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Parapets and finials along the west block of Queen St. in the early 1900s. The building to the left was known as the Jessop Block, and the finials have recently been replaced. Rebuilding Queen St. - one finial at a time! If the old adage “everything old is new again” has any merit, it certainly has in downtown Port Perry where building owners are looking back — as they look forward. Over the past few years, if you happen to crane your neck and look up, you will see a number of buildings along the north side of Queen St. have been crowned with decorative ‘parapets and finials’. A ‘parapet’ is just a fancy name for a low, ornate wall of bricks along the top edge of a roof, while ‘finials’ are ornamental structures secured to the top of the parapets. The recent surge of interest in these unique architectural features by Port Perry's heritage district owner’s, shows an appreciation for a trend initiated by the town’s forefathers more than 130 years ago. When Port Perry was rebuilt, after the fire of 1885, almost every building along Queen St., was crested with decorative brick parapets and finials. But over the years, lack of proper and A finial high atop the Jessop Block, 235 Queen St. in the late 1880s. the high cost to repair those which | had deteriorated, led to most of them being removed rather than rebuilt. The former Settlement House block (now occupied by Tweed & Hickory) was one of the few structures to have remained intact for most of the past century and is still considered the “crowning jewel” of the town’s attrac- tive downtown. Fortunately, in Port Perry most of the town’s heritage buildings are locally owned by people who have an appreciation for the town’s his- 76 FOCUS - JULY 2014 Recently installed finials on the old Jessop Block at 235 Queen St.