Appendix A

By-Law 12-2012, passed by Council January 23, 2012

Statement of Significance

Ross Struthers House, 2161 Riverside Dr W

DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE

The Ross-Struthers House is on the south side of Riverside Drive West between Rankin Avenue and Randolph Place. The house was built c1906 in the Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival style, converted to multiple-family in the l950s, and has been in continuous use.

HISTORICAL VALUE

This house was built c1906 when the town of Sandwich was growing toward Windsor (the boundary was two blocks east). The first occupant was Edward H. Ross, who in 1914 was a signer of the surrounding plat used for prominent houses. In the 1920s and 1930s the resident was E.R.C. Struthers, proprietor of Concrete Bumper Company. The present owners acquired it in 1989.

DESIGN VALUE

This house is stucco, two-storey, with a flat roof and a façade that is almost symmetrical. A projecting one-storey porch is across the full width; it has four piers with wide arches between, and a sculpted parapet with compound arches; original roof drains remain at the corners. The second floor has wide arched windows similar to the porch, all with stucco surrounds. The roofline above the second floor has an arch on the front right corner similar to the porch; on the left front it is castellated. Stucco coping is along parapet edges on both floors.

The style is “Mission” or “Spanish Colonial Revival”. Typical style elements include stucco walls, curved parapets with coping, wide porches, and tile roofs; symmetry is a common feature. The identity of the original designer is unknown.

CONTEXTUAL VALUE

This location is in the former town of Sandwich, built fronting the river-front road, Sandwich Street (now Riverside Drive West in Windsor). The sides of the c1906 house are perpendicular to the river’s edge, and the front is set far back from the street (see aerial photo).

In contrast, the 1914 platted lot lines of Registered Plan 766 (and the sides of adjacent houses) are parallel to the farm lot edges, at 28 degrees west of magnetic north or several degrees more northerly than the older house. The plat includes both sides of what is now Randolph Place (formerly Park Place and Casgrain Place) between Riverside Drive and University Avenue West (formerly London Street). That block has several large homes, including Register-listed properties at 205 and 218 Randolph Place.