The Peter Pike House is a one-and-a-half storey brick-clad dwelling located on the west side of Pike Lane fronting onto Ninth Line. The property, situated in residential subdivision,is located between the Greensborough community to the east, and Mount Joy to the west. The nearest major intersection is Bur Oak Avenue and Ninth Line.

Features

1. The fieldstone foundation;
2. The red and buff brick, with its beaded mortar joints and decorative quoins, plinth and window and door hoods;
3. The beaded, vertical wood cladding on the rear wing;
4. The original roofline with its west and south-facing Gothic Revival gables;
5. The brick chimney of the rear kitchen wing;
6. The original footprint of the dwelling, with the T-shaped main block, north kitchen wing, and frame summer kitchen, including the interior brick fireplace;
7. The front verandah, with its hip roof, turned posts, and fretwork brackets
8. The south side verandah, with its hip roof, turned posts, and fretwork brackets;
9. All wood double-hung windows on all sides;
10. All wood exterior doors and wood storm doors on the west, south and east sides of the building.

History

The Peter Pike House was built on the west part of Lot 17, Concession 9, which was originally a Crown Reserve Lot. In 1828 the full 200 acre parcel was deeded to King’s College who sold the W ¼, 50 acres to Jacob Marr in 1841. Marr must have leased the land prior to purchase as his name appears in this location on Walton’s Directory of 1837. The Marrs were an early Markham Township family, originating in Pennsylvania and settling in this part of Markham as early as 1801. Jacob (1806- 1859) was the son of William Marr and Phoebe Earls Marr.

The Census of 1851 lists Jacob and Anna (Button) Marr with their five children as occupying a 1 storey brick house at this location. In 1853 Peter Pike purchased the W v4 of Lot 17, Concession 9 from Jacob Marr. Given the style and architectural details of the existing dwelling on the property it is likely that it was constructed or extensively remodelled during the later period of Peter Pike’s period of ownership. Interestingly, parts of the earlier Marr home, possibly dating from as early as the 1830s, are incorporated within the existing structure.

Peter Pike was born in 1826 in Markham Township, Dickson Hill, to Francis Pike and Elizabeth Strickler. Francis Pike was of English descent, born in 1804, the son of a U.S. army officer. He was possibly a nephew of Brig. Gen. Zebulon Pike, who during the War of 1812 led the attack on the capital of Upper Canada. Francis came to Markham in 1824 from Chamberburg Pa. and married Elizabeth Strickler (daughter of Barbara Ramer and Abraham Strickler), in 1825. They settled on Lot 30, Concession 8, in Dickson Hill and farmed the property for 50 years, raising a family of 14 children. They were members of the Mennonite church.

Peter Pike lived with his parents until he was married on Mar. 10, 1851 to Veronica (Fanny) Steckley. The Pikes farmed and raised a family at this location, occupying the Marr house until they were well enough established to rebuild the older dwelling circa 1880. A further 50 acres were added to the farm through the purchase of part of Lot 16, Concession 9 from Toronto University in 1867, but old maps show Peter Pike’s name on the land long before then, suggesting it may have been leased prior to its formal purchase. In 1906 the farm was transferred to Peter and Fanny’s youngest child Jacob and his wife Emma.

William H.Thomas purchased the Pike Farm from Jacob and Emma Pike in 1912. The Thomas family owned and farmed the property until 1965, when it was sold to a real estate speculator.

Architecture

The Peter Pike House located at 9451 9th Line is a well-preserved example of a vernacular Gothic Revival farmhouse with centre gable, built circa 1880 but incorporating clements of an 1830s building. The “T” shaped house is of frame construction veneered with red brick, stretcher bond with buff brick quoins and Italianate “eyebrow” hoods over the window and door openings. It sits on a fieldstone foundation with a buff brick plinth.

The 1 ½ storey dwelling is 3 x 5 bays with a one storey red brick wing at the front north side and a one storey frame wing, with vertical wood siding, at the rear. The medium pitched gable roof has plain projecting eaves and verges. Gothic Revival gables are found on the front roof slope of the main block and on the south roof slope of the rear kitchen wing. There were once three internal, single-stack brick chimneys; one located on each gable end of the one and a half storey portion of the house. Today, only the chimney on the rear kitchen wing remains. Another brick chimney is found on the ridge of the secondary kitchen wing on the north side of the building.

The windows are typically segmentally headed with a 2/2 pane division and with plain wood trim and lugsills. The main entrance, with a partially glazed wood door with round-arched lights, is rectangular and centrally located on the front fagade. There is a hip-roofed full width open verandah with turned posts and decorative brackets on the front elevation. The rear kitchen wing has a similarly styled verandah with newer rails and pickets, within the south-facing ell. There is evidence that another verandah once existed on the north side of the kitchen wing.

The frame rear wing, containing an early 12 over 8 window on the north side, an early 8-panelled wood door and brick cooking fireplace in its east wall, and clad in beaded, vertical tongue and groove wood, is a noteworthy remnant of the first phase of the structure’s development.

The presence of two kitchens in the house, the main kitchen forming the rear section of the “T” and the other being the one storey brick wing on the north side of the main block, is consistent with the Mennonite background of the Pike family. The two kitchens signify two generations living in the same house, but without an obvious “gross doddy” visible on the exterior.

Context

The Peter Pike House is of significance for its association with the rural agricultural community in the east part of Markham. ThePikes are recognized as one of the carliest families of English descent who settledin Markham Township in the first quarter of the 1800’s. Their home, with its two kitchens, is an outward expression of the family’s Mennonite faith.

The Pike farm barn complex, located to the south east of the house, is an interesting blend of an early Ontario wheat barn and a turn of the 20% century gambrel-roofed raised barn. The west barn, which is the oldest part, may date from as early as circa 1841 and exhibits some noteworthy features, in particular the dovetailed girts and the west gable end hatch, with its semi-elliptical head.