Griffin House (Hamilton)
| Griffin House, National Historic Site of Canada | |
|---|---|
 Lieu patrimonial du Canada |
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| Recognized since | 2007 |
| Type | National Historic Site |
| ID | 12521 |
| place | Hamilton (Ontario) |
| Coordinates | 43 ° 8 '24 " N , 80 ° 0' 36" W |
| Recognized by | Government of Canada |
| Approved by | Historic Sites and Monuments Act |
| Entry Canadian List of Monuments | |
The Griffin House in the 733 Mineral Springs Road in Hamilton (formerly Ancaster Township) in the Canadian province of Ontario is a typical four-room house from the beginning of the 19th century . It was inhabited by its owner and namesake Enerals Griffin from 1834.
history
The rather small and simple, one and a half story house is on the highest point of a hill from which one can overlook the Dundas Valley and the city of Hamilton. It was declared a Cultural Monument of the City of Hamilton in the Province of Ontario, Canada on April 11, 2008.
Built around 1827, the house is a typical four-room house from the beginning of the 19th century. Its owner, Enerals Griffin, a colored immigrant from Virginia, settled here in 1834. This was related to the immigration of colored people in British North America in the first half of the 19th century: The house served as a stopover on the Underground Railroad , on which escaped slaves reached Canada. They thereby escaped slavery and the more restrictive legislation against the black population in the United States.
Enerals Griffin was a settler who had decided to immigrate to Canada and immigrated to Niagara with his wife in 1829. In 1834 he acquired the former “Lawrason House” and a plot of 50 acres (about 200,000 m²) from George Hogeboom. The Griffin family owned the house for 154 years, until 1988, when it was sold to the Hamilton Conservation Authority .
Special equipment
The house has a gable roof and horizontal shingling on the outer walls , in an architectural design common for that time, over an area of one and a half floors. These have a floor plan with two rooms on the ground floor and two rooms on the upper floor as well as a cellar. The foundation walls were built from rubble stones .
The two fireplaces, the cupboards, all existing doors and the moldings have been preserved from the original interior.
It is noteworthy that the garden area is described as a possible site for archaeological excavations and is therefore part of the declaration of a cultural monument.
In the period from 1922 to 1994, the house received several restorations to restore the original appearance from 1830 to 1850.
