Description of Historic Place

Sandyford Place National Historic Site of Canada is a row of stone terrace houses, built in the mid-19th century. It is located on Duke Street in the Durand area, a primarily residential neighbourhood on the southern periphery of downtown Hamilton. The formal recognition consists of the row of four adjoining houses and the legal property on which they sat at the time of recognition.

Heritage Value

Sandyford Place was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1975 because
- it is a fine example of the housing erected for merchants in the mid-19th century.

Sandyford Place is a rare surviving example of the small number of row houses built for affluent citizens in Canada during the mid-19th century. Built during a period of rapid growth for Hamilton, it typifies the construction style in the city at that time, when large numbers of Scottish settlers sought to recreate the stone terraces and grid-plan streets of Scottish towns and cities. The fine stonework is consistent with the work of Scottish masons of the period throughout Ontario.

Sources: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, November 1975; Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Plaque Text, 1976.

Character-Defining Elements

The key character-defining elements that relate to the heritage value of this site are:
- its location at the corner of Duke and MacNab streets;
- its pavilion plan, in which the two end units advance slightly and the two middle units recede, lightening the uniformity of the long façade;
- the large scale of each house, three storeys in height;
- the close relationship between the terrace and the street, consistent with the urban forms in Scotland that inspired its design;
- its stone construction;
- its elaborate stonework, including the pick-faced dressing of the front wall, and Renaissance detailing at the window and door heads;
- its regularly placed window and door openings along the twelve-bay façade;
- original interior elements, including the division into four main units with separate entrances, and staircases rising from ground to attic floors with Neo-Baroque-style posts, banisters and balustrades.