Hill Top Farm

The Queen Anne Revival brick house was built by Charles Powell, a wealthy retired businessman from Toronto.  It is the only surviving house on the property, which amounts over 100 acres.

Most of the following information is taken from the Cobourg World of December 1895:

Powell married Agnes Lawless of Baltimore in 1869 and they went to live in Newtonbrook (now a suburb in North York), where Powell was in business.  Agnes and her parents, Mr. & Mrs. John lawless, emigrated from Birmingham, England, in 1860 and came to Baltimore a few years later.  John Lawless (1833-1910) operated a pump manufacturing factory in the village and is buried in Baltimore United Church Cemetery beside his wife, the former Emma Brittain (1833-1895).

Charles Powell made a fortune in his business at Newtonbrook and decided to move his family to 44 Wellington Place, Toronto.  An account in the Cobourg World in 1894 of his daughter's wedding with two hundred guests at St. John the Evangelist Church gives the picture of a wealthy family.

The following year, Agnes Powell's mother became ill and died.  Agnes spent so much time nursing her mother and looking after her widowed father, John Lawless, that Charles decided to build a "gracious home" in the vicinity as he owned property on both lots 9 and 10.  The house was built on lot 10 and finished in the summer of 1895.  Agnes was looking forward to spending Christmas there with her father and family but she became ill of a chronic liver ailment and died on December 10th at the age of 41.

Charles Powell lived in the house for a few years but sold his entire household and farm effects by auction in December 1900.  He later married his widowed sister-in-law, Mrs. W.H. Jackson of Gananoque.  Powell rented his properties in Hamilton Township thereafter, probably to Fred McClive who purchased them in 1919.  Three years later the McClives sold the entire holding to Alfred E. Wilson, father of Col. Laurence Wilson.  Col. Wilson and his family resided there for some years and held the property until 1971.

This large solid home in its wonderful rural setting is Queen Anne Revival style and one of only several examples in the Township.  Characteristic of this style is the lack of symmetry in design as well as the incorporation of a "tower" and the use of a variety of building materials on the exterior walls.  In this example, brick and shingles are used.  Other characteristics include large paned windows and windows with sections in the upper sash but no sections in the lower sash.  There are also some irregularly shaped windows including an elliptical one in the upper front gable.  There have been a number of changes made to this house and the original verandahs would most likely have been more Victorian in appearance utilizing fretwork and spindles and showing more irregularity in overall design.

Queen Anne Revival is radically different from the more common Classical Revival structures of the region.  While the Classical Revival emphasized symmetry, plainness, uniformity and solidity, the Queen Anne Revival expressed diversity of form, contrasting building materials and asymmetrical turreted designs, which are fanciful and charming.  The Powell house retains much of its original detail and character, but, while its evolution has been generally sympathetic, it has a more solid appearance than might originally have been the case.