In Praise of Porches

by: Kathy Belcourt

Most little girls dream of a fairy tale house in the country where the handsome Prince Charming rides up on his silvery steed, scales the verandah trellis, tosses the evil villain from a second-story window and then kisses the beautiful heroine. When children the world over mature into high school students, they recite Shakespeare’s Juliet: "O Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art though Romeo?" perched atop a balcony. For hundreds of years, the infamous porch has loomed large in the imagination of children and teenagers; yet today, actual porches are often ignored as we get older. People put aside childhood thoughts and too frequently let porches rot with little thought on their functional and emotional value. While childhood fantasies celebrate a beautiful verandah, porches still have much to offer adults.

Besides keeping snow from a front door in winter and providing shelter from rain throughout the rest of the year, there are many other uses for a porch. In a time when we should be individually concerned about global warming, skin cancer, and other disparities, we can still do our part with using a wooden barrier between us and the sun and still establish a thing of beauty. Porches can conjure up images of hospitality and graciousness–a time when the pace of life was slower, when urban areas were not swollen with concrete and glass. Porches are the chosen areas of courtship as well as a place to listen to elderly grandparents talk of their youth. Ice cream is enjoyed all the more while on a verandah on a hot summer’s afternoon. One only has to sit there on a rocking chair to make the experience complete.

Porches beautifully provide shade and a place where homeowners can chat with neighbours while still being within the privacy of their own home. In summer, flowers and vines embellish its contours. In winter, the roof of the porch is majestically enshrined in snow. As a continuation of the outdoors, one can enjoy the attachment to nature and revel in being a part of it. While outside, the space that is covered by a roof provides an extra room, much like an extension of the inside. Dr. Janet McShane Galley, a professor of History at the University of Guelph, states that porches are "transitional spaces between public and private spheres, the public streets and sidewalks, and the private interiors of homes." She adds that "as structures that stand between these public and private areas, porches become comfortable places where the public and private merge together." In David Fennario’s 1983 play, Balconville, he captures this feel of community when writing about people sitting on their balconies during a hot summer in Montreal. Most of the action takes place on balconies as the world unfolds in front of the cast of characters. When we sit on a swing or a wicker chair on a verandah, we can notice our pulse rate slow down as we simply allow the world to go by.

While we tend to think that porches are most important in hot countries we should not be fooled into neglecting them for ourselves. In Australia, where temperatures often soar into the 40-degree range, many Australians have ‘iron petticoats’ –porches made of iron–as originally iron was carried as ballast in the great ships traveling from the old country. But here we often forget that Ontario also has many hot days and we need shade just as importantly as our southern-hemispheric friends. While Greater Toronto is touted by climatologists as one of the mildest weather areas in Canada, the city still has annual precipitation of about 800 mm and more than 2,000 hours of sunshine per year; southern Ontario follows closely behind the ‘big smoke.’ Our forefathers knew the benefits of shade in summer when they built porches on their early Ontario homes. Su Murdoch, Historical Consultant and Architectural Researcher for Ontario believes that the verandah was introduced to North America by British military officers who had served in India. She states that "the bungalow dwelling in India was transformed in England to the Recency Cottage [in the early 1800s] then brought by those stationed in North America." Murdoch further adds that "the original 3-sided verandah and the concept of inside/outside living were very cooling in the summer [like in India], but a disaster in a Canadian winter. Most were reduced to a south facing porch and/or an entrance portico."

There are regional differences with porches in Ontario. When we travel from town to town, we sometimes see the same patterned brackets, spandrels and posts gracing porches. Each Ontario town has some of these signature pieces worked by an early carpenter in his area that were not reproduced in other parts of the province. There were also some itinerant carpenters that moved from town to town plying their trade but this was not often the case. Then by the late 19th century, ‘cookie cutter’ architectural elements became easier to purchase as many patterns became mass produced and were sold through catalogues. Because of these differences of origin, Ontario porches became an eclectic mixture of early woodworking. Thomas F. McIlwraith describes in his book, Looking for Old Ontario, that "external decoration had become big business by the 1880s" with manufacturers making all types of "designs for the external dressing" of buildings. Yet, even if mass produced or made individually by carpenters, McIlwraith states that having a Victorian verandah meant "success" and often they "showed off the best carpentry" of the age.

Aesthetically, porches are pleasing to the eye when constructed properly. Originally based on the four classical orders–Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Roman (Tuscan), there are established mathematical proportions that bear the test of time. This symmetry has long been a sign of wealth, opulence and good taste throughout the ages. But while most designs of porches and their details are based on Old World orders, along the way we became more playful with designs sometimes to the point of idiosyncracy. Old rules are thrown out making way for individual creativity and interpretation.

Even now with some care and planning, porches can be the most welcoming gateways into people's homes. After all, porches now should not be just a childhood fantasy.

Kathy Belcourt is a high school teacher in Alliston, Ontario, and also a small-business owner. She has degrees in both History and English and owns and operates Cottonwood Historic Trim & Moulding in Creemore. When not in the classroom or minding the showroom she writes and travels with her husband Paul visiting children, grandchildren, and places of historical significance