67 Main Street
Description
- Media Type
- Image
- Text
- Description
- Historical Name: Wade Block
Location of Property: 3 Division Street (67 Main Street)
Plan 31, Part Lot 37, RP 38R4982, Part 1, S/S Main
Property: Office Building with Residential Units
Date of Construction: c. 1860
Heritage Status: Listed
Summary of Cultural Heritage Attributes:
Historical: The Wade Block is located on a small lot that is part of a 200-acre Crown grant to James Richardson in 1809 for Lot 1, Concession 1. This office/residential building was erected circa 1860 by John Martin (OR records show the name as James Martin) and Samuel Elmore Marsh. In 1892, it was acquired by Dr. Robert J. Wade, who ran a general practice on the lower level and lived upstairs. Dr. Wade served as Brighton's reeve 1894 to 1896.
In the early 1900s, ownership and occupancy changed many times - one of the occupants was a Dr. Wade Black - and in subsequent years it housed the Public Library (the east half of the main floor). The building was eventually acquired by S.G.M. Nesbitt and then following his estate sale in 1943 it was purchased by Thomas Clive Thompson, who had moved to Brighton in 1931 and purchased the law practice of the late George Drewery (he had started his practice in 1900). Today the main floor office is occupied by Daniel J. Thompson, a third generation Thompson to run a law practice from this building - officially the owner since 1992 is 923593 Ontario Inc.
Incidentally, this office houses the original negative of the Town of Brighton Plan 28, 1866.
Architectural: The two-storey, red brick building displays Romanesque Revival style. It has raised brick hood molds to accentuate round-headed windows and red sandstone window sills decorated with an incised pattern. A recessed front entrance gives access to a small interior vestibule, which in turn gives access to the east and west halves of the main floor, which has 11-foot ceilings. It has a full basement with a stone foundation.
In the early years, the building comprised east and west halves on the main floor and two residential units upstairs. A small balcony off the living room had a wood spindle railing - now it is wrought iron. On the rear was a carriage house and stable that was later converted to a third residential unit.
Sources: MPAC; OLR Records; Centennial Brighton, 1859-1959, p.62-3; Homesteads, M. McBurney and Byers, 1979, p. 133; Daniel Thompson, 2009
- Publisher
- Municipality of Brighton Register of Properties of Cultural Heritage Value or Interest
- Local identifier
- abdap_munb-011
- Language of Item
- English
- Copyright Statement
- Copyright status unknown. Responsibility for determining the copyright status and any use rests exclusively with the user.
- Contact
- Brighton Digital ArchivesEmail:brightondigitalarchives@gmail.com
Agency street/mail address:Brighton Public Library
35 Alice Street
P.O. Box 129
Brighton, ON K0K 1H0
