A Craftsman’s Pergola of 1895 on Sussex, with a Curve
This gorgeous object on Sussex is a wonder of Toronto. Built in 1895 by a carpenter as his own showpiece and home, it is unique. Under all this fantasy, the house itself is a worker’s cottage of ten years before, and is very simple.
The moment of crisis involved a ladder, and a windstorm. This is a nasty impact, especially as the window is curved outwards. The good news was that most of the glass survived, with only a few chips. None of the big segments in the middle broke, which was very lucky. The bad news was, the impact revealed that the window had aged badly, and had lost its cement. There were also alarming pressure fractures along the lower margin. And this was true not only of the window smashed, but of its neighbor too. That window was deeply distorted off flat, and might have fallen apart if you poked it.
Once it was free of the frame, the glass looked pretty good. Because of the crumbling at the edge, there were missing pieces, and also a few that could possibly be re-used, but better not. The broken bits were not that bad, except for two total losses which were just window glass. There were some decisions to be made, but it was going to be fine.
As I cleaned the pieces, I thought about the challenges. For the border, I decided to concentrate the good border glass on the curved panel, because it is so visible from the street. The border patch would all be on the more hidden side panel, and would be on the bottom.
Re-assembly of the flat side panel was a delight. For the border patch, I chose a nice scrap of Italian glass from the 1970s, with a deeper colour that seemed to match well with the overall tone. Leading this thing revealed it to very clever and very well made. But there was another issue. It seemed to be too big for its frame. I had the measurement, and I had the glass, and it seemed like the final object might turn out too big.
In the end, by squeezing and by using very light materials, I did get it to fit into its original size. The lesson was, that these windows were just crammed into place in 1895. They were made with lead edging, a bit too big. On installation day, instead of trimming back the wooden frames, they crammed the windows in by brute force. That’s why this side panel buckled. It was probably never quite flat in the first place. I used thinner framing to avoid this. Such a weak edge would be a bad plan on a bigger window, but this one is fairly small, and sheltered, and will be puttied in.
The other window, with the impact, was curved. Well, I now know how to lie awake night after night, thinking about a curve! I decided to use the most Medieval methods, with minimal tools. I measured the width of the opening, and the width of the curve, and rebuilt the whole thing manually in wood and cardboard. Happily, it worked perfectly.
Reconstructing this one was such fun. The problem with curves in glass is, that glass does not curve. This design, where the yellow pointy diamonds carry part of the curve, is devious and a bit crazy. It’s flimsy too, and it always was. I decided to use an elastic putty, not cement, for the seal, because I thought flexibility would help it survive, and the area available for the binding agent is so small.
Sometimes you make up a method from scratch, and then it works. It was like one of those wooden puzzles from China, where everything had to go together in exactly the right order. But once it fit, and was settled, it revealed an odd strength. It needed it, because (like its flat companion), it was going to have to be jammed back into a too-small frame.
In the sunshine, on car wash day, those two looked very happy. Glass loves to be clean, and cleaning these had been an issue for decades. People weren’t sure if they were strong enough for cleaning. Those people made a good call, because they weren’t strong enough. 128 years is a long time in this technology.
Back in place, and they fit! The Pergola on Sussex is complete. A little paint touch-up on the frame, and the ladder disaster might as well not have happened.
This was the greatest honour of my restoration career so far. I grew up very close to this thing, and I have loved it all my life. What a joy, to fix the Pergola on Sussex!
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