I started looking at books about Ontario architecture, built heritage, today because Shannon Kyles has written a book. Shannon has kept a site about Ontario architecture since 1999.

Her father, Lloyd Douglas Kyles, and her grandfather, John Douglas Kyles, were prominent Hamilton architects whose firm, Kyles and Kyles — and later Kyles, Kyles and Garrett — helped shape the city with schools, hospitals, banks and corporate offices.

Before starting his own practice, J.D. Kyles worked for the architectural firm Prack and Prack, where he contributed to major projects, including Westdale High School and the landmark Pigott Building on James Street South.

“We were brought up looking at buildings. That’s just what we did,” Shannon says. While Kyles, 70, didn’t become a licensed architect — the field, she says, was unwelcoming to women during her university years — she has devoted her career to celebrating Ontario’s architectural heritage and advocating for the historic buildings that remain.

Kyles is president of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario’s Hamilton chapter, and for the past several years has managed the city’s annual Doors Open Hamilton event, which allows public access to prominent buildings normally closed to visitors. This year, however, she stepped back from the event to concentrate on other projects.

Kyles taught history of Ontario architecture to building trades and architectural technology students at Mohawk College for many years before retiring in 2023. In 1999, she launched ontarioarchitecture.com, a non-profit resource of building heritage information. She has also restored heritage buildings herself — most notably a 200-year-old Regency cottage in Ancaster that was destined for demolition.

“The book has pretty pictures and identification of styles, but I also tried to make people aware of the idea behind the building, and where people were coming from,” she says.

In many ways, the book is the culmination of her life’s work, drawing content from the classes she taught, the website she built and the hands-on restoration projects she undertook.

The Hamilton Spectator - Opinion | Shannon Kyles wants you to appreciate Hamilton architecture

Canadian Institute for Historical Education - Episode 31: Shannon Kyles on The Story on Ontario Architecture - podcast

The book is structured chronologically, beginning with a look at Indigenous longhouses shaped by climate and local materials, early colonial log buildings... ... illustrated with over 1,200 photographs, most of which were taken by Kyles herself from the 1990s to 2025.

Canadian Architect - Book Review: The Story of Ontario Architecture: What We Built and Why We Built It

In the end, I did buy the book. It is too expensive for me, but I did it anyway. Part impulse, part obsession, partly hoarding some would say. I have a small book trolley with all books about Ontario history, especially built heritage. But, I haven't been out there, taking photos of old places (seriously and happily) for years. I still want to see them, the old places, but a photo is not at all like being there.

Originally posted to the newsletter for Ontario Barn Preservation, August 2025. (The last one I wrote any part of).

HERITAGE PRAYER

We keep forgetting all of those who lived before us. We keep forgetting those who lived and worked in our communities. We keep forgetting those who prayed and sang hymns in our churches before we were born. We keep forgetting what our fathers have done for us. We commit the sin, Lord, of assuming that everything begins with us.

We drink from wells we did not find. We eat food from farmland we did not develop. We enjoy freedoms which we have not earned. We worship in churches which we did not build. We live in communities we did not establish. This day, make us grateful for our heritage. Amen

cf. Cumberland Historic Village, near Ottawa - in the vestibule of Vars Knox United Church - adapted from a prayer in the old Covenanters' Church - 1804, Grand Pre, Nova Scotia.

How can you know people who lived before you were born? At best we have photographs, maybe a painting from the days with less technology. I do think about the people who would have dug the farmland, the wells and dealt with all those huge trees long before my family came to Canada. I have regrets for the trees even though I had no part of bringing them down, burning their stumps, and whatever roots they still tried to shoot up. 

I think everyone who is a part of OBP (or reads this far in the newsletter) has an interest in our history. Did you know they call old architecture 'built heritage' now? I guess someone decided to shine it up with a new phrase. 

I am grateful for our heritage. I am glad to be here, in the world, to see what there is of it in this time I'm living in. I will never see it all, freshly built. I will not likely be here when the last barn is gone. I wasn't here when the first one was raised. Do you ever wonder about farther afield than our own time and space, other lives lived on other planets? OK, that's getting a bit too far off topic. But, I do wonder if they have agriculture, farms, barns, and a built heritage too. 

Posted by Laura

In case you missed it!

Canadian Vintage Radio Society 

The Moving Past - A collection of Canadian archival films.

Farm & Food Care Ontario

P.E.I. Heritage Buildings - Site by C.W. Jeffery

The Canadian Railway Preservation and Restoration Association

Ontario Truck and Tractor Pulling Association

Cryptoscopophilia: The secret desire to look through people’s windows as one passes by.

My ex-husband always wished he could get into other people’s houses and snoop around. I never understood how that was appealing. But, I photographed derelict, abandoned houses for years and almost never went inside. It just didn’t feel right. Not going inside didn't keep me from enjoying the old houses, or getting a lot of photographs.

Most photographs I've seen posted from inside the abandoned houses just look mess and sad. Even more derelict than the house itself.

This is from a list of 20 abandoned towns from across Canada, and up north. There are more than 3 in Ontario. It must depend on how literally, or particular, you are about what is a town versus a village, hamlet, and etc. There isn't much left of any abandoned towns, villages, or hamlets in Ontario. It could make a good road trip to see what you can find. (Be respectful of private, or any, property).

• Lemieux, Ontario Lemieux, Ontario was founded in 1850, starting life as a mill town and farming community. According to Ontario Abandoned Places, the town was abandoned quite recently: between 1989 and 1991. The reason was that the soil on which the town was built made it vulnerable to landslides.

• Redwater, Ontario Redwater may seem like just another ghost town but when you hear what happened here, you’ll think it should be right up there with the world’s creepiest tourist attractions. According to Ontario Abandoned Places, in 1909 the local telegraph operator was brutally beaten and died while telegraphing for help. The town was abandoned by the 1950s after the Redwater sawmill closed down.

• Altona, Ontario According to Ontario Abandoned Places, Altona was founded in the early 1800s when Mennonites moved here from Pennsylvania. The Mennonite Church here was built in 1852. Today there are still churches, schools, a general store and some homes but most of the buildings have been boarded up and abandoned.