-the-beaten path in Canada than it is in the US, I suppose.

Great lighting in this tour.

[flar]

I knew Brockville was good, but it was better than I expected, a real pleasure to explore.

I actually battled the sun the whole time. The sun is very low in the sky at this latitude and time of year and it was difficult to find angles where it wasn't shining directly into the lens. On the other hand, for some of the buildings it was just right, almost like a perpetual golden hour.

[boden]

Very nice work indeed flar!

[LSyd]

whoa, gorgeous. wow. any of those bed and breakfasts? thanks for the tour dude.

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[flar]

^^The house on the left below is a B&B, and I'm sure there are a few more. It looks like Brockville has a healthy tourism industry. There's beautiful architecture and a harbour with docks for pleasurecraft traveling the St. Lawrence and the 1000 Islands.



These houses need to be seen in person. The setting is great, they are located just off the main downtown street sloping up from the river with impressive structures all around. The picture below was taken from the same spot as the one above, but facing south instead of west. The building seen is Victoria Hall, a former music hall now serving as city hall. The very first photo, above the title of this thread, was taken from the corner by Victoria Hall.

[Evergrey]

I've always been curious about Brockville... what a fascinating find, flar! A lot of towns in that part of the country (Canada & U.S.) seem to have an embarrassment of architectural riches. And great use of the magic hour.

[Wheelingman04]

Lovely!!

[gatt]

nice architecture.

[xzmattzx]

Nice pictures. I'm glad to see that you're covering more sections of Ontario again.

It's kind of bizarre to see a rowhouse block switch from brick to stone halfway. I've seen rowhouses were one or two or a section is vinyl, essentially covering the brick, but I've never seen rowhouses where the original material switched.

[softee]

Solid!

[Bedhead]

So this is what the US would have looked like without the revolution!

Seriously, this is probably the best Victorian residential architecture I've ever seen.

One of the many things I find impressive about this picture, is the way the sun is coming from behind the buildings, and yet the red building on the left is not obliterated by shadow, and the sunlight coming through the arch doesn't look unnaturally bright, either. Amazing photography.

[Groninger]

Brockville looks like an incredibly stunning, beautiful little city! Way to go loyalists!!

[harls]

I had a hunch you'd find this place sooner or later - it's right up your alley.. bricky victorian fantasticness.

[Ex-Ithacan]

WOW, what a great looking town. Handsome residential and solid business/public buildings. Great stuff flar. I just wish they'd tear off the siding and get back to the original:




Thanks.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Bedhead

Seriously, this is probably the best Victorian residential architecture I've ever seen.

It's amusing to think that the most magnificient of the houses in this thread would probably cost upwards of 5 million pounds sterling in London.

[Brandon716]

^^Who doesn't love cheap vinyl? LOL

Nice pics!

[flar]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Nice pictures. I'm glad to see that you're covering more sections of Ontario again.

It's kind of bizarre to see a rowhouse block switch from brick to stone halfway. I've seen rowhouses were one or two or a section is vinyl, essentially covering the brick, but I've never seen rowhouses where the original material switched.

In early Ontario is was common to build houses directly against other houses. Occasionally you'll see single houses with no windows on the sides, in anticipation of a neighbour being build right up against the wall.
As someone pointed out in my Hamilton rowhouses thread, some attached housing is not technically a rowhouse, but rather houses built against each other. I just call anything with 3 or more attached units side by side a rowhouse, but I'm no expert on architecture. The secret to being a rowhouse "officially" is that adjacent units share the supporting wall. Thus, one unit couldn't be demolished without affecting the neighbouring unit.

Originally Posted by Bedhead

So this is what the US would have looked like without the revolution!

Seriously, this is probably the best Victorian residential architecture I've ever seen.

One of the many things I find impressive about this picture, is the way the sun is coming from behind the buildings, and yet the red building on the left is not obliterated by shadow, and the sunlight coming through the arch doesn't look unnaturally bright, either. Amazing photography.

Some of the best Victorians I've seen in a single town.

I always watch the highlights when I'm taking photos. I always use the exposure compensation in 1/3 stop increments. Blown highlights can't be recovered, but you can brighten up the shadows a bit with the curves function in software. I don't like to process my photos too much though.