Doctor's office
Doctor's office
Artifact
Description
This building is an early example of Canadian Gothic Revival architecture, a style which became popular in the mid 1800s with the emergence of Romanticism and a renewed interest in the medieval art. The result is a building that looks as if it belongs in an illustration to Grimm's Fairy Tales. The office became an icon of Dundas' main thoroughfare and was passed down from doctor to doctor throughout the years. Many of these doctors lived in a house which stood next door at 87 King St. W.West, Dundas, just west of Sydenham Street. Many recall it most recently as 'Dr. Bates' Office'.Additional Information
Records indicate the land had been firstly owned by Dr. John Willison who had practiced medicine in Dundas from 1832 until his death in 1834. The actual structure, however, does not appear on assessment records until 1848. Once constructed, the office did serve continuously served continuously as a doctor's officefor six physicians from 1848 to 1974.
James Mitchell, 1840 - 1854
James McMahon, 1852-1880
David Gibson Inksetter, 1880-1882
James Ross, 1883-1907
Lyman Craig Lauchland, 1907-1935
Clarence Lisle Bates, 1935-1974
In 1974, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce located immediately to the east was planning a major expansion project, one that would have been perilous to the medical office. Dr. Bates moved his practice to another King Street location and chose to donate the historic Doctor's Office to the Dundas Museum.
The building made its way on a flatbed truck from King Street to its current location on the Museum property. Restoration was undertaken to return the unique architecture more fully to the original 1848 appearance. In July of 1976 the Doctor's Office became the first property in Dundas to be designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.