62 – 66 Brock Street Property History

On 31 December 2001, the Frontenac Heritage Foundation acquired an early brick-faced frame row building from the Estate of Dr. David H. Merrit Hall, CD. MD, LCol.  The building is located at 62 – 66 Brock Street, Kingston. A Property Committee was set up by FHF director Marc Raymond. Consequently, the Property Committee decided to restore the street façade to the way it would have looked during the late 19th century. The restoration was based upon early photographs and remaining physical evidence. 

The benefactor, David Hall, was part of a family who had operated a plumbing business located in that building for generations. David Hall (1851-1930) ran a plumbing business in 66 Brock Street since the early 1900s but served as an apprentice there from 1865, starting at the age of fourteen.

Significant improvements were made in 2004 to the plumbing and electrical services. Also, air-conditioning was added to the retail spaces. It is important that this property now meets all City of Kingston codes for fire and safety. The main floor has been strengthened and the commercial space fire-rated.

The FHF board came to believe that the building is one of the oldest trades buildings in the city core. Originally a frame structure, it was given a brick façade at some point. Almost all the later yellow paint has been removed from the brickwork facing the street. The original first-floor cornice has been replicated and the woodwork painted in period colours. Inappropriate signage was replaced with tasteful overhanging signs.

In 2015, Executive Director David Bull arranged for the tap to be sent to a foundry in Hamilton for restoration, and later that year, it was re-installed on the façade.

Also in 2015, the FHF arranged for Carol Griggs of the Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory in Ithaca to sample the original timbers accessible from the basement – mainly the ‘sleepers’ that form part of the original floor assembly. The dendrochronology of the white oak timbers very closely matched the chronology of timbers sampled from other nearby historic structures and gave a felling date of the winter of 1819-1820. This corresponds to the lease auction of the land held by St. George Church in 1818.

With other historical evidence and building archaeology noted by Craig Sims and Tony Barlow, it appears the building was constructed by 1824 at the latest. Building science details found in the building are consistent with this earlier date, with the possibility that it was built as early as 1819 after St. George’s Church released the land in an 1818 lease auction.

(This is at odds with the 1824 Col. Durnford map which does not show a building in place at the time. Is it possible that the map is wrong? Is it possible that the building was moved into the current location? The search continues for the definitive answer.)

Chimney Replacement was carried out in 2019 as a result of its failure. A heritage permit from the City of Kingston was required to do so. In 2020 the paint was removed from the first floor front façade and replaced with Allback Linseed Oil Paint. This was intended to be used to showcase this traditional product on an exterior surface.