One of the first things you notice when you drive into Meaford is the large number of historical buildings on the main street. Meaford is currently in the process of designating a large section of downtown as a Heritage Conservation District.
Here’s a bit of background on just a few of the buildings you’ll as you explore the town.
At the southeast corner of Trowbridge and Cook Streets you’ll find the Cleland-Clarke house. It was built in the late 1870s by James Cleland, who was Reeve of Meaford at the time and later became Mayor. In 1889 Dr. John G. Clarke bought the house, and lived there till his death in 1930. More recently it has been home to Meaford’s 100 Mile Market, and currently offers apartments and a retail space.
According to Ruth Cathcart in “How Firm A Foundation – Historic Houses of Grey County”, it’s
a “jewel in the crown of the historic houses of Meaford… This example of [Second Empire style] is truly outstanding…it stands in all its original elaborate, high-style dignity… anchored by two towers capped by shallow hipped roofs…”
The original hitching post remains in front of the building.
Until recently, Meaford Hall actually did serve as the Town Hall offices and council chambers. Built in 1908, it would be the largest municipal building in the County of Grey, according to Meaford’s Mayor. “Its massive and graceful outlines will stand as a monument to prosperity and progress.. .and doubtless will be for many generations one of its prominent landmarks.”
The building housed the council chambers (which doubled as a courtroom), town offices, two small jail cells, and the Meaford Public Library. Farmers used the basement on market day, and in time this space served as ballroom, meeting area, and Boy Scout hall. Later divided into smaller rooms, it housed the Women’s Institute, the Meaford Quilters, a Senior Citizen’s club, and the Senior Men’s Euchre Club.
The second-floor Opera House featured a broad stage beneath a proscenium arch, rows of wooden seats (fitted with wire racks for gentlemen’s hats), and a balcony embellished with raised plasterwork acanthus leaves. It played host to travelling entertainers, the Meaford Citizens Band, live theatre, and local events in a theatre known for its exceptional acoustics.
In the last decade, the building has been magnificently restored, with a modern addition to house elevators and additional rooms built in a style that echoes the original.
Next door to Meaford Hall, you’ll find the old Meaford Fire Hall, which served in that capacity as recently as the 1990s. It was designed by a locally-born architect, and built in 1887. Both functional and beautiful, it featured tall, wide doors for the apparatus, and a tall, slender tower for drawing up the canvas hoses to dry. (The upper stage of the tower was rebuilt in its present form in 1908.)
“The use of especially-large, round-arched openings is characteristic of the late 1880s and the 1890s. The fully-developed Romanesque Revival, with massive trim in carved stone and moulded brick, is rare outside Toronto, but is approached here in the overall effect of juxtaposed large and small openings and even in detailing like the arcaded corbelling in the parapet. The whole design is well co-ordinated and has a modest dignity.”
From “Ontario Towns”, by Ralph Greenhill, Ken Macpherson, Douglas Richardson. Published by Oberon.
More next time.
