Cultural Heritage Evaluation Report Riverside Dam Speed River, Preston
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CULTURAL HERITAGE EVALUATION REPORT RIVERSIDE DAM SPEED RIVER, PRESTON CITY OF CAMBRIDGE, ONTARIO June 2012 Revised March 2013 Prepared for: AMEC Environment and Infrastructure Prepared by: CULTURAL HERITAGE EVALUATION REPORT RIVERSIDE DAM SPEED RIVER, PRESTON CITY OF CAMBRIDGE, ONTARIO June 2012 Revised March 2013 Prepared for: AMEC Environment and Infrastructure 3215 North Service Road Burlington ON L7N 3G2 Prepared by: Unterman McPhail Associates Heritage Resource Management Consultants 540 Runnymede Road Toronto, ON M6S 2Z7 Tel: 416-766-7333 Email: [email protected] TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Project Description 1 1.2 Heritage Recognition 2 2.0 HISTORICAL SUMMARY 2 2.1 Development of Preston 2 2.2 Cambridge Mills and the Speed “Riverside” Dam 8 3.0 CULTURAL HERITAGE LANDSCAPE DESCRIPTION 15 3.1 Area Context 15 3.2 Site Description 16 4.0 BUILT HERITAGE RESOURCE DESCRIPTION 18 4.1 Riverside Dam 18 5.0 CULTURAL HERITAGE RESOURCE EVALUATION 21 5.1 Introduction 21 5.2 Evaluation 21 5.2.1 Design Value or Physical Value 22 5.2.2 Historical Value or Associative Value 22 5.2.3 Contextual Value 24 5.3 Summary of Cultural Heritage Value 25 5.3.1 Statement of Cultural Heritage Value 25 5.3.2 Description of Heritage Attributes 25 6.0 MITIGATION RECOMMENDATIONS 26 6.1 Introduction 26 6.2 Mitigation Recommendations 27 SOURCES APPENDIX A: Historical Maps, Aerial Views and Photographs APPENDIX B: Photographs, Context APPENDIX C: Photographs Riverside Dam LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1. The circle marks the location of the Riverside Dam on the Speed River, City of Cambridge City of Cambridge, 2012, as adapted]. 1 Figure 2. View of Preston in 1856 [Fifth Annual Report of the Waterloo Historical Society, 1917, frontispiece]. 5 Figure 3. “Cambridge Grist and Flouring Mills, Preston, A.A. Erb & Bros., Proprietors” [Tremaine’s Map of the County of Waterloo, Canada West]. 10 Figure 4. View of Cambridge Mills, 1886 [Fifth Annual Report of the Waterloo Historical Society, 1917, 31]. 11 Figure 5. Early 1890s view of the Speed Dam to the east of the King Street Bridge before the construction of the Galt, Preston & Hespeler Railway line trestle bridge [PH6382, City of Cambridge Archives]. 12 Figure 6. View of the Speed Dam in the 1890s to the east of the King Street Bridge after the construction of the Galt, Preston & Hespeler Railway line trestle bridge [LAC, James Esson, MIKA No. 325823. Dam Speed River 1905]. 12 Figure 7. View of Riverside Dam to north in the winter, n.d. stone structure with a slightly raised top cap. [PH787, City of Cambridge Archives]. 13 Figure 8 View of “Speed Dam” c1949 showing north control tower and a boater above the dam [Preston: a friendly welcome awaits you, 1949]. 14 Figure 9. View of “Speed Dam” c1949 showing north control tower [Preston: a friendly welcome awaits you, 1949]. 14 Figure 10. Aerial of the Riverside Dam site in the former municipality of Preston, now City of Cambridge [Google Maps 2011]. 17 Figure 11. View east to the Riverside Dam on the Speed River with CN railway spur line in the foreground. 19 Figure 12. View north to the railway spur downstream from the dam. 20 Figure 13. West elevation of the north stone masonry control tower top. 20 Figure 14. North elevation of the stoplog sluiceway structure. 20 Figure 15. West elevation of the south stone masonry control tower and rubblestone debris. 20 Figure 16. Existing Conditions Plan, Riverside Dam, Structural Evaluation & Detailed Design, Cambridge, Ontario, Drawing 1X. Sanchez Engineering Inc., October 2008. 20 Cultural Heritage Evaluation Report: Riverside Dam Page 1 Speed River, Preston, City of Cambridge, Ontario 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Project description AMEC retained Unterman McPhail Associates, Heritage Management Resource Consultants, to undertake a Cultural Heritage Resource Evaluation Report (CHER) for the Riverside Dam as part of a Municipal Class Environmental Assessment, City of Cambridge. The proposed project is classified as a Schedule “B” undertaking in the Class Environmental Assessment for Municipal Road Projects (2007). The principal objective of this undertaking is to provide the Municipality with direction on a preferred solution that addresses the City’s risk management requirements associated with its long term operations and responsibility of the Riverside Dam. The 2009 Study indicated several parts of the dam are in disrepair and pose a risk of failure due to ice. Temporary stabilization works have been implemented. Figure 1. The circle marks the location of the Riverside Dam on the Speed River in Preston, City of Cambridge, Ontario [Preston Towne Centre Core Area and Business Improvement Area (BIA) Boundaries, The Corporation of the City of Cambridge, July 2011, as adapted]. The Riverside Dam on the Speed River is immediately upstream of King Street at Riverside Park in the former municipality of Preston, now part of the City of Cambridge. A dam has been located at this general site since the early 19th century. A.A. Erb may have built part of the existing dam as early as 1864 with the existing control towers possibly constructed in early 1890s by Samuel Cherry. The diversion of the north branch Unterman McPhail Associates June 2012 Heritage Resource Management Consultants Revised March 2013 Cultural Heritage Evaluation Report: Riverside Dam Page 2 Speed River, Preston, City of Cambridge, Ontario of the Speed River into a millrace dates to the early 19th century and is historically associated with the first Erb mill on the site, which became Cambridge Mills. This CHER includes a historical summary of the Riverside Dam and the associated mill site, a description of the structure and its setting, an evaluation of the cultural heritage value of the structure and a summary of cultural heritage value and mitigation recommendations. The site was evaluated using the criteria set out under Ontario Regulation 9/06, which was developed for the purpose of identifying and evaluating the cultural heritage value or interest of a property proposed for protection under Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act. Regulation 9/06 describes the three criteria as design value or physical value, historical value or associative value, and contextual value. Historical maps and drawings are included in Appendix A. Appendix B contains a survey form with photographs of the structure and its setting. 1.2 Heritage Recognition The Cambridge Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee (MHAC) has included the Riverside Dam, also referred to as the Speed Dam and the Cambridge Mills Dam, located on the Speed River at King Street West, Preston, on the City of Cambridge Heritage Properties Inventory (October 2010) as a property of interest by for its architectural and/or historical significance. The City of Cambridge Heritage Properties Inventory is a council endorsed inventory of known built heritage resources in the City of Cambridge. In 1928, the Waterloo Historical Society placed a commemorative plaque on the associated mill building currently owned by P&H Milling Group building. The plaque, which still exists, refers to the site as the “oldest place of continuous business in Waterloo County”. The Speed River is a Canadian Heritage River and the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) has identified the Riverside Dam, also known as the Cherry-Taylor Mill Dam, as a heritage structure on its Heritage River Inventory. Additionally, immediately downstream from the dam, the GRCA Heritage River Inventory identifies the P&H Flour Mill and the King Street Bridge as heritage resources. 2.0 HISTORICAL SUMMARY 2.1 Development of Preston Richard Beasley purchased land from the Six Nations and John Erb bought 75,500 acres including land at the coming together of the Grand and Speed Rivers. John Erb, a major stockholder in the German Company Tract to the north of the Block Line, and his wife Magdalena Schrantz and family moved with William Corwell, Henry Kraft and family, Peter Hammacher and family, Matthias Scheirich and family, Abraham Stauffer and family, and others to Canada and settled in the township and county of Waterloo. Erb bought 500 acres of land along the Speed River, part of Beasley’s “Broken Front” Unterman McPhail Associates June 2012 Heritage Resource Management Consultants Revised March 2013 Cultural Heritage Evaluation Report: Riverside Dam Page 3 Speed River, Preston, City of Cambridge, Ontario comprising Lots 1, 2, 3 and 4. Outside of the German Tract, Erb’s choice of the land on the Speed River was astute. The Speed had a powerful and constant current that was reliable all year round for waterpower. At Erb’s site at the Great Road from Dundas, there were several small islands that slowed down the current enough to allow a safe ford for the crossing of wagons and livestock. Erb built a sawmill in 1806, the first in Waterloo County, and a gristmill in 1807. Together the two businesses became the nucleus for the establishment of a settlement called Cambridge Mills. Mennonite settlers moved to the area in large numbers. Block Two was renamed Waterloo Township in 1816. Erb and his son-in-law Daniel Snider opened a general store and Erb expanded his milling enterprises in 1818. King Street (Highway 8) was opened officially in 1819. Although Cambridge Mills was positioned nicely for growth, it had only a handful of houses, a few mills and some cultivated land with dense forest all around. This lack of growth is attributed to Erb’s reluctance to encourage development. After John Erb’s death in 1832, his son John S. Erb inherited the lands south of the Speed River and contracted English surveyor William Scollick to layout a village in a linear form along the Great Road from Dundas. This became the village of Preston.1 Completed in 1834, the survey laid out the streets and lots laid at right angles to the Great Road with almost all of the buildings in the settlement stretched out along the road.