Description of Historic Place

The Taylor-Growe House, built in 1892, is located on the east side of Victoria Avenue between Wyandotte and Elliott Streets in downtown Windsor. It is a two-storey, Dutch Colonial Revival style residence with a gambrel roof, and is clad in a wooden clapboard finish.

The heritage value of the Taylor-Growe House is recognized by the City of Windsor By-law 9622.

Heritage Value

From the onset, Victoria Avenue was intended to be a gracious, residential street. The Windsor Land and Building Company placed conditions on buyers of building lots, which stipulated a minimum setback of twenty feet, a house value of at least $3000.00, and an assurance that any business carried on would not be deemed a nuisance. As a result, the earliest houses (built between 1890 and the Stock Market Crash of 1929) show diversity of design, quality of material, and fine workmanship. They were the valued residences of some of the community's most influential and respected families during the middle period in Windsor's development. Victoria Avenue, from Wyandotte Street East to Erie Street, is a designated heritage area in Windsor's Official Plan.

The Taylor-Growe House is situated in the heart of this area. With its fine Dutch Colonial Revival characteristics, and the many historic homes that surround it, the Taylor-Growe House remains a testament to Victoria Avenue's prestigious past.

The Taylor-Growe House is a fine example of a Dutch Colonial Revival style home, and is illustrative of the homes being constructed on prestigious Victoria Avenue in the late nineteenth century. The house was built in 1892 at a time when Victoria Avenue was being developed for some of Windsor's most prominent citizens and families. It is named for Irving H. Taylor, a pharmacist at Parke Davis in Detroit, who purchased the house during the year of its construction, and for Helen Growe, a long-time resident of the fine home.

The two-storey Taylor-Growe House was built in the Dutch Colonial Revival style, which is readily identified by its gambrel roof. It features a symmetrical design, decorative shingles, and an upper storey that overhangs the columned entry porch.

Sources: Building Analysis Form, December 18, 1996; The City of Windsor By-law 9622, January 3, 1989.

Character-Defining Elements

Character defining elements that embody the heritage value of the Taylor-Growe House include its:
- two-storey structure
- Dutch Colonial Revival architectural style
- symmetrical design
- wooden clapboard construction with decorative wooden shingles
- fish scale shingles on the front facade
- upper storey that overhangs the columned entry porch with an asymmetrical doorway
- multi-panelled door
- stained glass window on the north side of the stair landing
- leaded glass window on the southern bay.