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HUSSEY BLOCK AND CORONATION BLOCK 238-246 Queen Street East, Sault Ste. Marie Architectural Description
The Hussey block has a Queen Street frontage of 40 feet and the Coronation Block, a Queen Street frontage of 30 foot. The overall 70 foot frontage gives a scale and proportion appropriate to the 3 storey height of the buildings. Both buildings were originally 80 feet deep and are constructed entirely of stone.They were designed by H. Russell Halton, an architect who maintained an office in Sault Ste. Marie from 1901 until 1904, or perhaps 1909 if Comstock's directory is accurate. The Hussey Block is the earlier and most easterly of the two buildings. The street frontage comprises three separate bays divided by pilasters. Two wider flanking bays embraced, at sidewalk level, large and for the time and location very daring, store windows. The narrower centre bay contained doors to the two flanking stores, to two basement stores (evidently a 'first' for the city) and to the second floor. This second floor was originally designed for use as a meeting hall for the Catholic Order of Foresters. The upper floors had, in each bay at each floor, a pair of double hung windows with glazed transom over, those on the second floor having a flat lintel and the third floor ones having semicircular arches. The entire facade is capped with a substantial parapet, corbelled out to line with the pilasters and embellished with blind arcading interrupted by a recessed inscription panel and surmounted by a sturdy corbelled and dentillated cornice with a cyma recta moulding at the cap. The style of the stonework is Romanesque revival perhaps acknowledging similar contemporary commercial and industrial construction at the papermill buildings around the locks. CORONATION BLOCK The Coronation Block (now Orazietti Furniture) was completed shortly after the Hussey Block, and is similarly divided into two wider outer bays with a narrower centre bay and though similar in treatment displays some differences. Upper floor windows are the same height as the adjacent block but are wider--only one per bay--and the third floor windows have oval arches. The parapet and cornice treatment is identical with only the inscription recess differing only in detail and echoing the curve of the windows. The street facade of both buildings is of course rough-dressed sandstone masonry. If 'white stone from the Laird Quarry' was used anywhere (as reported in the Sault Star at the time) it must have been at the street level since none has survived the subsequent face lifts. The masonry work is similar to that of the (now) St. Mary's Paper buildings, as one might expect with stone from the same source (excavation of the locks) and in all likelihood laid by some of the same masons who might, by then, have settled in the town. Side walls were of random rough-dressed sandstone and originally blank, although windows have since been inserted to convert the upper floors to apartment use. The rear wall of both buildings is also of random stone construction with numerous arched window and door openings, now much altered. However, those on the third floor of the Coronation Block still contain their original wooden double hung and glazed transom sashes and frames, preserved no doubt by being walled over on the inside. A large modern addition now extends the ground and second floors of the Coronation Block to the rear for the full width of the original building and numerous additions (wood stair and porch, fire escape, brick chimney, etc.) disfigure the rear of the Hussey Block. There are also indications of an original single storey wood structure attached to the north end of the east side of the Hussey Block.
While all visible parts of both blocks are of interest in demonstrating construction methods common in the City at the turn of the century, the Queen Street facade is the aspect of the building most worthy of preservation. The slightly projecting pilasters provide a subtle irregular rhythm (the wider bays of the narrower block are approximately the same width as the narrow bay of the wider block) which is perfectly in scale with the broad facade and the different window shapes define the separate ownership without creating disharmony. The finely detailed parapet and cornice, which would be disproportionately heavy for either building singly, provides a totally satisfying termination to the entire facade. This part of the building displays the best stone masonry craftsmanship in the entire downtown area. Subsequent alterations have obscured the second floor of the Coronation Block, but it seems likely that the stonework behind is substantially unchanged. Both buildings also have totally new storefronts. While it may not be possible, or even desirable, to restore the original ground floor treatment (for the function of the buildings has changed) it would be both possible and desirable to modify the facade treatment of the furniture store to reveal all of the upper part of the Coronation Block. Future window replacement might also more closely reflect the design of the original building. The wheel comes full circle. It is even now as the reporter said in 1902, "It is such buildings as these that help to build up our town in a creditable manner and the owners are to be commended for their spirit of public enterprise." Originally leased by the Catholic Order of Foresters, it was the site of many plays, banquets, dances, euchre parties, and other social and community events. It could hold a large number of people as evidenced on February 19, 1903 when 200 sat down for a euchre party. On another occasion 400 invitations were sent out for an Irish banquet. In 1919 the name of the hall was changed to Hussey Hall and continued operating by that name until 1940. The 1921 City Directory also lists the Finnish Hall and the Foresters Hall as being in the Hussey Block. This would indicate that either the Hussey Hall had been sub-divided or that other rooms in the block had been converted into halls. A 1979 Sault Star article locating the Foresters Hall on the second floor of the Hussey Block would suggest the latter theory for this hall. In 1930 the Finnish Hall moved to 126 Thompson Street leaving only the Hussey and Foresters Hall until 1941 when the City Directory lists the Foresters Hall and the Native Sons of Canada Hall. The following year saw only the latter hall still in existence. 1942 also marked the last year that a hall was mentioned as operating in the Hussey Block. The Coronation Block was completed in late 1902. This date appears on the block beside the name and the Sault Star article of September 25, 1902 mentions that Mr. Taillefer was constructing a building on the west side of the Hussey Block, clearly the Coronation Block. However, the exact date of completion is uncertain. The name Coronation Block is an obvious reference to the coronation of Edward VII which took place August 9, 1902. The first store to operate in the Coronation Block was the Sarasohn & Co. department store. It was replaced around 1906 by the Harry Steinberg department store which did not last long for the City Directory of 1907 lists "two vacant stores" in the Coronation Block. In 1911 the S. Rosenstein department store (renamed the Leader Department Store in 1912) moved into the Coronation Block, bringing with it some stability for the block. In 1913 it expanded into the Hussey Block. Hussey, Drury & Co. had closed its branch there circa 1907. In 1913 the City Directory also stopped differentiating between the Coronation and Hussey Blocks in its street directory index.
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