ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVANCY CORNCORN ONTARIO

FALL 2016 BACK TO SCHOOL VOLUME 41 ISSUE 2 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS 150 Reflections – ACORN Spring 2017

In 2017, Ontario – as one of the four founding provinces – will join the rest of Canada to mark a century and a half since Confederation. The spring ACORN will celebrate 150 years of architectural and cultural heritage that tell the story of who we are as a province. Join the festivities by re ecting on Ontario’s built heritage:

• Monuments, structures or cultural landscapes with a connection to Confederation • Significant buildings dating to 1867 • A Confederation-era architect whose work is conserved • Milestone contributions by Ontario architects over the past 150 years • Outstanding Centennial projects that celebrated 100 years since Canada’s formation • Special restoration projects being completed in 2017 to mark this occasion

Articles should be either 500 or 1000 words in length accompanied by high-quality photographic images. All submissions should re ect ACO’s mission to “encourage the conservation and reuse of structures, districts and landscapes of architectural, historic and cultural significance to inspire and benefit Ontarians.”

Please send queries to [email protected]. Deadline for submissions is January 28, 2017. Submission and photography guidelines are available on www.arconserv.ca.

Eden Mills Hotel, built in 1867. Photo Dan Schneider, 2016 Cover image of the CONTENTS former Parkway Vocational School at 1 From the President: Kensington Market Lofts 1 Danforth Avenue, by Catherine Nasmith Toronto 2 Educating Future Citizens: The Beaverdams story Photo credit: by Sarah King Head Robert Moatt, 2016 4 Test of Time: Trends in Ontario school architecture by Shannon Kyles

6 The Value of Schoolhouse Conservation by Vanessa Hicks

9 Lil’ Red Schoolhome by Catherine Cassidy and Rory McDonnell

10 Preserving a Part of Prescott by Bonita Slunder

12 One Spadina: Knox College to Daniels School by Dale Duncan

14 The Three Rs in London: Riverview, Ryerson and Lord Roberts schools by Arthur McClelland and Maggie Whalley

16 The David Dunlap Observatory: A centre for education and public outreach by Karen Mort eld

18 Thinking Big: Raymond Moriyama’s Ontario Science Centre by Mary Jane Conboy and Elgin Cleckley

20 St. Catharines Success Stories by Gail E. Benja eld and Brian Narhi

22 Heritage Trades Education in Perth by Andrew Pamenter

24 Building a Better Tomorrow: The schools of the Toronto Board of Education, 1950–1965 by Robert Moatt

26 Davisville Junior Public School by Catherine Nasmith

28 Lessons Learned at Vineland School by Carla Mackie and Brett House

30 Dundas District Lofts: A success against many odds by Ann Gillespie

33 New Life for Limerick’s Old School by Lindi Pierce

34 Heritage Conservation – Of Course by Ron Bean ACORN Editorial Committee Sarah King Head, Liz Lundell, Susan Ratcliffe, Dan Schneider , Leslie Thompson

Managing Editor Liz Lundell

Photo Editor Suite 403, 10 Adelaide Street East, Leslie Thompson Toronto, Ontario, M5C 1J3 T 416.367.8075 TF 1.877.264.8937 Production Editor F 416.367.8630 Sarah King Head E [email protected] www.arconserv.ca Template Designer Jeniffer Milburn President Catherine Nasmith Contributing Authors/Editors/Photographers Vice-Presidents Ron Bean, Gail E. Benjafield, Catherine Cassidy, Elgin Cleckly, Mary John Harrison Jane Conboy, Dale Duncan, Andrew Edmondson, Ann Gillespie, Christine Rier Leslie Thompson Vanessa Hicks, Sarah King Head, Brett House, Shannon Kyles, Dave LeBlanc, Richard Longley, Liz Lundell, Carla Mackie, Arthur Treasurer McClelland, Rory McDonnell, Robert Moffatt, Karen Mortfield, Brian David Jackson Nahri, Catherine Nasmith, Ontario Science Centre, Andrew Pamenter, Lou Pamenter, Lindi Pierce, Susan Ratcliffe, Dan Schneider, Bonita Secretary Shannon Kyles Slunder, Leslie Thompson, Roy Timm, Maggie Whalley

Past President Publisher Richard Longley Architectural Conservancy Ontario Executive Members-at-Large Phil Carter Architectural Conservancy Ontario gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of Jean Haalboom the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport and the Honourable Eleanor McMahon, Sarah Hill Minister. Jocelyn Kent George Rust-D’Eye SSN: 0704-0083 Alan Stacey © 2016 ACORN is a publication of Architectural Conservancy Ontario. No parts Charles Wickett of this publication can be reproduced without permission of the publisher. The opinions expressed by our writers and contributors do not necessarily re ect those PreservationWorks! of Architectural Conservancy Ontario. Tatum Taylor, Manager R. Scott James, Advisor Peter Stewart, Advisor ADVERTISE IN ACORN

Staff 2016 RATES Rollo Myers, Manager Full page $750 Elizabeth Quance, Branch Coordinator Inside Back Cover $950 Marie May, Bookkeeper Back Cover $1050 Half Page $400 Quarter Page $200 1/8 Page $125

Please email [email protected] to book an ad for our Spring 2017 issue. All ads are printed in full colour. ACORN FROM THE PRESIDENT

Kensington Market Lofts – A Repurposed School by Catherine Nasmith

Thanks to the terrific editorial team at finished in 1999. The conversion was system supplies heated and chilled ACORN for spotlighting the precarious done very economically, giving the lie water to individual heat pumps in the position of Ontario school buildings in to the need to tear down old buildings units. Among the material selections this issue. because they are too expensive to fix. are bamboo, recycled concrete, It’s a great place to live, but we benefit and glass countertops. The original So many communities have fought as condo owners from the public doors, fitments, and furniture were to save their local school, some investment in the original building, that sold or given away to community successfully, but often the end is a was probably not recaptured in the agencies. There is a roof garden on the heartbreaking loss of a community sale for private purposes. The condo connecting link with Nassau Street, landmark and touchstone, sometimes corporation is going through a series of which is visible from the stairwell of the along with publicly owned open space. investments in re-pointing and masonry Nassau Street building. In an article about Davisville Junior restoration. While expensive in the short Public School in Toronto, I will highlight The high ceilings in the original term, there will be many years of low some of the reasons this happens, and buildings created dramatic spaces, and maintenance to follow. what ACO is doing and the old buildings also hopes to do to stop such allowed for great variety losses. in size and layout of individual suites. The Here’s the crazy part: wide school corridors when school buildings were left as generous are declared redundant hallways. On the second and put up for sale there and third oor of the is generally a bidding Nassau Street building war from developers who remain two dramatic want to repurpose these coved ceilings from the well-built structures. Here 1924 school. In many of follows just one of those the halls the services are stories. left exposed, painted dark grey, with lighting I live in Kensington Kensington Market Lofts interior. Photo Catherine Nasmith, 2016 Market, in a building suspended below them. The project was a pioneer loft called Kensington Lofts. The complex If your community is faced with a school conversion comprised of two wings – is the former George Brown College demolition, do all you can to argue for one on Baldwin Street and the other on campus. It was declared redundant repurposing for public use, but if that Nassau. Although aimed at mid market, by the College in the mid-nineties. fails you won’t have to look too far to After several attempts by the local a high standard of architectural design find a developer willing to convert. community to find disappearing was achieved. (The other partner in housing monies to start a co-op, C and A was Howard Cohen, formerly the building was bought by C and A head of the Design Exchange.) Developments (in fact the A is former Architect Alex Spiegel, a later partner ACO President Lloyd Alter). The firm in Context Developments, wanted the Parts of this article were originally published later became Context Developments. project to be as “green” as possible. in East/West: A Guide to Where People Live in Toronto (Toronto: Coach House The first step was re-using the existing What follows is the success story of Books, 2000). its conversion to a loft condominium, buildings. In addition, a central

Fall 2016 ACORN 1 Educating Future Citizens The Beaverdams Story by Sarah King Head

hundred metres to the east at Kelly’s Grove.1

Beginning his career as a saddlebag preacher on the St. Catharines circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Ryerson is said to have first preached at nearby Beaverdams Church after its dedication in 1832. Fifteen years later, when he sought to implement an educational system that had the power to shape future “useful” citizens, he focused his attention again on the little hamlet along the historic trail.

For reformers like Ryerson, consistently poor enrolments in common schools were recognized to be a direct consequence of the so-called “rate bill system.” On the one hand, if families could not afford to send their children to school, society missed a golden Detail of Lieut. Francis Hall, “The Niagara Frontier,” in Travels in Canada and the United States in 1816 and opportunity to shape the national 1817 (London: Longmans and Hurst, 1818), pp. 206–07. Digital reproduction courtesy of Brock University character and economic prospects of Archives the next generation. On the other, the Utterly unremarkable is how most region after crossing the Niagara River system made it di cult to hire and people would describe the area: in the late eighteenth century, travelling retain teachers in the poorer districts overgrown and bleak, a post-industrial from Lundy’s Lane to Hamilton. since salaries were paid directly by hinterland that exists west of the individual families based on attendance. Spring. Before the weeds and insects Welland Canal in Niagara. The problem was acute in Thorold take over, one can still detect the stone township, as Thompson noted a half But, stumbling eastward along an foundations of two buildings to the century later: “As there were only ATV-rutted path from the quaint village south and north of this path: one from a few children in that section [i.e., of Beaverdams (c. 1790) in the City about 1833 and the other from 1855. Beaverdams] wealthy enough to pay of Thorold, we come to the banks of fees, consequently the attendance was These foundations are potent – and yet the Third Welland Canal. Three heavy small, and the salary paid was utterly almost entirely unknown – reminders concrete abutments nearby are the inadequate as compensation to a of a chapter in Upper Canadian history. only reminder that a swing bridge once teacher of any ability whatever.”2 It is the story of the implementation of traversed the canal here and hint at a a system of free, non-denominational far more antique relic: the Indigenous Relying on a standardized system public education that was Beaverdams Trail. An artery following of elementary education that had commemorated by a recently appointed the ridge of the Niagara Escarpment, it been established with the Common Superintendent of Education for Upper had been used for a millennium by the School Act in 1841, Ryerson therefore Canada, Rev. Egerton Ryerson, and region’s First Peoples before economic drafted legislation that would make it various local politicians and educators refugees of European descent first the responsibility of local authorities on a hot summer’s day in 1848 a few began to navigate the densely wooded to raise, collect and provide for the

2 ACORN Fall 2016 maintenance of schools under their jurisdiction. An Act for raising monies for building School Houses and for other purposes relating to Common Schools in certain sections of Townships in this District also made it the responsibility of District Superintendents to pay teachers’ wages.

Two schools were singled out to test this new system in 1847: School Section No. 4 in Stamford (Niagara Falls) and School Section No. 2 Beaverdams (Thorold).

Already within a year of passage of the Act, district superintendent Dexter D’Everado was able to boast School Section No. 2 Beaverdams, 1879. Photo Sarah King Head, 2016 of a 90 per cent increase in school attendance. He did, however, observe expropriation of the land immediately century schoolhouses are their in correspondence to Ryerson in 1848 adjacent to the schools. overgrown stone foundations and the that the Free School System was “not odd brick. The 1879 building is an early example approved of by every person in the of the schoolhouse design template Notwithstanding, the community Niagara District.”3 that Ryerson had also envisioned as remembers its role in helping The impact on the small community part of his educational reform package. pioneer educational reform and of Beaverdams was su ciently great Codified by his protégé J. George the implementation of free, public that, within eight years, a new school Hodgins in Hints and Suggestions on education with two discrete cairns building was required. The original one School Architecture and Hygiene of 1886, that rather anachronistically assert – a 6 by 7.3 square metre frame building the characteristics were to include brick “Beaverdams 1790 / Canada’s First Free located on the south side of the historic construction, an airy and naturally lit School”. trail – had already been in use since classroom for formal instruction, an about 1833. It had been positioned on antechamber, a covered gable entrance, a road allowance between two 200-acre and a bell tower. The Beaverdams Notes (80 hectare) farms that were bisected by version also boasted decorative details 1. See J.W. Grant, A Profusion of Spires: the trail, by then a much-travelled road. like the label stops in the yellow brick Religion in Nineteenth Century Ontario In 1855, the school was relocated to segmental arches surmounting the (Toronto, 1988), pp. 144–51. the north side of the Beaver Dam Road. round-headed windows on the north 2. J.H. Thompson, Jubilee History of Thorold Township and Town (Thorold, 1898), p. Commensurate with its elevated status, façade. Although modifications have 160. the building was expanded to 8 by 9.8 been made over the past century and a 3. J.G. Hodgins, Historical and Other Papers square metres and constructed of brick. half, we can still today read beneath the Illustrative of the Educational System in façade’s gable: “School Section No. 2 / Ontario (Toronto, 1912), p. 67. It is almost certain that this site 1879”. would have received cultural heritage commemoration had the march of This is a building with a proud pedigree. About the author It served the educational needs of the progress not insisted the school be Trained as a historian, Sarah King Head, moved further along the trail to its farming community until the early MA, PhilM, is currently pursuing a Graduate current location; indeed, the decision 1960s, and ultimately became a private Diploma in Planning at the University of in 1878 to create a more direct route residence. By contrast, all that remains Waterloo. She has served ACO as both for the Welland Canal brought the of those original, mid-nineteenth an executive committee member and Production Editor of ACORN.

Fall 2016 ACORN 3 Test of Time Trends in Ontario school architecture by Shannon Kyles

The plans and thriving towns in Ontario with enough building methods students to make larger schools for a one-room practical. Very large private schools such schoolhouse as Albert College in Belleville emerged. were published Smaller towns had large schools such as in The Canada the one in St. George. Farmer journal Late Victorian to early Edwardian in 1866. This schools are scattered around the plan specified a province. Square solid construction gable front with is ornamented with stunning period clapboard siding. detailing. Today, many of these are The windows being turned into condominiums and and doors community centers with great success. were to have an architrave. The 1930s and 1940s saw the rise of Heating and Cathcart School at West eld Heritage Village in Hamilton, 1845. Photo Shannon Collegiate Gothic in Ontario. This return Kyles, 2016 insulation were to the craftsmanship of medieval times also specified. By was linked with nostalgia for the early “Any education system must be judged 1900, most of the monasteries and their emphasis on by the achievements of its graduates.”1 log schoolhouses had been replaced by research and science. The classrooms brick, stone or stuccoed buildings, but If the above statement were true, had electricity and plumbing and the style and shape were maintained. then a serious discussion needs to everything modern but the school Side window design was a matter of take place regarding the impact on was Neo-Gothic; the school had a crest local choice. learning of the new big box school and the feeling was of history and permanence. environments in contrast to the one- As the land use changed and the room schoolhouse. The few people population became whom I have met that have graduated increasingly urban, from a one-room schoolhouse are all many of these schools singularly intelligent, thoughtful and were abandoned. responsible citizens. Can these qualities Often they have been be maintained in the new school bought and turned environments? into residences, some enthusiastically From the first days of European accurate to original settlement to well into the late materials. Others are twentieth century, the one-room maintained by local schoolhouse was a fixture in any enthusiasts, but are small community. The schoolhouse in waiting to take their Westfield Village is an example of one place again as useful of the first schools in Ontario. The belfry buildings in the above the front door became a fixture community. as it called students to class as well as alerted the local community of any By the late 1800s, danger or important event. there were many St. George School, St George, 1893. Photo Shannon Kyles, 2016

4 ACORN Fall 2016 Sadly, the Ontario school boards are not terribly interested in the maintenance of some mid-century Modern buildings. They are getting torn down at an alarming rate, while other less interesting and less durable buildings are being constructed nearby. For example, in Dundas, a beautifully situated high school in a large park is slated for demolition while another high school was turned into condominiums Westdale High School in Hamilton, 1931. Photo Shannon Kyles, 2016 just three blocks Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf, Belleville. Photo Shannon Kyles, 2016 This style lasted through the Second away. Five years ago World War until the post-war mid- the condos in Dundas District to school administration of one sort or century modern school movement High School sold for $375,000. One was another. The idea that students could be announced itself as a force to be sold last month for $850,000. Is anyone easily distracted developed, and given reckoned with. The baby boom was paying attention here? modern building methods, schools accompanied by a school boom for all without windows were preferable. The In the nineteenth century, three trustees the babies. Long, low buildings with lots windowless schools of the 1970s and were elected for every common school of light, a large auditorium and gym, and 1980s can be found across the province. in Ontario. The school trustees were not ample fields for Physical Education and I have not heard of any of these being paid, but they gave their time to seeing sports were the standard design. transformed into condos. to school matters often including repairs Most of these schools were built to and maintenance. By 1970, school boards After the no-windows craze, the reaction last with cinder block or concrete were growing at an unprecedented was almost the polar opposite: the foundations and steel-reinforced rate, and there was also a growing more windows on a façade, the better, walls. Architects were careful to make body of people who were dedicated all without the benefit of bird-saving extremely safe buildings, glass. Big schools and the structures are are replacing smaller good candidates for schools. There are restoration as well as continual and very adaptable for other uses vicious fights in such as condominiums communities across and retail. The designs the province between are sometimes very groups who want fanciful and fun, and the their small local structures – made to schools retained and have extensive window other groups, usually space – are perfect for including the school boards, who want to modern buildings. Demeza Sports Centre, Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf, Belleville. Photo Shannon Kyles, 2016

Fall 2016 ACORN 5 close all the local schools and create big on teachers and box schools. teaching staff, we can only Students have been bused to school speculate on since the 1950s, and the fact that the the quality of teenage population is becoming obese our graduates does not seem to have any effect on the and what they push for newer, bigger schools that are may be able to farther and farther away from home. achieve in years A new type of building not seen in the to come. nineteenth century but increasingly frequent in ensuing years is the Board of Education building, sometimes called Parkside High School in Dundas. Photo Shannon Kyles, 2016 “Palaces of Education.” Note About the Author 1. John Ewing Marshall, Fifty Years of Rural Shannon Kyles is an architectural historian The one-room schoolhouse had Life in Du erin County, 1977. and professor at Mohawk College in graduates with astonishing qualities. Hamilton. She also serves on the Executive With money being spent on new Committee of Architectural Conservancy Ontario as Secretary. school buildings of every glass-encased description, and increasing pressures The Value of Schoolhouse

Conservation by Vanessa Hicks There is much to gain from exploring was built by Ronald Squires and James local schoolhouses. Regardless, the the value of historic schools in Ontario Coon on Lot 18, Concession 6 in 1878 bell remains lost to this day. The local and principles of their adaptive reuse, as on a one-acre lot. School sections – farmers may have been joking, but they well as many questions to be answered. abbreviated as “S. S.” followed by the said that they couldn’t remember where For instance, why are schoolhouses number of the school in that section they left it. significant and what social and cultural – were usually comprised of 3,000 to Before the construction of impacts do schools have on their 5,000 acres (roughly 1,200 to 2,000 schoolhouses, a person’s house or communities? Are rural schoolhouses hectares) depending on the value of the a church would serve as a school. disappearing, or is there a healthy stock land and population. Teachers also travelled from place to of schoolhouses, and why? The school was built of red brick with place, staying with the families during I don’t consider it a coincidence that a front-end gable and two separate their tutoring. The formalization of the I once lived in a renovated one-room entrances at the front; one for boys and school system began in Canada after schoolhouse and later became an one for girls. An iron bell was fitted in the Constitutional Act of 1791 with archaeologist and heritage planner. the roof belfry. The iron bell is rumored the ambitions of Governor Simcoe. I became these things because of my to have been stolen, some say by young By 1797, British Parliament set out experiences. When I was 16 years old I local farm boys who dragged it from to reserve Crown lands as a fund for was already analyzing the landscape, the top of the roof and through the establishing grammar schools in each finding artifacts, and looking for farmers’ fields into a nearby wooded provincial district as well as colleges and documents at the local archives. lot. Others say the bell was taken down universities. The first public schools act around the same time the school was was passed in 1807, with the following I learned that the Caistor School Section closed and kept with other bells of Common School Act of 1816 being the was organized in 1843 and S. S. No. 5

6 ACORN Fall 2016 first attempt to provide people the right to education under an act of Parliament. The School Act was revised often throughout the years, each building on the previous.

The School System of Ontario (Canada), its history and distinctive features by George William Ross (1896) demonstrates that schools such as S. S. No. 5 in Caistor were constructed based on the many regulations set out by governing bodies and early acts of Parliament. School sites, the construction of the buildings, location, design, features, equipment, and even the washrooms were highly regulated in the nineteenth century.

School sites were selected based on proximity to well-travelled roads on lots which were properly drained and graded, with trees for shade, and they were required to be enclosed by a “substantial fence.” School sites were to be no less than half an acre or one full acre if there were over 75 pupils. Rural schools were open 208 days a year from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. School board trustees were given the responsibility to judge style and material of the building. Often, this depended on the funds available to the community. Separate entrances for boys and girls, as well as covered porches and cloak rooms, were encouraged.

So what makes schools valuable to their communities? What do they offer us in Many former one-room schoolhouses still survive such as S. S. No. 3 North Marysburgh, built in 1875. Photo Shannon Kyles, 2016 terms of our quality of life? community by becoming gathering Italianate style and is described in the Schools are deeply imbedded in the places and serve as repositories of Canadian Register of Historic Places as history of the community and they information and records. In terms of being a re ection of the vernacular of its become an integral part of everyday life. architecture, schools often become small-town agricultural past. According to Caity Hamilton’s 2013 thesis representatives of their community in “A New Life for Old Schools: Support According to Hamilton, school buildings built form and represent the era during for the Adaptive Reuse of Abandoned are often lost because of changes to which they were built. One-room Historic School Buildings,” schools are school districts such as consolidation, schoolhouses are not always constructed deeply rooted in a community’s sense public policy, dwindling attendance, in a simple rural form, as was S. S. No. 5 in of place and identity, and their loss can and the need for building maintenance. Caistor. For example, The Old Grammar leave a void in a community’s cultural However, Hamilton’s thesis states School at 327 Queen Street South, heritage. Schools contribute to a that according to David Anstrand, an Mississauga, was constructed in the

Fall 2016 ACORN 7 architect and board member for the featured as candidates of adaptive Council of Educational Facility Planners reuse, often due to their central International, “A well-constructed school location. building can last indefinitely with good While there are always varying degrees maintenance and a major renovation of “good” adaptive reuse, I feel the most every 20 to 30 years. Furthermore, important principles are to identify schools built before World War II, are the significant physical attributes of primarily sturdy with thick walls that the building – which include specific today are considered overdesigned in features such as the belfry, or the structural capacity.” This provides a good dentils, or front-end gable roof – argument for conservation, as these and conserve these attributes while buildings are capable of being in good ensuring their continued conservation condition and may be candidates for by using the building for another adaptive reuse. purpose. Adaptive reuse refers to the act of It is equally important to understand Sample of artifacts found in the backyard of S. S. No. converting a building to a different use the historic place and conserve and 5 Caistor, former Township of Lincoln. Photo Vanessa or purpose than was originally intended Hicks, 2016 commemorate its history. For example, while retaining its heritage attributes. S. S. No. 5 still has former students’ Examples of this can be found all names carved into the brick. Some of across Ontario. A few urban examples our neighbors have been able to look include the Aurora Church Street around our house and find names School, now the Aurora Cultural Centre of their family members. These are (and Art Gallery), and the Hamilton some of the things that tie a place to West Avenue School Apartments. A its community and give it meaning. I rural schoolhouse can also suit a new believe the conservation of schools has use. For example, the first Rosseau a lot to offer communities, and I am log schoolhouse is now the Seguin/ always happy to see others appreciate Humphrey Museum. Schoolhouses are them as I do and care for them so that often used as restaurants, such as the they may survive another generation. Olde School Restaurant in Brantford. Many rural schoolhouses are converted to residential use. About the author Are schoolhouses disappearing and Vanessa Hicks attended the University at risk similar to the vernacular barns of Waterloo’s School of Planning and has practical experience as a municipal of Ontario? Or are a considerable heritage planner. Her BA in historical/ proportion of them being conserved industrial archaeology from Wilfrid Laurier through the principles of adaptive University enabled her to work as a cultural reuse? It is obvious that there is no resource management consultant and eld longer a demand for such small-scale archaeologist for several years in Ontario. rural schools and that their presence on She has contributed other articles to ACORN and participated in ACO NextGen. Vanessa the landscape demands adaptive reuse is currently a Heritage Planner with MHBC in or demolition. This leads me to believe Kitchener. that while rural schoolhouses are under threat, many are very good candidates for adaptive reuse as residences. Historic schools in urban settings are likewise

8 ACORN Fall 2016 by Catherine Cassidy and Lil’ Red Schoolhome Rory McDonnell An alcove between the front entryways or bathrooms. He showed us where the our home so we have also updated it displays a stone plaque which reads chalkboard was placed and where the with modern conveniences to make it “Uniondale School No. 4 East Nissouri bell rope had hung. It was charming to comfortable. We recently renovated an Erected 1941”, but for a designer and step back in time together. unfitted kitchen to suit the eclectic space builder couple with a love of heritage and retain the one-room schoolhouse A restoration was soon underway, buildings it is simply home. character. beginning with the demolition of the The rumour of the rural, one-room enclosed porch to reveal the two double A unique home that reflects our design/ schoolhouse being for sale began a door entrances – historically one for the build philosophy of preservation, year-long house-stalking adventure boys and the other for the girls – with revitalization, and appreciation of our for my husband and me, ultimately matching gabled porticos. The reference shared heritage has always been our leading to our purchase of the building photo inspired the rebuilding of the goal. We are proud to walk the talk, and in 2007. The previous owner had 10-foot-high bell tower and the retrieval living in a rejuvenated schoolhouse converted the decommissioned school of a vintage school bell found in a barn gives us a better appreciation of the in 1975, leaving the main oor original loft. In the eight years since, we have design and build concerns of our clients’ and undivided while developing the refinished the original floors, exposed heritage homes. basement for additional living space. the wood sots, repaired and restored Unfortunately, a sun porch was added the ceiling height, restored wooden to enclose the two sets of double doors, windows and returned two clerestory and the deteriorated bell tower was windows to their original position. removed, totally obscuring the exterior About the authors Future plans include restoration of the Rory McDonnell and Catherine Cassidy are schoolhouse characteristics. wooden entry doors and removal of an owners of Build, a heritage-focused design/ As owners of a heritage-focused attached garage to restore the enclosed build rm in Stratford, Ontario. They are corporate members of ACO Stratford/Perth construction company, our first priority basement walkout at the side of the County. was to restore the building’s exterior to building. Foremost, this old school is its former schoolhouse glory. Its history, for us, was its appeal. We feel privileged to live in a building that served this rural community for over 30 years.

To begin restoration, we needed a photo of the original exterior to use as reference. The East Nissouri History Committee introduced us to one of the school’s teachers, Hugh Garnham. On visiting us, the 80-plus-year-old retired teacher supplied a photo of our red brick school from the late 1940s and shared his recollections: how students toted in water from the well beside the house and that in winter months the basement was used for roller skating. He clarified which annexes were used as cloakrooms Uniondale School, southeast of St. Marys. Photo Rory McDonnell, 2016

Fall 2016 ACORN 9 Preserving a Part of Prescott by Bonita Slunder

Do “creaky-floored rooms” make for much that a new, stone Gothic Revival tradesmen of every kind found some better teachers? In his keynote address parish hall was built to complement the employment in the project although at the Ontario Heritage Conference mother church next door. In addition many provided labour as volunteers for in May 2016, David Prosser, Literary to the grand hall the building housed the “greater glory.” The hall cost $35,000 and Editorial Director at the Stratford the Eliza Merrington Memorial Chapel – about $500,000 today, almost three Festival, wasn’t saying that exactly but with its stunning stained glass window times the cost of the church. his observations are well heeded. An by renowned artist Guido Nincheri. The In addition to the chapel where example of one such place with “creaky- inscription on the chapel door was a weddings and funerals took place and floored rooms” is St. John the Evangelist proclamation: a simplified Saturday Anglican Church service for the working and Memorial man, the hall itself Parish Hall in was home to many Prescott, Ontario. different church The first Anglican societies. The Parish church in Prescott Guild (circa 1887), the was a wooden Evening Guild (circa structure of Norman 1948), the Canterbury design erected in Club (circa 1954), the 1821 at the corner Women’s Auxiliary, the of James Street list goes on. By 1959 West and Centre expansion was again Street. By 1858, necessary with a deep this small building need for classrooms was bursting at and space for the seams and a educational pursuits. new, more glorious In the late ‘50s and church was “erected early ‘60s the parish to the honour had over 400 kids from St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church’s Memorial Parish Hall, Prescott. Photo Bonita Slunder, 2014 and glory of God, 100 families in Sunday intended to be a valuable addition to School. To the greater Glory of God and in the ecclesiastical architecture of the memory of her family, this chapel This time it was local architect Edwin country.” The architect was T.S. Scott was given by Eliza Merrington, A.D. of Montreal and the cost was about 1930. Enter. Rest. Pray. B. Youlden from Brockville, who $13,600. Canada was yet to be a nation refashioned the building by excavating It is worth noting the zeitgeist of and Prescott already had an impressive the basement to build classrooms while Prescott at that time, a time of Gothic Revival limestone church with keeping the hall above for church and hardship – the Great Depression, global spires and stained glass, a bell-tower, community functions. economies crippled and stuck between buttresses, exposed beams and lofty wars, a time when God and Country Longtime Prescott resident and former ceilings. The inspiring steeple quickly (especially for Loyalists) seemed to church warden, Ms. Deborah Hayes, told became a landmark – a beacon for anchor congregations with steely me, sailors navigating the St. Lawrence River. rootedness in their small town. I remember going to Sunday school Fast forward to the late 1920s when the there, and helping Mom with the Local masons, carpenters and congregation of St. John’s had grown so kindergarten class, and attending

10 ACORN Fall 2016 Girls’ Auxiliary ... When I got older, Repairs to the church roof in 1993 cost dirty hardwood oor. In the basement I taught Sunday school too. As a more than $145,000. Contractors were the classrooms seemed more like jail young person, I remember the whole able to reuse some of the original slate cells from a horror movie and the great complex being a very busy place with tiles which came to Prescott as ballast hall was a sad dusty relic of its once lots of people and good times. Most in ocean-going ships, but more repair glorious self. At a time when folks our churches were like that, until the ‘70s. and restoration work was needed. age are downsizing, we fell madly in Indeed, the once-bustling parish hall Inevitably the mothballed parish hall love with the hall and put in an offer and the basement to buy it. (But that’s classrooms fell another story.) Suffice practically silent during to say that this lovely the ‘70s and ‘80s. The example of simple Gothic large Sunday school was Revival architecture has no longer necessary, been reclaimed and the rooms abandoned. repurposed once again, That’s when Lillian Smith this time as a residence – (Deborah’s Mom) and and perhaps the Prescott fellow Anglican Church Wedding Chapel? Time Women (ACW) member will tell. Ida Morris started the As for the church itself? New-to-You Shop. Lots of caring folks are Deborah says, working hard to find ways Nothing was more to save and restore it. than $10 and The dream is to have it that would be for ready for its bicentennial something big like a in 2022. Fundraising winter coat, usually fur. And classy people has started but a large donated stuff – one donation or benefactor lady must have been are needed. Mom’s size because she’d come home with some lovely outfits from Creeds or Holt Renfrew! The best part about this repurpose of the old school was that we were able to expand into most of During renovations inside the Parish Hall. Photo Bonita Slunder, 2014 the old classrooms. Donations rolled in and the shop had to be sold. After years on the market, allowed the ACW women to donate the building was truly showing signs of about $10,000 a year to operation of neglect. the church. My husband and I went to see it on Sadly, as the ACW got older, there were January 1, 2013. Empty and unheated fewer volunteers to mind the shop. As About the author for years, the interior was mouldy and Deborah explains, “By the 1990s the Bonita Slunder is the owner of the Parish Hall/ cold and smelled like old wet wood and Prescott Wedding Chapel and is Community Salvation Army had a shop downtown a muddy cellar. Plaster had come off in Engagement Coordinator for Friends of St. and I think the CWL started one too, so large chunks and was encrusted in the John Roof & Restoration Committee. the ACW closed up.”

Fall 2016 ACORN 11 One Spadina Knox College to Daniels School by Dale Duncan

Originally conceived as the termination of heritage properties in 1973, and – the Eye Bank of Canada, the student of a vista from the lake up Spadina designated under Part IV of the Ontario publication The Newspaper, and U of T’s Avenue – and later home to the Knox Heritage Act in 1976, One Spadina Visual Studies program, among others. College Theological Seminary and has had a storied past. The original Over time, however, it grew more Connaught Laboratories – One Spadina building, designed by the firm of Smith disconnected from its surroundings. Crescent is one of Toronto’s most & Gemmel and completed in 1875, was Subsequent additions had eclipsed the prominent and historic addresses. the original Knox College Theological site’s grandeur, darkening its corridors, Seminary. It became the Spadina which were originally designed to The iconic site is now undergoing Military Hospital during the First World receive light from an interior courtyard. a dramatic transformation that will War (where Amelia Earhart volunteered A large parking lot occupied the rehabilitate the south-facing Gothic at the time), and, from 1943 to 1972, northern part of the circle. Revival building at its centre and build was home to Connaught Laboratories – But all that is about to change. out the unrealized northern face of the where penicillin and polio vaccines were circle with a contemporary addition. developed and produced. The renewal of One Spadina represents Designed by the Boston-based firm the largest architecture school NADAAA, the complex will soon be the In the 1960s, when Spadina Avenue expansion ever undertaken in Canada. new home of the University of Toronto’s was under threat of being transformed In revitalizing the site, the Daniels John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, into an expressway, the monumental Faculty hopes to reconnect it to the Landscape, and Design. building suffered from neglect. In the broader city and establish a hub where following decades, it was used by a urbanists, city builders and others Listed on the City of Toronto’s inventory wide variety of groups and institutions

Eastern face of One Spadina. Rendering by NADAAA, courtesy of the Daniels Faculty, 2013

12 ACORN Fall 2016 can, to quote the Faculty, “engage in and valleys of the discussion and debate on how to build existing building, more beautiful, sustainable, and socially and the materials just cities and landscapes.” were chosen to complement Of course, restoring the heritage building the beautiful at One Spadina Crescent hasn’t been golden brick,” without its challenges. As Andrew Pruss, says Faulkner. principal at ERA, explains, very little had “Fluctuations and been invested in maintaining the site built elements in over the past 50 years. As the project’s the landscape are preservation architects, ERA has been meant to respond working closely with NADAAA to provide to the architecture expertise and advice on the treatment of of the original the structure’s heritage features. building as well.” View of construction from the north. Photo Richard Longley, 2016

“It’s a spectacular building in a great The new complex at may gather outside the building’s grand location but it needed a lot of work,” One Spadina will more than double the south-facing entrance – pays homage to says Pruss. “When we started, it still had space for the Daniels Faculty, enhancing the original plan for the site, pre-Knox all its original windows, which were in its research potential and allowing for College, as a prospect to the lake. poor condition; it had its original heating better public outreach and engagement. The careful planning and thoughtful system, and the roof needed substantial The Principal Hall, in the heart of the repair.” design has not gone unnoticed. In new addition, will provide exible spaces 2014, NADAAA was recognized with a ERA’s first job was helping the NADAAA for the Faculty’s popular public lecture Holcim Award. The international jury better understand both the values and series. Meanwhile, a double-height, commended the design for creating challenges associated with the site. 8,000 square-foot (743 square-metre) a dialogue between the past and the They then assisted them in thinking Architecture and Design Gallery in the present and called the project “a rare strategically about improvements sub-level of the addition will allow for approach towards bringing a heritage that would allow the original cloister professionally curated exhibitions of building back to life.” to perform, in conjunction with the international significance, and provide contemporary addition and landscape, a forum for established and emerging Toronto’s City Planning staff also praised as a twenty-first century building. talent within Canada. the new design calling the rehabilitation of the landmark property “a fantastic Haphazard additions made over the The contemporary addition will give a opportunity for on-site awareness of years were demolished, new windows northern face to the site, with graduate heritage conservation, design and were installed. the roof was insulated and undergraduate studios on the practice.” They also noted that “The and repaired, and masonry was restored. second and third oors overlooking University of Toronto, NADAAA Inc. and Internally, wood detailing was uncovered Spadina Avenue and a state-of-the-art ERA Architects Inc. are to be commended and brought back to life, original wood fabrication lab on the ground level. A for achieving something that is very oors were retained throughout, and series of pavilions fanning out from the dicult: designing a bold, modern original brick was left exposed. main addition will house the Global addition to a landmark heritage building Cities Institute, a model cities theatre with subtlety and elegance.” Katie Faulkner, principal at NADAAA, and laboratory, and a new Institute of who along with Nader Tehrani designed Architecture and Health. the new complex at One Spadina, says, “Almost every decision was made to A public “street” along the east-west axis through the centre of the building complement the original building.” About the author establishes a bridge between the Dale Anne Duncan is a communications “The expressive verticals and the roof Harbord Village neighbourhood to the o cer at the John H. Daniels Faculty of line on the addition is meant to be a west and the university to the east, while Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the response to the spires, dormers, peaks a belvedere – a terrace where people University of Toronto.

Fall 2016 ACORN 13 The Three Rs in London by Arthur McClelland and Riverview, Ryerson and Lord Roberts schools Maggie Whalley

The three Rs in this case do not refer to These 100-year-old schools provide into the curriculum. Lord Roberts School reading, writing and arithmetic but to exemplars of what can happen: one actually had a swimming pool in the three schools in London whose names survived as a school, one changed its use basement and Ryerson School was the begin with ‘R’ which all opened in 1916. slightly and the other became something most innovative of all – it was actually Although all three are 100 years old, else entirely. Luckily none faced the final designed around a central gymnasium Riverview, Lord Roberts and Ryerson stage: demolition and disappearance. and the classrooms fanned out from all were built in very different architectural sides. Kindergartens were also relatively These three Rs were agships of styles and have subsequently new and were carefully designed, often residential suburbs and all three encountered different fates. occupying separate wings with windows remain as significant cultural markers on all sides. Lord Roberts had fireplaces Schools occupy a slightly uncomfortable of London’s growth. Two of them, Lord in the second oor kindergarten and niche in Canadian urban architectural Roberts and Riverview, were located Riverview’s kindergarten was lit by history as they are not only significant in suburbs just outside the core. Lord stained glass windows portraying scenes Roberts School took on from nursery rhymes. On the oor above the pupils from a previous was another innovation – a classroom for Princess Avenue school which household and manual training. was two blocks closer to the core and was itself built in Riverview School was nicknamed “the the already well-developed Bastille” by some of its former pupils neighbourhood of Woodfield. because of its fortress-like quality, with It was the notable site of Bleak two substantial wings from a central House, built in 1853, the place core with high walls punctuated by small where London’s pre-eminent windows. However, the demand for settler and colonizer Colonel light and fresh air was met by ranks of Thomas Talbot allegedly died. At large windows at the ends of the wings. Riverview School in the area of Lord Roberts School is a contemporary Riverforks (as it is known today) rendition of Collegiate Gothic style scratch and ad hoc remedies with Art Deco details. The blocky and had been applied to satisfy the tall symmetrical facade looms over the growing demand. The school neighbourhood as a bastion of modern Riverview School. Photo Arthur McClelland and Maggie Whalley, actually started life in a cottage education. For both of these schools the 2016 on Riverview Avenue housing architecture demonstrates modernity, first grade, with second grade but this is provided less through barometers of growth but also are students later joining them in the dining structural elements and massing and victims of it. They are at the mercy of room and kitchen. Later, another class more from brick and concrete Art Deco the shifting tides of demographics; a was housed in a large tent pitched by the details. Riverview has herring-bone newly thriving suburb becomes – all too river. and picture frame brick detailing, with soon – a neighbourhood of an aging concrete diamonds and cartouches. These schools were not only fulfilling a population whilst the young families Lord Roberts exhibits vertical ranks of need for space, but also accommodated move ever outwards. Schools not only brickwork, and bays are highlighted new ideas in education. They were built accommodate pupils but the current, with concrete entablatures and columns. at a time when educational theory and constantly changing, educational Its modernity is ensured by the large was being refreshed by incorporating theory. windows throughout. physical fitness and outdoor activities

14 ACORN Fall 2016 factor in Lord in 1981 and boasting London’s only Roberts’ survival. dinosaur in its grounds. This is an entirely The Three Rs in London Woodfield, appropriate example of adaptive reuse. arguably London’s Schools are large, built specific to first high status purpose and thus are unwieldy objects suburb, is in a for appropriate reuse. They pose locale positioned challenges to one of the first principles between of c downtown and onservation, which is successful and what was the often imaginative adaption. industrial area The future is not clear. The North of Old East. After Ryerson School, digital rendering, 2016 American demographic is predicated a long period on continuing growth and this has led The sprawling Ryerson School was of decline, this to bigger “collector” schools (mostly different. Designed in a Moderne largely Victorian neighbourhood has high schools) found in the fields beyond style with Arts and Crafts elements, it seen a renaissance, especially since it existing suburbs where the student received accolades and visitors from became a Heritage Conservation District, body is entirely bused or transported in. across Canada and the outside world. and it is still attracting families. The Neighbourhood schools have, in many Access to open air was important from school, however, is the “transitional” one cases, been displaced by fortresses of the outset with classrooms lit by large of the three. In 1985 windows and skylights and doors leading it became the first directly outside from them. Situated on completely French Victoria Street in London’s Old North, immersion public it was surrounded by fields when built. school in London. Pupils tended gardens across the road and the produce was sold. This area of Riverview then is the London was, and still is, an architectural only one that has showcase – and Ryerson was no completely changed exception. The one-storey building had a its role. Lord Roberts ranch-like feel, presaging the Prairie style had been nestled of later decades with its strong horizontal into an already lines. well established neighbourhood,

It is probably not the innovative design and Ryerson was Lord Roberts School, digital rendering, 2016 that preserved Ryerson as the only at the frontier of bona fide public school of London’s a growing new three Rs. Once again demographics community. Riverview’s location was education surrounded by oceans of are the determining factor. Old North, a little awkward, tucked into a corner space. What happens next? the fashionable suburb largely of the on the riverbank flanking Wharncliffe 1920s–40s, has retained its appeal. The Road. This became even more parlous as houses are spacious and gracious and Wharncliffe turned into a major arterial many families like to live here. Unusually road and divided the neighbourhood in a About the authors for a new suburb, Old North never had decisive way. Riverview’s catchment area Arthur McClelland is ACO London’s a church as an anchor and focus for the had never achieved the cohesiveness of programme secretary as well as earning his community. Ryerson School thus filled the previous two. It closed as a school living as the Librarian of the London Room, this role and it is the only institutional in 1978 when it had fewer than 100 the local history archive at the London Public building in the exclusively residential pupils attending (contrasted to 359 in Library. He and his team organize walks, bus outings, talks and other events for ACO neighbourhood. 1969). But it has undergone a sparkling London. Maggie Whalley is Past President metamorphosis as Canada’s first Like Ryerson, the viability of the of the branch and has been on and o the Children’s Museum, opening its doors executive since the early 1990s. neighbourhood was a determining

Fall 2016 ACORN 15 The David Dunlap Observatory A centre for education and public outreach by Karen Mortfield

Opened in 1935 as a cornerstone of Jessie Donalda Dunlap, to discuss machine shops in grand style. Andre astronomy education, the David Dunlap building an observatory as a memorial Scheinmann, in his report to Richmond Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ontario, to her husband. Hill Town Council in 2008, enthused: was the culmination of a long, arduous Entranced by the idea, Jessie Dunlap The Administration Building is a journey. agreed, becoming one of the first major architectural achievement. Mathers and Haldenby successfully It was the dream of Dr. Clarence Chant, women to endow a major scientific combined an eloquent memorial to who was the University of Toronto’s first institution. She and Dr. Chant spent the patron’s husband, David Dunlap, (and for many years its only) astronomy long months searching for the perfect with a functional administrative professor. location and settled on a 72.8 hectare and research facility supporting the parcel of farmland in Richmond Hill, Observatory. Literally at its core the In 1907, he began offering public Ontario. building integrates the sacred and lectures and talks, promoting the idea scientific … of a world-class observatory for Toronto. The observatory itself is a marvel of Year after year he taught the first engineering in the midst of a prosaic In this congenial atmosphere, the David generation of Canadian astronomers, suburban landscape. The 72 tonne Dunlap Observatory was the training fitting in public talks and interviews copper observatory dome, 18.5 metres ground for generations of Canadian whenever time permitted. in diameter, rises out of the green astronomers. It was never easy, though. landscape like an atomic age spacecraft. Canadian weather, both in summer and However, it wasn’t until 1921 that The telescope inside remains the largest winter, left scientists with far fewer clear he attracted the attention of mining optical telescope in Canada, little nights than they would like to observe executive David Dunlap, who seemed changed from the day it was installed. the night sky. interested in funding the grand scheme. Mr. Dunlap’s untimely death in 1924 left Adjacent to the observatory, the Astronomers took every opportunity – the plan in limbo. Dr. Chant persevered, Administration Building houses every clear night hour – to watch and and in 1926 approached David’s widow, o ces, classrooms, laboratories and study and learn. Dr. Helen Sawyer Hogg, one of the female pioneers in the field, produced cutting-edge research on globular star clusters and for years wrote a popular column on astronomy in The Toronto Star. Tom Bolton’s careful analysis of data provided by the DDO telescope provided the first direct evidence that Cygnus X-1 was a black hole.

The university’s astronomy department was housed there for many years and graduate students remember the long nights of observing while coyotes howled in the surrounding landscape.

But research interests change, equipment ages and in the case of the Adjacent to the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill is the administrative building by Mathers and Dunlap Observatory, light pollution Haldenby of 1935. Photo Richard Longley, 2016

16 ACORN Fall 2016 from the Greater Toronto Area continued to encroach.

Faculty research needs were increasingly filled using newer, bigger telescopes located in darker locations, such as Hawaii and Chile and, of course, out in space.

Finally, in 2008, the university made the decision to sell the David Dunlap Observatory and the lands that surround it. While the sale of the site to developers was controversial, the funds allowed the university to create the Dunlap Institute.

Professor Bryan Gaensler is the Director of the Dunlap Institute, The observatory is open for special events and educational programs today. Photo Karen Mort eld, 2016 leading the next chapter in the nights and guest lectures to Girl Guide old telescope have a significant impact Dunlap legacy. He says: and Scout tours, special event programs on students, even today: and school visits. The public program The Dunlap Institute for Astronomy Opening the enormous shutters, and Astrophysics is the scientific nights, designed to appeal to both non- rotating the massive dome, and successor to the David Dunlap astronomers and knowledgeable visitors, moving with one hand the well- Observatory, both in letter and spirit. have become so popular that tickets for balanced enormous telescope, never Now based on the U. of T. campus each program sell out months ahead of fails to elicit gasps of excitement from in Toronto, the Dunlap Institute time. the students and teachers. W hile continues the vision of Clarence seeing the telescope and learning Chant and of the Dunlap family: The amateur astronomers undertaking how it works thrills the young science to push back the boundaries of this labour of love are intent on students, the experience of seeing knowledge, and to share the wonder firsthand the gears and mechanisms providing a personal experience for each of science with the wider public. of the engineering and design of the Through a variety of initiatives, visitor, creating a series of one-on-one telescope and dome also appeals including ongoing partnerships interactions. This approach encourages to the less academically inclined with the DDO, the Dunlap Institute guests to feel they’re part of the DDO students. is deeply committed to utilizing the story. latest astronomy technology to make The Dunlap family has publicly praised major breakthroughs, and to train the Chris Vaughan of AstroGeo: Science next generation of astrophysicists and the Observatory’s new role as a centre cosmologists. Outreach Specialists runs daytime for education and public outreach, school programs at the Observatory. describing the outreach programs and As for the now 81-year-old Observatory He believes, “The DDO offers a unique the Dunlap Institute’s educational work and Administration Building, it remains opportunity for me to blend the science as legacies that would make Jessie in operation as an education and public of astronomy with the history of the Donalda Dunlap proud. outreach facility, rescued by a dedicated observatory. I like to tell the story of volunteer team. Members of the Royal Professor Chant and the Dunlaps, and Astronomical Society of Canada, Toronto paint a picture of the world of the early About the author Centre, have spent the past seven years 1930s – including the limitations of Karen Mort eld is an executive maintaining and operating the heritage international travel in that era.” consultant, providing customer care, crisis facility. communication and media relations Chris, a geophysicist by training and an counsel. She has served the David Dunlap The volunteers offer educational astronomy educator by inclination, says Observatory as a volunteer with the Royal programs ranging from public observing the heritage architecture and enormous Astronomical Society of Canada since 2009.

Fall 2016 ACORN 17 Thinking Big by Mary Jane Conboy and Raymond Moriyama’s Ontario Science Centre Elgin Cleckley

“Science and technology are empty centre in 1964. Initially, principal being invited to conferences, where he without a relationship to humanity architect Raymond Moriyama refused would sit before museum curators and and nature,” says Raymond Moriyama, the job, acknowledging it was a huge administrators: principal architect of the Ontario Science undertaking for his small, four-person They were throwing invisible rotten Centre. firm. However, given the growing sense tomatoes at me: you crazy architect! of optimism in Canada at the time, he This is not what a science museum is On July 8, 2016, we had the opportunity reconsidered: “I think Canadians sensed all about. What a bad idea. to sit down with award-winning, that we could do something different.” trailblazing architect Raymond Moriyama When the Centre opened to widespread to speak about the Ontario Science And different is what Moriyama achieved. positive acclaim, the controversy Centre, a monumental project he dissipated and hundreds of other science The building of the Ontario Science undertook nearly 50 years ago. and technology museums have since Centre was ground-breaking, signalling adopted Moriyama’s approach. Since opening in 1969, the Ontario a dramatic shift from the traditional Science Centre has welcomed more than science museum model. Rather than During the 1960s, brutalist architecture 50 million visitors through its doors. In static display cases and explanatory was the style commonly adopted for 2019, the Science Centre will celebrate 50 panels, Moriyama, in collaboration with government and public buildings, and years of engaging the public in science Ontario Science Centre chief exhibit the Ontario Science Centre was no experiences on a wide range of topics designer Taizo Miyake, created an different. Although Moriyama toyed with ranging from human anatomy to China, interactive wonderland that engaged a number of innovative design ideas circuses to sport, and space to magic. visitors in creative, hands-on learning including hovercraft and unwalled, open- experience. air models, the provincial government A gift from the province to celebrate specified a sturdy structure was required. Canada’s centennial, the provincial At the time, Moriyama’s revolutionary government commissioned Moriyama museological approach was met with Moriyama cleverly used brutalism to his & Teshima Architects to design the much resistance. Moriyama recalls advantage to further his belief that the

Raymond Moriyama, Moriyama & Teshima Architects, was principal architect of the Ontario Science Centre. Opened in 1969 it is located at 770 Don Mills Road in Toronto. Additions designed by Eb Zeidler in 1996 and Jack Diamond in 2006 expanded the iconic attraction. Photo Ontario Science Centre, 2007

18 ACORN Fall 2016 building – not only its contents – should traverses a lush valley and a be experiential. He was adamant that network of escalators built everything had to be tactile: “I didn’t into the valley that descend want slick walls. I wanted something to 27 metres to the ravine oor, attract people to touch.” Central to this providing unobstructed views of approach are the textured, concrete the local ora and fauna. walls – with their uneven, hand-chipped “The building was always surfaces – found both inside and designed as a tool – a black outside the Centre. box with services to allow you In other areas the concrete is at to do whatever you want,” and embedded with wood grain and says Moriyama. “There was a pebbles that evoke the nearby Don recognition that approaches River and recall industrial wood mills to content would evolve and from days gone by. While symbolic, that the exhibit halls needed to these textures are both durable and be exible enough to allow for touchable, again reinforcing Moriyama’s rapid and dramatic changes.” interactive philosophy. Over the years, this built-in For Moriyama, science, technology and exibility has allowed the nature are intricately intertwined. The Ontario Science Centre to heavily-wooded ravine site provided provide a more responsive The textured concrete walls support Moriyama’s vision that a unique opportunity to highlight this approach to engaging visitors everything be tactile. Photo Ontario Science Centre, 2016 interconnectivity through creative of all ages. The building has Moriyama’s advice on how to meet the architecture while conserving and undergone a number of physical needs of the future? optimizing the stunning, natural setting. transformations since 1969, including The result: three separate, cylindrical the addition of the province’s first Be aggressively imaginative … there should be collaboration between structures – or towers – that intersect OMNIMAX® theatre in 1996; the building the content and the container. in the building’s central Great Hall to of the unique learn-through-play space Don’t be dragged down by practical form the shape of a trillium, Ontario’s for kids eight and under – KidSpark – and conservative answers … The provincial ower. in 2003; the design of the innovative future is in the hands of people outdoor exploration plaza TELUSCAPE with imagination. Imagination costs Moriyama learned that people typically in 2006; and the creation of the entirely nothing and thinking big has its take in 20,000 square feet (1858 square experimental Weston Family Innovation rewards for the public and the future. metres) of exhibition space before tiring. Centre in 2007. With this in mind, Moriyama designed About the authors Mary Jane Conboy is the Director of Science the building’s transitional spaces to “Interactive engagement with visitors Content and Design at the OSC. Since 2010, include windows to outdoor spaces, the has always been an area where the she has led the development of exhibitions natural light allowing visitors to re ect Ontario Science Centre excels,” says including Imaginate and The AstraZeneca and prepare for the next part of their Moriyama. Human Edge and the renewal of the journey. An excellent example of this Weston Family Innovation Centre. She has architectural approach is the Great Hall, Today, there are many cultural an MSc in Geology and Biology and a PhD in Land Resource Science. a two-storey, cathedral-like space that attractions that offer interactive experiences, competing for visitor boasts floor-to-ceiling windows and Elgin Cleckley has been the 3D Group Leader provides a breathtaking view of the river attention and time. As the Ontario and Senior Exhibit Designer, Science Content valley below. Science Centre looks towards the next and Design Department at the OSC since 50 years, it is poised for a creative leap 2001. He was the Design Coordinator on the To further emphasize the correlation to continue serving the community and Agents of Change Project, and has worked between science, technology and growing and nurturing its relationship on the Weston Family Innovation Centre interactive experience model. He has also nature, Moriyama included a 70-metre with visitors. designed exhibits for Imaginate, Forest glass-enclosed, pedestrian bridge that Lane and the Cohon Family Nature Escape.

Fall 2016 ACORN 19 St. Catharines Success Stories by Gail E. Benjafield and Brian Narhi

Throughout Ontario, old buildings once of the city. More than 185 years old, it Wings were added in 1873, and a tower treasured by their communities have is still a striking building despite some at the front was constructed in 1880. been demolished for more modern, alterations. The building then assumed an Italianate serviceable structures. The great age of appearance. By 1827, the city’s population had destruction was during the 1960s. In St. significantly increased and the need Catharines, three old schools have been In 1923, a new “Collegiate Institute” was felt for the establishment of an left standing, all successfully adapted for was opened. Between 1924 and 1977, “Academy.” Land was donated by William other uses. the old Academy was used as the W. J. Hamilton Merritt, and fundraising for Robertson Public School. St. Catharines (then part of Grantham the building commenced. Designed by Township) had fewer early schools than William Allen, the building was Neo- The structure was renovated at various in the Town of Niagara (Niagara-on- Classical or Classical Revival in style. In times during the past sixty years. Gables the-Lake). Most children were taught at 1829, The Colonial Advocate newspaper at either end of the building were home, although wealthier families sent noted that St. Catharines contained “a removed, so the structure now features their children to boarding schools. The handsome Academy, built of brick.” The a hipped roof. The cupola on the tower first school in St. Catharines was in a St. Catharines Journal in the same year was also removed, leaving it truncated at the level of the eaves. Ornate, log building, constructed around 1799, described it as being two storeys, “with pediment-shaped window heads were and used until at least 1827. It was near a neat cupola and spires” and a “bell removed. Extra windows were added the first church, on land donated by the of good size.” The bell was donated by to provide more interior light. The merchant Robert Hamilton. Between Oliver Phelps, a contractor on the first building was given a sandblasting 30 1829 and 1853, several private schools Welland Canal. The school rests on a years ago. Despite this, the building still were opened. These were in addition to fieldstone foundation, and the interior retains much of its nineteenth-century the “Ward Schools,” as well as a Separate has its original hand-hewn timbers. appearance. School, and a “School for Coloured The building opened for classes in 1829 Children.” Since its closure as a school, it has been as a private boys’ school. It then became used for a variety of purposes: as an Robertson School a “Grammar School” in 1845, and was Alternative school, and as the home The oldest and most central of all the renamed the “St. Catharines Collegiate of various arts groups, known as the schools is Robertson School, in the heart Institute” in 1872. Lincoln Arts Centre. It is now used by the St. Catharines Folk Arts Council and Multicultural Centre. The Folk Arts Centre offers English as a Second Language classes and helps new immigrants adjust to life in the region.

Old Parnall School In the nineteenth century, Grantham Township was divided into “School Sections.” The north-west part of the township fell within “School Section No. 3.” Two schools for this section were built on the Stephen Parnall farm, the first in 1850. The second school was The former Robertson Public School, now the Niagara Folk Arts Multicultural Centre. Photo Brian Narhi, 2016 demolished during construction of the

20 ACORN Fall 2016 “Edwardian Classicism”, typical of many institutions of its time. The three-storey, red brick structure features a striking carved stone frontispiece, with the name of the school over the main entrance. The third-storey roof line directly above it is Dutch or Flemish in style, characteristic of the various “Colonial Revival” styles which gained popularity in the early 1900s. It was enlarged in 1928.

In 1983, Victoria School was featured in MGM Studios’ A Christmas Story, and was selected as the best looking building to represent an American public school

Parnall School today. Photo Brian Narhi, 2016 during the 1950s. The interior sets and actors’ costumes were appropriate to the third Welland Canal. The third school was until about 1949, when it was replaced period. A agpole sporting an American erected in 1875, at the south-west corner by the present Parnall School. flag was an important feature in the film; of the Parnall farm. a child actor had to stick his tongue on After closure the property was sold and the pole in winter, with the inevitable This structure was a one-storey, rough- the building converted into a private results. cast building, with three windows in residence. It lost its chimney, date each of the sidewalls. End walls each stone, and porches. New windows were With declining enrollment, the decision contained an enclosed entry porch. installed in the building. Nevertheless, was made to close Victoria in 2002. After The south gable contained a date this house is recognizable as being a much fundraising, it became the home stone, identifying the School Section. former school. of “Women’s Place.” The first women’s The interior contained one or two shelter in the downtown had been Victoria School rooms. Drinking water was provided established in 1977 by volunteers in Victoria School was built in 1911–12 by a pump in the yard. This school smaller quarters. The need for additional when older ward schools were bursting was photographed by Parnall around space grew, and Victoria closed just at the seams. It was designed by Thomas 1935–40, and was mentioned in his when the shelter was searching for a new Husted Wiley, a noted St. Catharines newspaper column. The school was used home. The shelter has been a success architect, in a style referred to as and was named “Gillian’s Place,” after the first executive director, Gillian Dooley.

About the authors Brian Narhi and Gail Benja eld are both members of the St. Catharines Heritage Advisory Committee and the Historical Society of St. Catharines. Brian is employed as a historian by Archaeological Services Inc. Gail is a retired librarian/local history archivist, and a member of the ACO and the Victoria School, 1911–12. Photo Brian Narhi, 2016 local branch.

Fall 2016 ACORN 21 Heritage Trades Education in Perth by Andrew Pamenter

“I noticed that you have changed often find themselves seeking to educate program to supply this demand for your windows. Were you having some their clients and even their employers skilled tradespeople. Several years later problems with them?” about the benefits of working with the the Heritage Masonry program was materials and inherent value of older created followed by a program focused “No, they were just old and we thought buildings. on contemporary and energy e cient that we should get new ones….” construction, the Advanced Housing The Heritage Programs in Perth got Program. From the germ of an idea in This is a conversation that I have had their start in the mid-1980s when a pilot several times with various home a small Ontario town three unique and owners here in Perth and, for me, speaks to why the work that we do at Algonquin College is so important. We are training the carpenters and masons who can meet the challenges presented by historical building materials and techniques. Educating the craftsperson is only part of the task though — the clients often need to be educated as well.

We develop the skills of our students so that they can assess, reproduce and repair the structure and elements of our older buildings. These are critical aspects for the continued survival of these buildings, but we are challenged by the pervading desire of society at large for convenience and instant Antique moulding plane at the Perth Campus, Algonquin College. Photo Roy Timm, 2012 gratification. “The windows were old” is seen by some as a justification specialized trades programs were born. for replacing 100-year-old windows project for the new Main Street Program with vinyl inserts rather than evidence was launched. A wave of tradespeople Our students come from all corners of that they could very well last another and professionals worked together to the country and beyond, from a variety 100 years with regular and thoughtful rejuvenate the wonderful architecture of of disciplines, ages and motivation, maintenance. Perth’s downtown core. This collection of but they are largely united in their people with interest and skills working fascination with the craft and materials I believe that we encourage our students with historical fabric observed that these encountered in older buildings. to be champions for the value of older skills and the knowledge needed were The average age of our students is 28, buildings: their scale, context, patina, concentrated in the hands of a few and which includes 17-year-old high school materials, adaptability, embodied that the next generation was largely graduates and 67-year-old retirees. energy, etc. A building that has value is a missing all together. building that will be used, cared for. Once Many of our students take a significant educated themselves, our graduates The Perth Campus of Algonquin College pause in their lives to pursue study at the began developing a Heritage Carpentry college. Upon graduation, our students 22 ACORN Fall 2016 are employed with contractors value of tradespeople trained to be of older building stock has been specializing in heritage work, others sympathetic to historic buildings and demonstrated to have less impact in custom house construction or have supported a number of students on the environment than much new renovations. Many of our carpenters over the years to attend institutions construction. and masons are currently working on like Algonquin. The scale, form, context and cultural restorations on Parliament Hill. We The impact of conserving our heritage history of older buildings also have graduates operating their own buildings reaches beyond the significantly impact the quality of life companies building timber frames, buildings themselves. The labour and in our communities. Thus, heritage straw bale houses, vacation homes materials required to work with older education involves more than people in the Caribbean, and custom doors buildings is often locally sourced, who already value those buildings and windows. There are even double while the tradespeople are generally and cultural landscapes — it must also graduates offering carpentry and more highly skilled and therefore focus on demonstrating that value to masonry services. hopefully better paid, thus further a much broader audience. Two ACO chapters — Port Hope contributing to the local economy. and London Region — have created The adaptability, durability, energy scholarships in recognition of the e ciency and carbon footprint

About the author Andrew Pamenter is an instructor of Heritage Carpentry at Algonquin College’s Perth campus. Andrew’s work in the industry has focused on nish carpentry demanding patience and attention to precision. A graduate of Algonquin College, Andrew subsequently worked as a carpenter on heritage projects for several dierent companies, including restoring Osgoode Hall with the J.D. Strachan company. Timber frame joinery at Gibson Timber Frames. Photo Andrew Edmondson, 2012

Want more ACORN? Keep up with what’s happening at ACO by subscribing to our electronic newsletter, ACORN in a Nutshell. It comes out about once a month and is your source of current news. Subscribe to have it sent directly to your inbox at the link below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

http://www.arconserv.ca/news_events/show.cfm?id=285.

Fall 2016 ACORN 23 Building a Better Tomorrow The schools of the Toronto Board of Education, 1950–1965 by Robert Moffatt

As the 1950s dawned, the Toronto Board design principles, Etherington and aligning building projects with of Education faced a population crisis: a Pennington created fresh, lively and institutional priorities to gain approvals. massive growth in student enrollment, inventive school buildings that focused And the school buildings were built to stemming from a combination of upon the experience of the child and last; construction costs per square foot the postwar Baby Boom, expanded supported the progressive classroom were comparable to those of Toronto’s immigration, increased education levels, pedagogies of the postwar period. “We downtown o ce towers. and accelerated migration to the city attempted to take some of the ordinary An exemplar of their approach is Lord from across Canada. Compounding elements of a school,” wrote Pennington Lansdowne Public School, completed in the problem was the state of Toronto’s in 1961, “and make them extraordinary.” 1961 at 33 Robert Street. Influenced by existing school buildings; the lack of Toronto native Etherington had spent the 1951 Festival of Britain, Lansdowne funds during the Depression and the almost his entire career designing is a whimsical, animated confection of Second World War left many in dire need schools; his retirement in 1965 capped exuberant colours, textures and forms. of major upgrades or replacement. 42 years with the Toronto board. The main classroom block is a nine-sided In response to these looming demands, Pennington had recently arrived in circular pavilion, topped by a serrated in the 1950s and early 1960s the Toronto Canada from architectural training zig-zag roof of folded concrete plates board undertook an ambitious program in Manchester, England. Etherington and ringed by tapered steel columns of school construction, at the time one determined which projects would be that project like rockets into the sky. of the largest in North America. Leading handled in-house – usually the more The zig-zag roofs continue atop the the drive was chief architect Frederick programmatically interesting and adjoining administrative and gymnasium Etherington and primary design architect technically challenging – and which blocks, helping to unify these otherwise Peter Pennington, supported by an would be assigned to outside firms. He disparate elements. Vertical planes of in-house team of architects, draftsmen also proved highly adept at navigating black, brown and tan brick break up the and engineers. Drawing upon Modernist through bureaucracy, persuasively building mass, held together by linear zips of white trim and punctuated by spandrel panels in lemon yellow, marine blue and tomato red. Visually balancing the composition is the freestanding exhaust stack, wrapped in matching candycane stripes. But the fun was also purposeful. The circular classroom block saved space on the constricted site; progressively lighter- toned wall panels in the hallways guided children toward the stairways and exits; ground-level windows in the kindergarten classrooms provided close-up views of the greenery outside; and a specially lowered section of the main reception desk allowed the smallest child to deal face- to-face with school administrators. Lord Lansdowne Public School at 33 Robert Street in Toronto. Photo Richard Longley, 2016

24 ACORN Fall 2016 For the 1963 Parkway Vocational decades. A design School (now the City Adult Learning priority was to reduce Centre), perched above the Don the apparent size of Valley Parkway at 1 Danforth Avenue, the school to a scale that same sense of innovation and less intimidating to exuberance sent a powerful message small children and of inclusion to its vocational students, more home-like. To many who were unsuccessful this end, Pennington academically and at risk of leaving divided the building school. Parkway represented a into four distinct substantial societal investment in modules of three these students and their future as storeys each, anked productive citizens. Here, students to the west by a lower could train in trades from auto module enclosing mechanics to food preparation to indoor and outdoor furniture making in a school complex play areas. (The that, in addition to providing state- easternmost module of-the-art technical facilities, served is a later addition.) as an appealing home away from Staircases fill the gaps home. A spacious cafetorium doubled between the modules, as a dining hall and an auditorium, unobtrusively set back complete with intriguingly staggered and appearing to oat oors, an undulating ceiling and in midair behind glass. Parkway Vocational School, now The City Adult Learning Centre. Photo Robert Mo att, 2016 wood-panelled walls to create Further reducing the a club-like gathering space. An visual mass are the forward-looking city that proudly adjoining east-facing sun deck, tapered corner columns and arched supported quality public education covered by a Jetsons-styled concrete gable roofs, designed as hyperbolic not only as an economic driver, but canopy, overlooked landscaped paraboloids, and the small-scaled also as a vital catalyst for forging gardens and drew students and window openings in playful vertical citizenship, a sense of belonging to staff together for morning coffee. A and horizontal rhythms. On the north an inclusive and democratic society. sizable indoor swimming pool with side the main entrance module steps This commitment to the potential of terraced seating further promoted forward to the street, welcoming public education is exemplified by physical and social well-being. On the children with its upward-flaring roof the school buildings themselves. In exterior, the complex is composed and sheltering entrance canopy. their thoughtful design, high-quality of three distinct blocks, enlivened by Custom door handles of solid black materials and careful craftsmanship, advancing and retreating wall planes, walnut, smooth with decades of use, they communicate an important contrasting colours and materials are set within a glass wall that allows message to the young: you matter, and the sinuously curved vehicle the anking walls of rough limestone and we care. ramps extending from the automotive to appear to pass seamlessly into the building. building lobby, visually connecting the indoors and outdoors. Matching Another specialized school, and stone frames a friendly entrance tree one currently under threat of (the walls were constructed around a About the author redevelopment, is the combined venerable earlier tree) and buffers the Robert Mo att is the author of Toronto Davisville Junior Public School and adjacent play area. Modern, a primary online resource for Metropolitan Toronto School for the Toronto’s heritage Modernist architecture. Deaf at 43 Millwood Road. Opened Today, the best schools created by the He is a marketer for architecture and in 1962, the school has been a key Toronto Board of Education during design rms and has worked with the ACO and other heritage organizations in institution for Toronto’s deaf and hard the 1950s and early 1960s represent Toronto and Vancouver. of hearing community for over five an important legacy: a fast-growing,

Fall 2016 ACORN 25 Davisville Junior Public School

by Catherine Nasmith

While it is clear that the Toronto District At the same time as the TDSB has been the architect of the school, later in his School Board (TDSB), local parents, the looking to replace the school, the City of career. She spoke of him as a delightful, school principal and Shelley Laskin, the Toronto has been working to incorporate fun loving, exuberant designer and local board Trustee, have no interest a community hub, with swimming pool person. in conserving Davisville Junior Public and other amenities. It was not until It was clear when we started that the School at 43 Millwood Road, ACO an article appeared in The Toronto Star horse was heading out of the barn, Toronto would love to change its future. announcing provincial funding for a but ACO has to at least try. There was a We are at a critical juncture in the new school in late 2015 that the broader moment in the sun when the Toronto process. A Request for Proposal has been architectural community became aware Preservation Board unanimously issued by the TDSB recommended that for an architect and Council designate the terms of reference the property, but assume that after our hopes were the construction of dashed when the new school and the Preservation community hub, the Board report was current school will be unanimously demolished to make deferred indefinitely way for a playground. by Toronto East York The existing school Community Council, will continue to ignoring the Mod be occupied only Squad’s alternative until the new one is site plan options complete. that allowed for The decision to repurposing of the demolish was made existing building. several years ago By the time we by the TDSB. At that had them ready for Davisville Junior Public School. Photo Robert Mo att, 2016 point the building, in consideration, no one was interested in considering new ideas. spite of its obvious architectural interest, that the existing building would not be We were unceremoniously dismissed. had not been listed or designated. part of the future development. One section of the current school was Davisville Public School/Metropolitan designed as a school for the deaf, with Since then a group of prominent Toronto Toronto School for the Deaf, completed smaller than standard classrooms, yet architects – Kim Storey, Carol Kleinfeldt, in the building has been used as a junior Roman Mychajlowycz, Luigi Ferrara, 1962, is one of a significant set of school with full programming for many Monica Contreras, as well as ACO Past post-war schools built by the Toronto years. Parents and teachers have been President Lloyd Alter and I – dubbed District School Board’s in-house team lobbying for another facility on the very ourselves the Mod Squad and set out on of Chief Architect F. C. Etherington and large site near Yonge and Davisville and a rather Don Quixote-like mission to have project architect Peter Pennington. Other have explored several financing options, other options considered. The quest was schools in this group are Glen Ames including developing a condo to pay for particularly poignant for Ms. Kleinfeldt Senior Public School, 1961 (18 Williamson a new school. who had worked for Peter Pennington, Road), Lord Lansdowne Public School, 1961 (33 Robert Street), and Parkway

26 ACORN Fall 2016 Vocational School, 1963 (1 Danforth more pairs of nice new shoes. My mother a new building would offer. There is a lot Avenue). quickly put a stop to that! wrong with this picture.

At a time when the future was a good Supremely ironic are the not-so-subtle ACO Toronto will continue to argue for an place, newly graduated architects were lessons the TDSB is teaching its students option that includes the existing building, strutting their stuff – breaking out in all by example: and move ahead to try to get the rest directions with new materials, creating of this mid-century school collection • New is better than old, a new style that we now call Modern • Why maintain when neglect gets you designated. In the bigger picture, ACO Expressionist. The style has its roots in a new one, will continue our advocacy at Queen’s the Festival of Britain, American and • Architecture has no cultural value Park for education policies that place European examples. As I watched Robert worth conserving, and emphasis on conserving financial, Moffatt’s presentation on April 4, 2016, • Demolition and landfill are O.K. environmental and cultural resources. at the ACO Toronto lecture series, I felt a The same institution that insists on good surge of local pride realizing that what environmental practices when it comes was built in Toronto is more interesting to school lunch bags is blind to putting than all the precedents. Alas, colonized whole buildings into the garbage. I was Torontonians tend to think that nothing astounded to hear Angelos Bacopoulos, important happens here, hence the Associate Director, Facilities and Urban stunning lack of consideration of this Sustainability, Toronto District School About the author building in the TDSB’s development Board explain to Community Council Catherine Nasmith, OAA FRAIC CAHP, is an plans. that because the school had been poorly architect and heritage consultant. She is currently President of both ACO and ACO maintained for a number of years it was At Davisville, the building is arranged into Toronto. More information about these house-like pavilions, each with a more now impossible to repair. He was looking schools is available on the ACO Toronto amboyant concrete plate roof than forward to the 25 maintenance-free years website. the last. The budget was commensurate with the task of educating the post-war generation, similar to expenditures on high-quality office buildings of the day.

So how did such a fine building become the “most expensive to maintain” and a candidate for demolition? Simply put, inadequate maintenance budgets combined with a provincial policy that favours new construction. At the core of the issue is that Ontario school boards are not required by the province to consider cultural value in their real estate decisions, nor does the province provide adequate funding to maintain its building stock. The Davisville Junior Public School is a victim of demolition by neglect, practiced wholesale by the TDSB because of poor provincial policy. It won’t be long before other schools suffer the same fate.

The situation reminds me of myself as a kid walking in my nice new shoes through mud puddles so I could get Kim Storey, left, and Carol Kleinfeldt at Davisville Junior Public School. Photo Dave LeBlanc, 2016

Fall 2016 ACORN 27 Lessons Learned at Vineland School by Carla Mackie and Brett House

A landmark worth saving Vineland’s school house was one of the best remaining examples of the late-1800s, one-room school architectural vernacular in Ontario. The last nineteenth-century public building in the village, it formed the focal point of Vineland’s main street. Built through private donations, the 1895 schoolhouse was a stand-out use of the high- quality brick once fabricated in nearby Beamsville. Its high quality of education was recognized in 1909 when the Ontario Minister of Education’s annual report prominently cited the school’s horticultural programme and gardens. At its centenary in 1995, many families celebrated five generations of their children learning in the schoolhouse. It remained structurally sound with a functioning kindergarten until just days Vineland’s 1895 schoolhouse façade prior to its demolition. Photo Carla Mackie, 2014 prior to its destruction. create three parking spaces for the new Having watched the Town Council ignore mega-school. its Heritage Committee, citizens formed Its loss tells of a community’s valiant an advocacy group – Friends of Vineland attempts to save a valued treasure, Lincoln’s Municipal Heritage Committee Public School 1895 (www.vps1895.ca) and their frustration and anger with immediately and repeatedly throughout – to mobilize the community to save its government, legislation and unfeeling 2013 asked the DSBN to agree to school house. bureaucracy. preservation and municipal heritage designation of the schoolhouse. The Exhausting every policy channel Lack of local heritage policy to prevent DSBN refused or ignored these requests. Throughout 2014, we exhausted every schoolhouse’s destruction As a result, the MHC asked the Town channel to have Vineland’s schoolhouse In response to declining enrollment, the of Lincoln in December 2013 to move designated a municipal heritage site: District School Board of Niagara (DSBN) forward on a unilateral designation of held Accommodation Review Committee • Multiple presentations to the the schoolhouse. The Town Council and (ARC) meetings to discuss plans to school board, Town of Lincoln, and staff refused to take action. Though consolidate students from four west provincial representatives. Lincoln had no formal heritage policy, • Canvassed Vineland, collected Niagara village schools in one purpose- officials claimed an informal “practice” thousands of signatures, and raised built facility. They excluded heritage to designate only with the consent awareness at local festivals. discussions from these meetings. • Established a Facebook page of a property’s owner. It’s sadly ironic and a website to tell our story. The ARC recommended construction of because the DSBN never paid for • Press releases and stories in a new merged school on the Vineland Vineland’s schoolhouse, but rather print, TV, and radio. Public School site and closure of the received it through a donation to one of • Involved in the October 2014 three other facilities, as well as plans its predecessor boards. municipal election. • Ongoing letter campaign to to demolish Vineland’s schoolhouse to

28 ACORN Fall 2016 all levels of government generated take an unfathomable four months to • Know how your municipal hundreds of messages urging approve, which would delay the new government works. In our case, the the preservation of Vineland’s school’s opening. For this reason, the school board understood the arcana schoolhouse. of municipal subcommittees better magistrate ruled against an extension of than we initially did. The DSBN Local MPP, former Progressive the injunction. used an unexpected route to side- Conservative leader Tim Hudak, took on step a Town Council request for a The DSBN immediately demolished our cause and met with then-Minister feasibility study on designating the the schoolhouse and we withdrew our schoolhouse. Coteau. He raised the schoolhouse in request for judicial review since it was • Demonstrate community question period at Queen’s Park, and moot. Although the DSBN and town support. Canvass neighbourhoods, tried to broker a cooperative effort by came after us for legal costs, the judge get petitions signed, collect the DSBN, town, and Province to save the donations, and educate at major denied their request since our case was schoolhouse. Our local o cials ignored community events. Bring your in the public’s interest. him. neighbours to Council meetings so that your o cials must face them. The schoolhouse could have easily been Minister Coteau refused our request • Make it easy for media to tell saved if the DSBN and town had simply for provincial heritage designation, your story. Use social media and buy tried to work together. Instead, they low-cost targeted ads. Post brief deferring to the municipality. He did not chose to waste hundreds of thousands bullet lists of key facts. Do public exercise his powers under the Ontario of tax dollars on lawyers’ fees in order to events that make for good visuals. Heritage Act. build a parking lot in the schoolhouse’s Craft pointed press releases that provide pull quotes and essential place. When all else fails, seek help from the information; ensure journalists can courts write about your cause even if they Lessons learned In July 2015 we filed an application don’t manage to interview you. Make Our fight taught us many lessons: for judicial review of the Province and it easy to contact you. • Document everything you do. town’s failures to designate Vineland’s • Get ahead of the game. Elect Show that you are exhausting every schoolhouse a heritage site. We also local o cials who care about heritage. Educate your local o cials channel with all levels of government, received an emergency injunction to on their powers under the Ontario even when you are ignored. prevent demolition of the schoolhouse Heritage Act. Ensure heritage issues • Work with a public-interest during the review. are included in your municipality’s law firm early. Find a lawyer willing o cial plan, strategic plan, corporate to take your case for free before Hours after we informed the DSBN of priorities, and zoning by-laws. Many it’s necessary. Our costs were eight our action, the Board’s contractor moved Ontario municipalities lack heritage times larger than our firm’s initial a large excavator across the school site policies; push your local o cials projection. • When they go low, you and punched a hole in the front of the to put o cial policy frameworks in stay high. Remain upbeat and schoolhouse. The Board claimed the place. • Create community advocacy constructive. timing was coincidental. groups outside of government. • Don’t rely on the Ontario Heritage needs an independent Heritage Act. It’s toothless. Work In our ensuing application to extend the voice. It can take years to obtain the for its reform and the addition of a injunction, the judge found that we had charitable status necessary to raise third-party appeal process for when acted in good faith and that the failure to funds. governments fail to designate. designate the schoolhouse was a serious • Show that preservation is • Even when you fail, keep at it. In response to our work, Lincoln has point of law to be reviewed. But the possible. Take arguments out of the begun enacting a proper heritage court also had to balance two competing abstract and lay out feasible steps for preservation. Demonstrate that costs designation policy and process. public interests: the imperative to are manageable by making them preserve Ontario’s heritage and need to relatable, such as “two Tim’s double- complete the new school for September. doubles per household” in the case of Vineland’s schoolhouse. Demonstrate The Town of Lincoln claimed that the that outside funding is available. The authors dedicate this article to our minor changes to the site plan – deleting Enlist experts to corroborate your doughty and constant supporter, Skip three planned parking spaces – would points. Gilham, who we recently lost to cancer.

Fall 2016 ACORN 29 Dundas District Lofts A success against many odds by Ann Gillespie

At a gala reception held at the Art environmental measures, extensive residents with breathtaking views of Gallery of Hamilton on November 12th, tree and shrub planting to enhance the Niagara Escarpment. 2015, in celebration of World Town the forested edge of the property, enhanced ood control at the base The jury also complimented the Planning Day, the City of Hamilton of the Spencer Creek Waterfall, sophisticated design approach of the presented its annual Urban Design and and permeable paving in the project architects in transforming Architecture Awards to the owners and parking areas. The façades were the school into high-end residential design teams of recently completed carefully restored to their original units, and the passion and vision of successful projects in 10 categories splendour along with a variety the developer in overcoming major including architecture, adaptive reuse, of fine stone details and carvings such as gothic style ornaments, obstacles posed by the complex heritage restoration, and urban design. gargoyles, pinnacles and decorative site, through a variety of creative As a resident of Dundas, graduate of crests. The conversion also required engineering solutions. The result was the former Dundas District High School, implementing heritage conservation “an exemplary project perched above heritage professional, and participant measures for the front and side Dundas with excellent views of the in the original battle to save the façades to preserve the appearance escarpment, the local downtown, and school building and playing field, I was of these façades. Private balconies were sensitively located at the rear the Valley.”4 particularly excited to learn that Dundas of the property to avoid altering District Lofts at 397 King Street West, the architectural character of the There is a story behind the Dundas Dundas, had received the Award of protected façades, and provide District Lofts. The property, first Excellence in Adaptive Re- Use. The award was given jointly to the developer Valvasori Properties,1 owned by Michael and David Valvasori, the project architect, KNY Architects Inc.,2 and their planning team, IBI Group.3 The jury made the following comments:

Dundas District High School was built in 1929 and designed by Hamilton architect William J. Walsh in the Collegiate Gothic style. The school closed in 2007, at which point conversion of the property to residential condominiums began. This restoration and conversion required a number of challenging upgrades such as 1930s view of Dundas District High School from King Street West. Photo courtesy of Dundas Museum & Archives, P-1982

30 ACORN Fall 2016 acquired by the Dundas School Board from John Fisher & Sons Ltd. in 1928, comprised two parcels of land divided by King Street at the far west end of Dundas. The Fisher family generously agreed to donate their mill property on the north side of King and a parcel of vacant land to the south to the Board, but with a stipulation placed on the deed of transfer that the entire property be kept in perpetuity for educational and public playground use. The handsomely designed and solidly-constructed fireproof building, with a cladding of rug brick and carved stone trim, was built on the north parcel and Rear façade of Dundas District Lofts and the north garage structure, incorporating the crash wall. Photo Ann Gillespie, 2016 o cially opened in January 1930 as Dundas High School. developer. Soon after the Hamilton- Strategically, the top priority for DDIG Its large sports field was located on the Wentworth District School Board became the preservation of the south south parcel. (HWDSB) announced its plans to sell the parcel as public parkland, which would DDHS property, a group of concerned restrict any potential development to Subsequently enlarged in several citizens and members of arts and youth the north parcel. The next step was to phases and renamed Dundas District organizations began meeting under appeal to Russ Powers, then Ward 13 High School (DDHS) in 1956, the school the leadership of local resident and Councillor — a DDHS graduate — to closed in 1982. From 1991 until its community activist Julia Kollek to share support the DDIG vision and convince closure in 2007, it served as a senior their concerns about the fate of this fellow councillors that the City of elementary school but its students landmark building and its green open Hamilton should purchase the south were subsequently transferred to the space. This ad hoc group named itself portion of the property for a much newly built Sir William Osler Elementary the Dundas District Innovation Group needed public park and soccer field School. With a picturesque location (DDIG). to serve this part of Dundas. With backing onto the Dundas escarpment the support of Councillor Powers, and bordered to the west by Spencer DDIG initially envisaged the conversion diligent behind-the-scenes work Creek, heritage-minded residents of of the school building to a mixed-use by his Executive Assistant, Arlene Dundas immediately saw the former community facility, with the south VanderBeek, a letter-writing blitz by school property’s potential for adaptive parcel retained as recreational open Dundas residents, and lobbying by the reuse. However, before this goal could space. However, since the school Dundas Youth Soccer Club, this goal be achieved much groundwork had to building was not designated under was achieved and the south parcel was be laid. the Ontario Heritage Act, it had no purchased by the City in July 2008. The protection from demolition. The o cial opening and naming of Fisher’s With so many school buildings in the potential sale of the entire property Hamilton area facing closure and an Mill Park was celebrated by a jubilant to a single developer, followed by crowd on September 20, 2008. The park uncertain future, it is worth sharing demolition of the school and loss of a success story that involved citizen has since been well-used, particularly public open space was, therefore, an by Dundas youth soccer teams. It also engagement and political commitment alarming prospect. This scenario had at the local level, and the vision features a magnificent Chinquapin already become a reality in the case of Oak tree, with an estimated age of 150 and financial investment of a local two other Dundas school properties.

Fall 2016 ACORN 31 years, that has been recognized by the complex and accessible interior spaces. Notes Ontario Heritage Tree program through We were most impressed with their 1. This local development company the efforts of the Dundas Valley Tree vision, the quality of workmanship and had previously completed several other successful condominium conversions of Keepers.5 sensitivity to the heritage features of the buildings located in downtown Hamilton, original east, west and south facades This accomplishment opened a including the former Allenby Public School and two main stairwells with restored on Hunter Street (now Allenby Lofts). window of opportunity to the Valvasori stained glass windows. The building brothers: a financially viable option to 2. An award-winning Burlington-based is now fully occupied, with the first architectural rm: www.knyarchitects.com purchase the north parcel for their most condominium units already selling at a ambitious condominium loft conversion 3. A successful Hamilton-based land premium price. development consulting rm: www. to date, and the first to be located ibigroup.com outside downtown Hamilton. As soon as As illustrated by this example, successful 4. www.hamilton.ca/city-awards/urban- the north parcel was purchased in April preservation and adaptive reuse design-and-architecture-awards/urban- 2009, planning and sales got underway. projects, especially ones as challenging design-architecture-awards-winners However, the project proved to be even as the Dundas District Lofts, typically 5. Visit www.dundastrees.ca to view the more daunting than initially imagined. begin at the grass roots level with DVTK’s 2014 pamphlet: “A Walking Tour of The Canadian National Railway, with citizen involvement but only gain Heritage Trees in Downtown Dundas”. tracks running along the adjacent momentum with positive support from 6. A Heritage Conservation Easement escarpment face, required a 22-inch- local politicians and municipal staff. In Agreement is a voluntary legal agreement thick (more than half a metre) reinforced this case, the stage was thus set for a between the municipality and a property concrete crash wall on the north side developer with the vision, creativity, owner to protect the heritage features of a of the property, directly behind the financial resources, and tenacity to property. In 2013 Heritage sta for the City school building. The Valvasori brothers commit to an ambitious project and of Hamilton were of the opinion that the Heritage Conservation Easement Agreement and their architect responded creatively push it through many hurdles to a could be used in place of municipal to this challenge by incorporating the successful conclusion. designation to adequately protect the retaining wall into the rear wall of the cultural heritage features of the property; The story of Dundas District Lofts and north parking structure, one of three and accordingly, recommended that the Fisher’s Mill Park culminated in the providing secure, enclosed parking in Council-approved “Requests to Designate preservation of a significant cultural individual garages. They admit that Properties under Part IV of the Ontario landscape, combining built and natural Heritage Act: Priorities” be amended to without the support and assistance heritage components, which include remove the designation of 397 King Street of Councillor Powers, negotiations West (Dundas) from the sta work program. an architectural landmark, an historic with CNR might well have posed an waterway and a rare old Chinquapin insurmountable obstacle. Oak. About the author While the property was not designated Ann Gillespie, MA, CAHP, is a long-standing Finally, we must never forget that under the Ontario Heritage Act, it member of the ACO and contributor this successful outcome was truly is now protected under a Heritage to ACORN. She is a part-time heritage a collaborative effort for Conservation Easement Agreement,6 which all consultant (Gillespie Heritage Consulting) and is actively involved as a volunteer which Valvasori Properties Ltd. entered contributing parties deserve full credit. The community of Dundas should with the Research & Inventory Working into with the City of Hamilton in July be very proud that Dundas District Group of the Hamilton Municipal Heritage 2014. In exchange, the company Committee, the Dundas Valley Tree Keepers, Lofts has been most deservedly received a full exemption from and the Beach Canal Lighthouse Group. recognized by the City of Hamilton development fees for the adaptive reuse She would like to acknowledge the editorial of a protected heritage property. as an excellent example of adaptive reuse. Congratulations to the Valvasori assistance received from Stewart Patch and Jeanne Beck. Dundas District Lofts was substantially brothers and their design and planning completed and occupied by December teams! 2014. That month, Dave Valvasori conducted an enthusiastic tour for a small group of both the exterior

32 ACORN Fall 2015 New Life for Limerick’s Old School by Lindi Pierce

fresh white paint down geography wall map, school bells to the faded and a wooden schoolhouse clock. Ernie exterior and is a charming host, sharing anecdotes replaced the old from the brothers’ early school days in school bell. They the area. stripped paint A sign in the window attests to the from interior ash delightful fare on offer: “Attention: Carrot wainscoting, cake and other valuables are not kept and discovered on the premises at night,” providing a pressed tin comical warning to would-be burglars in ceilings and walls search of this popular treat. The tearoom under tongue offers lunch, dinner, and traditional and groove afternoon tea with china cups and panelling. A photo three-tiered cake plates. Along the way, S.S. No. 3 Limerick of 1921, now The Old Ormsby Schoolhouse Tearoom. Photo Lindi of the wedding the Old Ormsby Schoolhouse provides a Pierce, 2013 reception shows generous helping of heritage education the orchestra, Ormsby, Ontario, with a population of combined with delightful nostalgia, and featuring Debbie on fiddle, scant days 20 located a twenty-minute drive south illustrates how a forgotten piece of our after the couple put the finishing touches of Bancroft, is home to The Old Ormsby built heritage can be resurrected. Schoolhouse tearoom, a carefully on the gleaming maple oors. The Old Ormsby Schoolhouse illustrates restored 1920s era one-room school. The The motto of the establishment is what determined people with creative plain white frame building is snuggled “Educated Dining.” The tearoom is an vision and heritage values can achieve. into a forest clearing on the Old Hastings informal education museum, providing The little white schoolhouse, once Road, one of the settlement roads built in visitors with an inviting – and very reduced to a hay storage shed, has once the 1850s. appetizing – history experience. Guests again become a centre of the Ormsby are free to browse old school photos, or Ormsby, once a thriving settlement on community. the Central Ontario Railway, was a ghost sit at wooden desks and leaf through town when talented brothers Ernie and tattered schoolbooks which the pupils Gary Pattison and their equally talented might have used once. Vignettes recreate wives Debbie Pattison and Lillian Oakley old school days. A washing station with Pattison undertook its transformation in enamel pail, dipper and basin – and a the late 1990s. Gary and Lillian recreated health studies book – illustrates the role the former Ormsby General Store as the of early schools in promoting health About the author Lindi Pierce is a Belleville-based heritage popular Old Hastings Mercantile and education. The teacher’s desk is topped writer and a regular contributor to County Gallery, as well as breathing new life into with an oil lamp and piled with dusty readers; the parlour organ offers old and Quinte Living, Country Roads, and the hamlet’s historic church. Ernie and Outlook, the newsletter of the Hastings sheet music for anyone wishing to try. A Debbie tackled the old schoolhouse, S. S. County Historical Society. She shares her No. 3 Limerick, closed in 1964. portrait of Her Majesty presides over the passion for heritage architecture on her schoolroom with its cast iron stove and blog Ancestral Roofs. Lindi is a member During the summer of 1997, the young stovepipes, wood and cast iron desks of ACO Quinte and contributed to 80 couple restored the school as a venue for with flip-up seats, blackboards, oil lamps, for 80: Celebrating Eighty Years of the their wedding reception. They applied the familiar Neilson’s-sponsored pull- Architectural Conservancy of Ontario.

Fall 2015 ACORN 33 The Past. Our Present. Your Future. Heritage Conservation 2016 Of course by Ron Bean Post-secondary education in heritage time honours co-op Bachelor of Applied Students have also been involved in Awards conservation at Canada’s colleges and Technology degree program that field trips including visiting the heritage universities varies greatly. Most programs includes a strong focus on educating conservation labs at the Waterloo which include a heritage conservation future facility managers. Region Museum, touring Cambridge’s component tend to focus on educating downtown Heritage Conservation Dinner Facility management is a growing future designers, consultants and District and participating in on-site profession that focuses on the full life- heritage tradespersons. However, research at Weston’s (Toronto) Heritage For Friends of Heritage Conservation cycle of the built environment. Facility real decision making on whether to Conservation District phase 2. conserve an existing building or build managers, who represent building new usually remains in the domain of owners, are often the key participant in As an architect and professor, I the building owner or developer and deciding the fate of existing buildings. developed this new course in heritage their representatives. Although there are Within the program there is strong conservation to address one of the some very enlightened building owners recognition that the majority of building real weaknesses in the heritage and developers who do have a penchant projects deal with existing buildings industry which is the lack of heritage for conserving buildings, many would and that adaptive reuse is a valuable conservation education for owners. I’m agree their numbers are small. This also approach in heritage conservation hoping that our students will develop seems to correlate in the lack of available projects. a better appreciation of the role that heritage conservation can play in heritage conservation education Conestoga’s APFM program is also building projects as they head into focused on building owners and their unique as Canada’s only undergraduate careers as future managers of our built representatives. degree program with a focus on environment. Convocation Hall Osgoode Hall, One unique program that is making facility management which is also 130 Queen Street West accredited with the International Facility Conestoga College describes the Law Society of Upper inroads in integrating heritage Canada Toronto, ON M5H 2N5 conservation as part of its curriculum Management Association, IFMA. Architecture Project and Facility Management program as “the only is the Architecture Project and Facility New this year in the APFM program one of its kind in Canada, highlighting Management program at Conestoga is a course in Heritage Conservation, both project management and facility College in Cambridge, Ontario. Referred recognizing that heritage education management.” Following three years of to as APFM, APFM is a four-year, full- is of real value to the work experience, graduates are eligible education of future to become Certified Facility Managers. Ranking among Canada’s Friday, November 11th, 2016 project and facility In the workplace, they will be able to architectural and historical treasures, Reception - 6 p.m. managers. This course foster understanding of the importance stresses that cultural Osgoode Hall (1832) is a stately Dinner - 7:15 p.m. of heritage conservation with their heritage value, Palladian-style building located at Tickets - $175 (maximum allowable colleagues and employers – especially environmental value and building owners. Queen Street West and University tax receipt will be issued) economic value can go Avenue in Toronto. Contact ACO at 416-367-8075 hand in hand. Students Toll-free 1-877-274-8937 are introduced to various About the author or [email protected] approaches to heritage Ron Bean OAA, MRAIC, CAHP, LEED AP is conservation as well as a professor at the School of Engineering the broad spectrum of and Information Technology at Conestoga Contact tangible and intangible College in Cambridge. Ron continues his 10 Adelaide Street East professional practice with +VG Architects in Architecture Project and Facility Management students at Waterloo Region heritage artifacts. Brantford and is a member of ACO. Toronto, ON M5C 1J3 Museum Conservation Labs. Photo Ron Bean, 2016 T 416.367.8075 F 416.367.8630 E [email protected] www.arconserv.ca

34 ACORN Fall 2015 facebook.com/arconserve @arconserve The Past. Our Present. Your Future. 2016 Awards Dinner For Friends of Heritage Conservation

Convocation Hall Osgoode Hall, Law Society of Upper 130 Queen Street West Canada Toronto, ON M5H 2N5

Ranking among Canada’s Friday, November 11th, 2016 architectural and historical treasures, Reception - 6 p.m. Osgoode Hall (1832) is a stately Dinner - 7:15 p.m. Palladian-style building located at Tickets - $175 (maximum allowable Queen Street West and University tax receipt will be issued) Avenue in Toronto. Contact ACO at 416-367-8075 Toll-free 1-877-274-8937 or [email protected]

Contact 10 Adelaide Street East Toronto, ON M5C 1J3 T 416.367.8075 F 416.367.8630 E [email protected] www.arconserv.ca

facebook.com/arconserve @arconserve ANNUAL WantERIC to ARTHURrenew your membership? LIFETIME APPEAL NotACHIEVEMENT a member and want AWARD to join? Nowpresented you can join, to renew Rollo your Myers membership at the or donate to the Provincial organization and more than half of 2016/2017 ourArts branches and Letters online. Club in Toronto, Celebrating and defending November 13, 2015 Ontario’s Heritage since 1933 Visit our website and click on your branch. If your branch is set up for online payments, you will see three buttons:

THROUGH YOUR ADVOCACY AND ACTION

Press the appropriate button and follow the simple instructions. On payment you will immediately be added to our membership list and will receive your tax receipt immediately. MasterCard, VISA and PayPal With you, ACO has helped save are all accepted. You can also review and update and re-purpose hundreds of your membership information (address, email, etc.) yourself. Ontario’s heritage buildings and cultural heritage landscapes. If you prefer to pay by cheque, you can download a None of this is possible without membership form and send it in with your cheque. your generous support and the ©LamontFor more Abramczyk, information, 2015 contact [email protected].

members and volunteers.

Please donate to heritage Leave your legacy by renew your membership today. conserving our present DONATE ON-LINE: www.arconserv.ca for the future. PHONE ACO: T 416.367.8075 ext. 201

The impact of gifts in wills is immeasurable for Bala Falls, one of the many beloved places preservation and conservation e‰orts. They allow in Ontario that ACO is working to conserve. you to continue your defense of Ontario’s built and “The Falls in Bala, Ontario.” ©Amy Calder, 2015 landscape heritage for generations to come!

For more information, please contact: Thank you The past. The Architectural Conservancy of Ontario @arconserve Our present. T 416.367.8075 ext.201 TF 1.877.264.8937 Registered Charity facebook.com/arconserve Your future. E [email protected] 10807 1556 RR0001