HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSD-12-145 - 500 Stauffer Drive1
~, Staff Report
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REPORT TO: Heritage Kitchener
DATE OF MEETING: November 6, 2012
SUBMITTED BY: Brandon Sloan, Manager of Long Range & Policy Planning
PREPARED BY: Alissa Golden, Heritage Planner (519-741-2987)
WARD(S) INVOLVED: Wards 4 & 5
DATE OF REPORT: October 18, 2012
REPORT NO.: CSD-12-145
SUBJECT: Designation of 500 Stauffer Drive under Part IV of the
Ontario Heritage Act
RECOMMENDATION:
That pursuant to Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, the Clerk be directed to publish a
Notice of Intention to designate the property municipally addressed as 500 Stauffer Drive, as
being of cultural heritage value or interest.
BACKGROUND:
500 Stauffer Drive is a 45.7 hectare farm located at the intersection of Stauffer Drive and Reidel
Drive, bounded by Caryndale Drive to the east, in the Brigadoon Planning Community of the
City of Kitchener. The property is comprised of cone-and-a-half storey stone farmhouse, a
barn, a drive shed, an open water pond, cultivated fields, hedgerows, atree-lined drive and a
mature woodlot, which together form an intact agricultural landscape. Heritage Planning staff
are of the opinion that 500 Stauffer Drive is a cultural heritage landscape of significant cultural
heritage value or interest and should be designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.
REPORT:
Identifying and protecting cultural
heritage resources within our City
is an important part of planning
for our future, and of helping to
guide change while conserving
the buildings, structures and
landscapes that give our City its
unique identity. The City plays a
critical role in the conservation of
cultural heritage resources. The
listing of non-designated property
of cultural heritage value or
interest on the Municipal Heritage
Register provides a minimum
level of interim protection from demolition and the opportunity to require further studies as part
of land use planning processes in order to ensure that all conservation options are considered.
The designation of property under the Ontario Heritage Act is the main tool that the City has to
provide long-term protection of cultural heritage resources for future generations. Designation
recognizes the importance of a property to the local community; protects the property's cultural
heritage value; encourages good stewardship and conservation; and, promotes knowledge and
understanding about the property. Designation not only publicly recognizes and promotes
awareness, it also provides a process for ensuring that changes to a property are appropriately
managed and that these changes respect the property's cultural heritage value and interest.
500 Stauffer Drive was previously identified on Heritage Kitchener's Inventory as being of
cultural heritage value or interest. In correspondence dated November 1, 2011 and addressed
to the City, the owner of 500 Stauffer Drive requested that the City pursue designating the
property under the Ontario Heritage Act.
A Cultural Heritage Assessment Report was prepared by Archaeological Services Inc. in August
2010 (updated 2012) as part of the Environmental Study Report for the Strasburg Road
Extension from North of Stauffer Drive to New Dundee Road. The report identified 500 Stauffer
Drive as a cultural heritage landscape. Stauffer Drive and Reidel Drive, scenic roads adjacent
to the property, were also identified as cultural heritage landscapes which have spatial and
visual relationships with 500 Stauffer Drive. The results of the Cultural Heritage Assessment
Report (updated 2012) were confirmed by Heritage Planning staff in the Fall of 2012 through
updated field surveys and research. 500 Stauffer Drive was found to be a cultural heritage
landscape comprised of a cluster of built heritage features, including a farmhouse, barn, and
drive shed that are surrounded by cultivated fields, an open water pond, hedgerows, and a
mature woodlot, and accessed by a long tree-lined driveway from Stauffer Drive. See Appendix
`B' for a map of the property identifying the location of some of the key features of the cultural
heritage landscape.
The historical/associative value of the property lies in its intact agricultural landscape
characteristic of mixed-farms that developed in Waterloo Township in the late-nineteenth and
early-twentieth century. Established in the early-nineteenth century, the farm has been
occupied by a number of different families, but its historic association with agricultural uses and
rural farming practices continues to this day. The design/physical value relates to the farmhouse
as a representative example of the vernacular style commonly known as Ontario Gothic and the
high degree of craftsmanship and artistic merit displayed in its fieldstone construction. The
outbuildings also contribute to the design/physical value of the property and reflect the historic
agricultural use of the property and the evolution of its farming practices. Contextually, the
property supports the historic rural and agriculture character of the area and has a significant
spatial and visual relationship to adjacent early settlement roads, including Stauffer Drive and
Reidel Drive.
Additional information regarding the cultural heritage value of the property can be found in a
comprehensive Statement of Significance attached as Appendix `A' to this report.
ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN:
The City has its own unique culture and heritage. The City has places, spaces and stories that
enrich, enlighten, and guide growth and development. These cultural heritage resources are
integral to the identity of the City, but they also play a significant role in economic development
by helping to enhance quality of life, strengthen distinctiveness, stimulate revitalization and
attract tourism. Under the Ontario Heritage Act, the City can designate properties of cultural
heritage value or interest. Designation publicly acknowledges a property's heritage value and
ensures its conservation for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations. Its
conservation is regulated by a designating by-law, which provides a statement of significance
and lists specific heritage attributes. As a result, the designation of property of cultural heritage
value or interest supports the Development Strategic Plan Community Priority, and the
strategic direction of honouring and protecting our heritage.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
N/A
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
A copy of the Statement of Significance for 500 Stauffer Drive together with a letter explaining
the designation process was provided to the Owner on October 12, 2012 for review. The
property Owner has expressed continued support for the designation.
Section 29 (2) of the Ontario Heritage Act requires Council to consult with the Municipal
Heritage Committee (Heritage Kitchener) before giving notice of its intention to designate a
property. Heritage Kitchener will be consulted via circulation and consideration of this report.
Members of the community will be informed via circulation of this report to Heritage Kitchener
and via formal consideration by City Council.
Should Council choose to give notice of its intention to designate, such notice will be served on
the property owner and the Ontario Heritage Trust, and published in the local newspaper having
general circulation in the municipality.
CONCLUSION:
City Staff are of the opinion that 500 Stauffer Drive is a cultural heritage landscape that meets
the criteria for designation under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act and Ontario Regulation
9/06 with regard to cultural heritage value or interest. The farm: is an intact agricultural
landscape characteristic of mixed-farms that developed in Waterloo Township in the late-
nineteenth and early-twentieth century; contains a farmhouse representative of the Ontario
Gothic style and outbuildings that reflect the agricultural use of the property and the evolution of
its farming practices; supports the historic rural and agricultural character of the area; and, has a
significant spatial and visual relationship to the adjacent scenic roads of Stauffer Drive and
Reidel Drive.
REVIEWED BY:
Leon Bensason, Coordinator, Cultural Heritage Planning
ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Alain Pinard, Director of Planning
Communit Services De artment
APPENDIX `A': Statement of Significance - 500 Stauffer Drive
APPENDIX `B': Map of Cultural Heritage Landscape Features
APPENDIX `A': STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
Statement of Significance
500 STAUFFER DRIVE
Municipal Address:
500 Stauffer Drive, Kitchener
Legal Description:
Biehns Tract Part Lot 8 & 9
Year Built: Circa 1870
Architectural Style:
Ontario Gothic
Original Owner:
George Hislop
Original Use:
Farm
Description of Property
500 Stauffer Drive is a 45.7 hectare farm located at the intersection of Stauffer Drive
and Reidel Drive, bounded by Caryndale Drive to the east, in the Brigadoon Planning
Community of the City of Kitchener within the Region of Waterloo. The property is
comprised of anineteenth-century one-and-a-half storey stone farmhouse built in the
Ontario Gothic architectural style with contemporary additions, a barn, a drive shed, an
open water pond, cultivated fields, hedgerows, and a mature woodlot.
Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
500 Stauffer Drive is a cultural heritage landscape comprised of a cluster of built
heritage features, including a farmhouse, barn, and drive shed, that are surrounded by
rolling cultivated fields, an open water pond, hedgerows, and a mature woodlot, and
accessed by a long tree-lined driveway from Stauffer Drive. It is designated for its
historical/associative, design/physical and contextual value.
The historical/associative value of the property lies in its association with the mixed-
farming practices that developed in Waterloo Township in the late-nineteenth and early-
twentieth century. 500 Stauffer Drive is an intact agricultural landscape characteristic of
the mixed-farms found in the township during that period. The landscape is comprised
of both built features and landscape elements that together reflect its use as a mixed
farm. The farm was established in the early-nineteenth century and was farmed by a
number of different families in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, most notably the
Hislops, who owned the farm for a period of over 50 years from 1853 to 1906'. The
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APPENDIX `A': STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
historical/associative value of 500 Stauffer Drive also lies in its association with the
current owner of the property who purchased the farm in 1985. The current owner's
stewardship of the farm, which has included continued cultivation, maintenance of many
of its heritage attributes and the adaptive reuse of the farmhouse to accommodate a
bed and breakfast and conference centre, has resulted in its conservation in an area of
Kitchener that has seen the conversion of agricultural properties for residential
subdivision emerge as the dominant pattern of development.
Built in the mid-to-late-nineteenth century, the farmhouse is of design/physical value as
a representation of the vernacular style commonly known as Ontario Gothic2. Typical of
this style is its one-and-a-half storey height, L-shaped plan, cross-gable roof and a
peaked gable window. The house also features a plain frieze interrupted by exposed
rafters under the eaves, decorative bargeboard in the front gable, a projecting bay
window and a central entrance framed by a rectangular transom and sidelights. The
design/physical value of the farmhouse also lies in the high degree of craftsmanship
and artistic merit displayed in its fieldstone construction. The barn and drive shed
reflect the historic agricultural use of the property and adaptation to changes in farming
practices over time, including enlargements to what was originally a smaller bank barn
to provide additional space and functionality as farming operations expanded and
evolved3.
Contextually, the property supports the historic rural and agriculture character of the
area and has a significant spatial and visual relationship to adjacent early settlement
roads, namely Stauffer Drive and Reidel Drive. There are significant views to and from
Stauffer Drive and Reidel Drive, as well as from Caryndale Drive.
Description of Heritage Attributes
Key attributes that express the historical/associative value of 500 Stauffer Drive include:
• The farm as an intact agricultural landscape, and those elements that together
comprise the cultural heritage landscape, including:
o The cluster of built features, including the farmhouse, barn and drive shed;
o The tree-lined gravel drive with windbreak to west, oriented towards
Stauffer Drive;
o The mature trees in close proximity to the residence;
o The cultivated fields, including their rolling topography;
o The open water pond;
o The hedgerows located in the agricultural field north of the pond and on
the west side of the property; and,
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APPENDIX `A': STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
o The mature woodlot;
• The spatial organization and functional relationship between buildings and
landscape elements, including circulation patterns; and,
• Views from the cluster of built features to the surrounding landscape elements,
including the cultivated rolling fields, hedgerows and woodlot.
Key attributes that express the design/physical value of 500 Stauffer Drive include:
• Elements related to the construction of the nineteenth-century farmhouse as a
representative example of the Ontario Gothic style, including:
o All elevations of the farmhouse;
o The exterior stone walls of the historic farmhouse, constructed with even-
course cut fieldstone, and including the former exterior walls enclosed in
the contemporary addition;
o The modified cross-gable plan;
o The roofline, including:
^ The plain frieze interrupted by exposed rafter ends; and,
^ The decorated wooden bargeboard in the front gable peak;
o The historic window and door openings with stone voussoirs and sills,
including those in the former exterior walls enclosed in the contemporary
addition;
o The organization of the front entrance, including the transom and flanking
sidelights;
o The sharply-pointed Gothic window opening with cloverleaf panel at the
tip; and,
o The bay window in the front elevation, including the moulded frieze and
scalloped shingling; and,
• Elements of the contemporary twentieth-century additions, including:
o The use of local fieldstone in the construction of the exterior walls;
• Elements of the barn related to its evolving agricultural use, including:
o The north-south orientation and siting of the original bank barn, integrated
into asouth-facing slope;
o The massing of the structure, including subsequent additions but
excluding the woodshed to the east;
o The wood framing and timbers;
o The field stone foundation;
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APPENDIX `A': STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
o The vertical wood sheathing;
o The cross-gable roof, including its metal cladding;
o The interior spatial organization of the barn, including the drive floor and
hay lofts;
o The tracked doors on the north elevation;
o The rack-lifters; and,
o The multi-pane windows with wooden muntins; and,
• Elements of the drive shed, including:
o The massing of the structure;
o The wood framing;
o The front gable roof; and,
o The vertical wood sheathing.
Key attributes that express the contextual value of 500 Stauffer Drive include:
• The siting and orientation of the farm in relation to the historic settlement roads
(Stauffer and Reidel Drive), and to the former settlement road on the property's
western boundary;
• Views from the property to Stauffer and Reidel Drive;
• Views to the property from Stauffer and Reidel Drive; and,
• Views to the property from the southern portion of Caryndale Drive.
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APPENDIX `A': STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
Endnotes
500 Stauffer Drive was originally part of a much larger tract of land set aside for the Six Nations as
a reserve by the British in 1784. Block 2 of the reserve (what would become Waterloo Township)
was sold by Joseph Brant on behalf of the Six Nations to Colonel Richard Beasley in 1797
(Bloomfield, 2006, p 19-20). Beasley, a United Empire Loyalist, sold 3, 600 acres of this land to
John Biehn, a Mennonite settler from Montgomery County in Pennsylvania, in 1800. The land
purchased by Biehn was in the `lower block' of Block 2 and included 15 lots of various sizes in what
would become known as Biehn's (or Bean's) Tract (Bloomfield, 2006, p 34-35, p 404). The farm at
500 Stauffer Drive is located on part of lots 8 and 9 of Biehn's Tract.
The farm was established in the early 19r`' century after its purchase from John Biehn by Samuel
Eshelman. There were a number of owners in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, most notably
the His/ops, who owned the farm for a period of over 50 years from 1853 to 1906.
Following its sale by the His/ops in 1906, the farm was owned by a series of individuals for periods
ranging from 3 to 18 years. It was purchased by an investment company in 1969, but would likely
have remained under production. It was purchased from the investment company by the current
owners in 1984. Some adjustments to the property boundaries were made at that time. The
current owners updated the house and added a large but compatible addition that utilized fieldstone
collected from the area. The farm has been operated since that time as a bed and breakfast and
conference centre, a compatible use. Agricultural cultivation has also continued, which has resulted
in a relatively intact agricultural landscape
2. The farmhouse would have been built circa 1870 during George Hisplop's ownership. The 1861
Tremaine Map of Waterloo Township and the 1861 Census confirm that George His/op lived in a
frame house located on Lot 9, which suggests that the stone farmhouse had not yet been built
(Archaeological Services Inc., 2012, p13). A construction date of circa 1870 would be consistent
with the Ontario Gothic architectural style.
3. The barn would have evolved over time to add additional space and functionality. The northern
portion would originally have been an earlier bank barn with an overhang, constructed on a south
facing slope to allow access to the drive floor and mows on the north elevation and the basement
on the south elevation. This style of barn and the presence of several rack lifters suggest that the
barn also dates from the late nineteenth century. The fieldstone foundation found in other parts of
the barn suggests either an early expansion of the original bank barn or that several earlier
structures were combined with the bank barn and enclosed to establish the existing larger barn.
APPENDIX `A': STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
References
Archeological Services Inc. (2012) Cultural Heritage Assessment Report: Built Heritage
Resources and Cultural Heritage Landscapes. Existing Conditions -Assessment of
Impacts Report. Strasburg Road Extension from 500 m of Stauffer Drive to New Dundee
Road. City of Kitchener, Ontario. Prepared for SNC-LAVALIN INC. Prepared August
2010. Revised September 2010, July 2011 and January 2012.
Bloomfield, Elizabeth (1995) Waterloo Township through Two Centuries. Waterloo, ON:
Waterloo Historical Society
Kitchener, City of (2012) Cultural Heritage Resource Evaluation Form for 500 Stauffer Drive.
Prepared for Heritage Kitchener by Zyg Janecki and Yvonne Fernandes on December 6,
2011. Reviewed by the Heritage Kitchener Evaluation Sub-Committee on January 17,
2012.
Kitchener, City of (2012) DRAFT Environmental Study Report. Strasburg Road Extension from
North of Stauffer Drive to New Dundee Road. Class Environmental Assessment.
Prepared by SNC-LAVALIN INC. Prepared for the City of Kitchener. Prepared in
February 2012.
Kitchener, City of (2011) Heritage Kitchener Committee Minutes. November 1, 2011
Kitchener, City of (2012) Heritage Kitchener Committee Minutes. May 1, 2012
Ruttkowski, Monika (2011) Written Delegation to Heritage Kitchener. Dated October 31, 2011
Ryan, Don (1991) Architectural Analysis: 500 Stauffer Drive. Heritage Buildings Inventory.
Compiled July 1991
Shantz, Cameron (1980) Historical Assessment of 500 Stauffer Drive. Heritage Buildings
Inventory. Compiled July 1980.
APPENDIX `A': STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
Photographs
APPENDIX `A': STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
Interior east side elevation of farmhouse and close-up of window opening with stone voussoirs
(left to right), September 2012
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West Elevation of the barn, September 2012
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Interior detail of the northern portion of the barn, including wooden framing and rack lifters (top
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View northeast from open pond to hedgerow (middle ground) and mature woodlot
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View north up Reidel Drive towards Stauffer Drive and 500 Stauffer Drive in the background,
October 2012
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View west towards 500 Stauffer Drive from Caryndale Drive north of Stauffer Drive, October
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