“Canadian Castles”? The Question of National Styles in Architecture Revisited

Abstract

In the historiography of Canadian architecture there is a tradition of associating neo-medievalism with the essence or “soul” of Canada. By closely examining writing of approximately 1945-80 on two styles, the High Victorian Gothic and the Chateau Style, the article seeks to show that the styles’ alleged nationalism was a form of critical retrojection and that, in fact, the use of these styles in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Canada contributed to the construction of Canadian national identity according, first, to British and, then, to American desire.