Taxes and the Home in Upper Canada

While I was working as an interpreter within an historic home, I was absolutely shocked (on a number of occasions) to hear that visitors believed that taxes were something of a 20th century invention in Canada. Sometimes being an interpreter isn't about sharing new and exciting information with people, it's about trying to correct myths and misconceptions.

When it came to taxes and the home in Upper Canada, three considerations prevailed: the building material of the house, the number of storeys, and the number of fireplaces. In 1807, six categories were created to help determine who owed what to the government. Here they are in order of least to most amount of tax, regardless of the square footage of the house:

- Homes constructed of round logs
- Homes constructed of square timber, one storey
- Homes constructed of square timber, two storeys
- Framed (sawn wood) homes under two storeys
- Homes constructed of brick or stone of one storey with not more than two fireplaces
- Homes constructed of brick or stone of two storeys with not more than two fireplaces

Some good news for settlers in 1811 arrived when the government decided to no longer tax buildings made of round logs (presumably if you're living in a house made of round logs you can't afford to do much else let alone hand over cash to the taxman). Some more cunning families who wished to keep more of their money to themselves built homes that were one and a half storeys - 19th century houses of this height are still littered across Ontario today.

For the average home-owner in the 1830s however, the tax owed on a two storey brick home was about 5 shillings - roughly equivalent to a days' wages for a skilled labourer. It wasn't a prohibitive tax by any means, and the Scots were among the more prolific builders of homes in stone and brick:

"... among non-log houses, Scots used stone (17%) and brick (13%) most often, and frame (70%) the least, whereas about 85% of the Irish, American, German, English, and Ontario-born residents lived in frame houses." (Kalman, 170)

I have a particular fondness for one and a half storey stone houses. Duncan Ferguson house (1856), pictured here, is located at 71 Cowan Boulevard, Cambridge.

Sources
Harold Kalman's 1994, A History of Canadian Architecture, Vol. 1
Brian Coffey's 1985, "Factors Affecting the Use of Construction Materials in Early Ontario" in Ontario History

Further Reading
Historic Places "Duncan Ferguson Homestead"