SPRING 2018 REMNANTS OF THE PAST
VOL. 43 ISSUE 1
ACO Spring 2018.indd 1 2018-04-02 �� 8:53:37 ACOACO thanks thanks the the following following SPONSORS SPONSORS for for theirtheir support support of of the the 2017 2017 Awards Awards Dinner Dinner
QueenstonQueenston Limestone Limestone PresentingPresenting Sponsors Sponsors
Red MedinaRed Medina HistoricHistoric SandstoneSandstone Sponsors Sponsors RestorationRestoration Inc. Inc.
E R A E A R rA c h A i t re c c h t is t e I c n t c s . I n c . H i s t o H r i sc t o R r ei c s t oR re a s t t i o o r n a t Ii no cn . I n c . J . D . J S . tD r .a c S h t ar a n c h a n Construction Construction Ltd. Ltd.
ontarioontario Fieldstone Fieldstone BlackwellBlackwell Engineering Engineering RobertRobert Allsopp Allsopp SponsorsSponsors CatherineCatherine Nasmith Nasmith Architect Architect RoofRoof Tile ManagementTile Management Inc. Inc. ElginElgin Contracting Contracting and Restorationand Restoration Ltd. Ltd.ScotiaMcLeod ScotiaMcLeod GoldsmithGoldsmith Borgal Borgal Company Company Architects Architects Taylor Taylor Hazell Hazell Architects Architects Inc. Inc. MichaelMichael B. Vaughan B. Vaughan YorkYork Heritage Heritage Management Management +VG +VGThe VentinThe Ventin Group Group Architects Architects
WithWith gratitude gratitude to theto the Ontario Ontario Ministry Ministry of Tourism,of Tourism, CultureCulture and and Sport Sport and and the the Ontario Ontario Heritage Heritage Trust Trust for fortheir their continuing continuing support. support.
ACO Spring 2018.indd 2 2018-04-02 �� 8:53:38 CONTENTS 1 From the President ACO thanks the following SPONSORS for by F. Leslie Thompson
2 Ruminating on Ruins their support of the 2017 Awards Dinner by Dan Schneider 4 River Remnants by Susan Ratcli e Queenston Limestone 6 Fragments of Industry Presenting Sponsors by Brendan Lacy and Robyn Lacy
8 Remembering the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan by Lindi Pierce
11 The Credit Valley Dynamo by Patricia Farley
12 The Forgotten Past Chiseled in Rock by Jack Hutton Spring Issue 14 Resurrecting a Victorian Storefront 2018 by ACO London Region
15 Ghost of the Grand Trunk Railway by Bob Malone
17 Mill Race Park, Cambridge Red Medina Historic by Marilyn Scott Sandstone Sponsors Restoration Inc. 18 Relocating Remnants by Noah McGillivray and Alison Creba ERA Architects Inc. Historic Restoration Inc. J.D. Strachan Construction Ltd. 20 Ghost Graphics of Yesteryear by Bob Hambly
22 Newmarket’s Ghost Canal ontario Fieldstone Blackwell Engineering Robert Allsopp by Gordon Prentice Sponsors Catherine Nasmith Architect Roof Tile Management Inc. 24 Cheltenham Brickworks Elgin Contracting and Restoration Ltd. ScotiaMcLeod by Peter Stewart Cheltenham Brickworks, 2017 Goldsmith Borgal Company Architects Taylor Hazell Architects Inc. Richard Seck Photography 26 Toronto’s Sleeping Giant Michael B. Vaughan York Heritage Management by Julian Mirabelli +VG The Ventin Group Architects 28 Springing to Action by Devorah Miller
29 The Barclay Post O ce by Elaine Splett
With gratitude to the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, 30 Lost and Found: Repurposing fragments to animate public space Culture and Sport and the Ontario Heritage Trust by Hannah Had eld, Tanya McCullough and Leora Bebko for their continuing support. 32 Two Sault Ste. Marie Remnants by Chris Tossell
Spring 2018
ACO Spring 2018.indd 3 2018-04-02 �� 8:53:43 Spring Issue 2018
Architectural Conservancy Ontario 401 Richmond Street West Suite 206 Toronto ON M5V 3A8
T 416.367.8075 TF 1.877.264.8937 F 416.367.8630 E [email protected] www.arconserv.ca
President Editorial Committee F. Leslie Thompson Susan Ratcli e, Chair, Guy Burry, Jane Kim, Liz Lundell, Dan Schneider
Managing Editor Vice-Presidents Liz Lundell Shannon Kyles Senior Vice-President and Vice-Chair Photo Editor Guy Burry Kae Elgie Vice-President and Human Resources Designer Chair Jane Kim
Sylvia Swiekatun Contributing Authors/Editors/Photographers Treasurer and Vice-President, Finance ACO London Region, Leora Bebko, Guy Burry, Alison Creba, Pat Farley, Hannah Had eld, Bob Hambly, Jack Hutton, Brendan Lacy, Gordon Lacy, Robyn Lacy, Richard Longley, Liz Lundell, Bob Malone, Tanya McCullough, Noah McGillivray, Corporate Secretary Devorah Miller, Julian Mirabelli, Catherine Nasmith, Lindi Pierce, Gordon Prentice, John Harrison Susan Ratcli e, Dan Schneider, Marilyn Scott, Richard Seck Photography, Elaine Splett, Peter Stewart, F. Leslie Thompson, Chris Tossell, Glenn Zavitz
Past President Publisher Catherine Nasmith Architectural Conservancy Ontario
Architectural Conservancy Ontario gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support Executive Members-at-Large of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport and the Honourable Daiene Vernile, Jean Haalboom Minister Sarah Hill Jocelyn Kent SSN:0704-0083 George Rust-D’Eye ©2018 ACORN is a publication of Architectural Conservancy Ontario. No parts Alan Stacey of this publication can be reproduced without permission of the publisher. The Connor Turnbull opinions expressed by our writers and contributors do not necessarily re ect those of Architectural Conservancy Ontario.
PreservationWorks! Catherine Nasmith, Interim Manager ADVERTISE IN ACORN R. Scott James, Advisor 2018 RATES Peter Stewart, Advisor Full Page $750 Half Page $400 Quarter Page $225 Sta 1/8 Page $125 Will Coukell, Chief Operating O cer Devorah Miller, Development O cer Please call Devorah Miller at 416.367.8075 or email Elizabeth Quance, Branch Coordinator [email protected] to book an ad for our Fall 2018 issue. Marie May, Bookkeeper All ads are printed in full colour.
ACO Spring 2018.indd 4 2018-04-02 �� 8:53:43 FROM THE PRESIDENT
F. Leslie Thompson ACO President and Chair Photo Matthew Plexman
My home’s baseboards are scarred! champions — John Ruskin. For Ruskin, amusement and pleasure; perhaps These indentations are likely the not only was “truth” one of the moral a purpose never imagined by the marks made by the workmen who categories of architecturei but he also architects of either the ornaments or lived here in the nineteenth century argued that “ancient buildings should the house? as they kicked the mud o their be preserved, but no attempt should work boots at the end of the day. be made to erase the accumulated In their article on relocating remnants, Many layers of lead-based paint history encoded in their decay.”ii Our Noah McGillivray and Alison Creba cover these eleven inch rst-growth colleague celebrates ruins in his ask us to consider the process of pine boards, but the front hall dents article and gives special attention to moving the William Whitehead house remain as evidence of “Muddy York” the stabilized walls of the Ruin of St. as a signi er. Given the historical and and remnants of the lives lived Raphael’s Roman Catholic Church sociological context of its original here. Looking at these scars I can National Historic Site among others. location, what is the meaning of imagine the prior inhabitants kicking its move on hydraulic dollies? How the baseboards and the sound of From another perspective, Hannah would its signi cance change if it heavy boots hitting my walls. The Had eld, Tanya McCullough and Leora remained and became the façade or historic context of these dents and Bebko consider the repurposing of an element of a glass tower? Would it imagined memory allows me to architectural fragments outside their be a pastiche? Read on and nd out. forgive the destructive act of their original context. Although Ruskin making because these remnants might have been horri ed at the You may notice I ask a lot of questions. have meaning for me as a viewer and thought, he did live in a Victorian For me the joy of reading ACORN is homeowner. Warning; if you visit, London widely embellished with the that it provokes questions and nudges do not test my baseboards or my architectural codes of other centuries me to try to understand architecture interpretation. in the form of ornament. I wonder and cultural landscapes from di erent however, do the original codes of perspectives and theoretical vantage Remnants, ruins and architectural the salvaged fragments create a new points. My hope is that you too will fragments are the subject of this meaning in their new context? In the enjoy this issue and continue to issue of ACORN. Our stories include article we learn that the new context probe the possible meanings of the a range of interpretations of the is the garden of a salvaged nineteenth remnants and the ruins you see every theme. For example, Dan Schneider century home now surrounded by day. “ruminates on ruins” in a manner skyscrapers. Will the ambiguity of the evoking the sentiments of nineteenth site or the references of the remnants — F. Leslie Thompson century romantics and of one of their open an opportunity for public
i Ruskin, John, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, (John Wiley, New York), 1849 ii Ibid. ACORN Spring 2018 1
ACO Spring 2018.indd 1 2018-04-02 �� 8:53:44 RUMINATING ON RUINS By Dan Schneider
What is a ruin? Think of it as a built about the vestiges of old farms: “the heritage remnant in situ in the undulating green waves of time are landscape. The remnant has lost, laid on them.” irretrievably, its ability to shelter, provide a crossing or be otherwise The most common type of ruin in our useful. rural landscape is old farm buildings. As preservationists well know, without The landscape the ruin inhabits active use an old building can go includes our countryside, riverscapes, downhill fast and the usual outcome is even streetscapes — although, as demolition and replacement, skipping structures go, ruins tend to be anti- the ruin stage entirely. social and o by themselves. But now and then, a building On this side of the Atlantic, and reaches the point of no return, and compared to intact historic structures, is just allowed to keep going — Railway viaduct near Paris. Photo Dan Schneider, 2018 ruins are little appreciated. Their through a long falling-down into worth and signi cance to our ruination and, but for some kind of communities is ignored, and their sites intervention, ultimate dissolution and are purposely degraded or destroyed. disappearance.
The poetic and picturesque Decrepit, unused barns start to associations of ruins, stereotypically lose their siding; then more and of the “old world” kind, springs from more pieces fall away. The timber their appeal to the senses and the structure with its massive beams can imagination. While Ontario is lacking survive for decades before complete in ruinous castles, monasteries and collapse. Eventually what remains are temples, we do have more than a few foundation walls, or just a silo. ruins worthy of this romantic tradition. Farmhouses are sometimes left to rot On the Grand River, just north of away too. And what’s left of old stone Barn silo near Shakespeare. Photo Dan Schneider, 2017 Paris, is one of the more spectacular walls and rail fences, meandering ruins in the province — the piers and through the undergrowth. is the result of major intervention. abutments of an old railway viaduct. After the church, built in 1821, burned The bridge, built circa 1854, carried Instead of a protracted mouldering 150 years later, the Ontario Heritage the main line of the Great Western away, ruin can come suddenly, the Foundation (now Ontario Heritage Railway running from Niagara Falls result of a re or other disaster. Old Trust) stabilized and restored the to Windsor. According to interpretive mills especially were notoriously stone walls and landscaped the site. signage, this portion of the line was subject to res. If rebuilding was not The magni cent National Historic Site abandoned in the 1930s. feasible, and if no other use for the site is protected by one of the rst OHF presented itself, the ruins remained. heritage easements. Near Sebringville, west of Stratford, is a humbler relict. A rusted steel truss Fire was the culprit in the creation of St. Raphael’s shows how that the bridge, deckless but with stringers and perhaps Ontario’s most dramatic ruin historical signi cance of ruins is owing oor beams intact, crosses a tributary — the hulking shell of St. Raphael’s to two, sometimes three, events and of the Thames. Half-swallowed in the church northeast of Cornwall. the circumstances surrounding them. encroaching verdure, the bridge calls to mind a line from Al Purdy’s poem Unlike many ruins, the “open air The rst, of course, has to do with the “The Country North of Belleville” museum” that is St. Raphael’s today building of the (now ruined) structure
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 2 2018-04-02 �� 8:53:45 for human occupation or use. The often poignant change in historical as a ruin is a destroyed structure, second event is the abandoning of the circumstances that resulted in the so intervention inevitably destroys site, which puts it on the road to ruin. second event e ectively reversing the the ruin to a greater or lesser extent. Why was an apparently “healthy” and rst. Something is lost. functional building deserted by its owner, left to fall down and moulder? For some (lucky?) ruins there is a Of course, without active intervention, Why was a structure damaged or third event. This is intervention, the a ruin will ultimately disappear, or destroyed by calamity not repaired or decision to do something to conserve disappear more quickly. So, the rebuilt or its site re-used? the ruin and its values. Intervention question about what to do, or not to runs the gamut all the way from a do, must rst look at all the values of In either case the abandonment plaque or other interpretation, to the ruin site — aesthetic, physical, would almost always have been the the isolation of the ruin for safety historical, contextual, intangible — result of the owner’s decision that purposes (through the erection of some of which, like it or not, will be the upkeep and continued use of barriers to access, for example), to competing. Railway viaduct near Paris. Photo Dan Schneider, 2018 the structure, or the re-use of the the stabilization of the satructure land, was not economically practical. (by capping and repointing masonry To put it starkly, would you rather Behind such a determination would walls, for example), to selective have hoary remains or an all-cleaned- be one or more potentially far- demolition or re-construction of the up archaeological site? A relict slowly reaching historical factors: changes in structure. melting under the “green waves of industry conditions, such as depletion time” or one preserved inde nitely? A of natural resources; technological In the extreme, very rare case — the site redolent with spirit of the place or obsolescence; loss of markets; decline old William Lyon Mackenzie printery an “open air museum”? in population; and changes in land use in Queenston is one — the ruined patterns and transportation routes. structure is completely restored. In practice, some middle ground can usually be found. But, with ruins, The association with these larger Intervention, where it occurs, itself active preservation will mean a social and economic themes are a forms an important part of the story challenging compromise. key part of every ruin’s story. The ruin of the ruin. But — and herein lies stands as a reminder of the fateful and the paradox of “saving” ruins — just For now, just nd — and gently hug Barn silo near Shakespeare. Photo Dan Schneider, 2017 — a ruin near you.
St. Raphael’s church northeast of Cornwall, a National Historic Site. Photo Catherine Nasmith, 2017
About the author
Dan Schneider is a St Marys-based heritage consultant. He posts twice monthly on his award- winning heritage policy blog OHA+M at https://uwaterloo.ca/ heritage-resources-centre/blog.
ACORN Spring 2018 3
ACO Spring 2018.indd 3 2018-04-02 �� 8:53:47 RIVER REMNANTS: A BEER BOTTLE AND A STREET RAILWAY, A BROKEN DAM, A CONDO AND A FINE HOME
By Susan Ratcliffe
THE BEER BOTTLE AND THE STREET the banks of Silver Creek needed to RAILWAY increase production to meet demand, Leave your car near Edinburgh Road so he decided to add a second shift in Guelph and walk west along the of workers. Electricity had recently River Speed. As you listen to the ow arrived in Guelph, so he could light his of the water over the concrete weirs, factory for night work. you will come to a little bridge over a sludgy, turgid stream that runs How could he get his workers out between broken limestone walls and to the west end of town? In 1894, disappears under Waterloo Avenue. George obtained a charter and built What is it? Where does it go? a street railway to bring workers to the brewery. He built the car barns You are looking at Guelph’s Silver and powerhouse near the edge of Creek, a sad reminder of its former the creek so that he would have a glory as the source of the best beer- ready supply of cooling water for making water in Ontario in 1851. the condensing engine necessary to When John H. Sleeman arrived from power the trains. The powerhouse Cornwall, England in 1836, he brought still remains on the banks of Silver his family tradition of brewing beer Creek, now beautifully restored as the and established his business near St. Graystone Apartments. Catharines. But he was not happy. Phoenix Mill on the banks of Silver Creek, Guelph. Photo The Sleeman story is a remarkable Susan Ratcli e, 2006 Dissatis ed with the quality of the one of pirates and gangsters, of water in that area, he collected prohibition and hidden family history. samples from various places in A handwritten notebook with a recipe Ontario and sent them for testing for Cream Ale on page 64 began a in Cornwall. He moved the brewery new chapter to the story which can be to Guelph when its water tested the told another time. closest to the water he had used brewing beer back home. After three THE BROKEN DAM, THE CONDO years of leasing space, he built the rst AND THE FINE HOUSE Silvercreek Brewery in 1851 near the Following the path of Silver Creek creek at its con uence with the Speed north past the old car barns, you will River — and a “notorious” legend was see it disappear under the parking lot born. into a wooded area. The muddy trickle brings us to the broken remnants of John’s son George, who took over a small dam whose scattered chunks the brewery in 1867, proved to be of limestone no longer hold back the not only a phenomenal brewer, but creek. Beyond the broken dam, the also sportsman (his Guelph Maple shape of the land clearly outlines a Leaf team won the baseball World former mill pond, now choked with Series in 1874), businessman and weeds. mayor of Guelph. His brewery on The story goes back to Guelph’s Sources: 1John W. Keleher, “The Mill Lands of Guelph and Associated Industry” Historic Guelph: The Royal City. Guelph Historical Society, Vol XXXIII, 1994, p. 37. Past the old car barns of the Sleeman street railway, Silver Creek disappears into a wooded area, trickling through the 2David Allan, About Guelph: its Early Days and Later. Guelph Historical Society, 2012, p. 37 (based broken dam of a mill pond. Photo Susan Ratcli e, 2006. on David Allan’s original text from 1939).
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 4 2018-04-02 �� 8:53:49 Homewood, the former home of Admiral Charles Edmund Kingsmill. Photo Susan Ratcli e, 2011.
founder, John Galt, an agent for the A. J. Butt decided that they too would his service. The Howitts repurchased Canada Company and responsible for build a mill along its banks closer the property in 1894 and lived there attracting settlers to the prospective to Waterloo Avenue to be nearer until 1941. After many years as an town. The Company prospectus potential markets. They called theirs apartment building, the house was boasted, “The River Speed is a the Phoenix Mill, an appropriate name discovered in 1984 by Frank Valeriote, considerable stream with falls in since it found new life in 1912 when later MP for Guelph, who felt called to the vicinity of the Town su cient to it was reborn as the Sterling Rubber care for it. A psychic later told him that a ord sites for fteen or twenty mills. Factory. Converted in 1991 into “a person of command” was still living Limestone, easily quarried, and which condominium apartments, it remains in the house. Frank has spent the last makes excellent lime, is found in the today on its original site on the creek. 35 years restoring and renovating the immediate vicinity of those falls…. It is hard to believe now that the house into an elegant home, a ne The water power is considerable, and little trickling Silver Creek could have tribute to its past glory. during the greater part of the year spawned such industrial success. scarce can be exhausted.”1 The beer bottle, the car barns, the When the creek was dammed to form broken dam, the condo and the home Horace Perry was summoned from a pond, its banks provided a beautiful by the pond are remnants that tell Port Hope in 1829 to construct the setting where a little-known piece of great stories about Guelph’s heritage Canada Company Mill on the lands Canadian history unfolded. Around as an industrial centre, a leader in near the founding site of the new 1850, J. J. Kingsmill bought seven public transportation and the home city. When that mill was completed, acres from pioneer John “Quaker” of a famous Canadian. As you walk the he decided to invest in Guelph by Howitt and built the elegant house banks of its diminished water course, building his own small saw mill in he called Homewood. Constructed pay attention to Silver Creek to hear 1831 on a property on Silver Creek. It of local limestone in the Italianate or the echoes of its storied past. was constructed of “wood, painted Tuscan Villa style, it was surrounded red, and fed by two streams which by a wide verandah, boasted 15 rooms supplied su cient head to drive an with six replaces, arched windows, overshot water wheel with which to stained glass, tin ceilings and a run the mill.”2 Known as the Red Mill, mahogany-panelled library. About the author it was not only pro table, but its large size made it a popular spot to hold J. J. Kingsmill’s son, Charles Edmund, Susan Ratcli e is a long-time dances and large gatherings. Until grew up in the house until he left to historical walking tour guide, 1887, it provided a good income to a join the Royal Navy at age 14. After co-ordinator of Doors Open variety of owners including Guelph’s a successful career, he was invited Guelph, former President of ACO. rst land developer, Sheri George J. by Prime Minister Laurier in 1910 to She is President of the Guelph Grange. establish the Canadian Navy. For his and Wellington Branch and a exceptional contributions during the passionate lover and defender of The water power was so strong in First Word War, Kingsmill was awarded her city’s heritage. Silver Creek that M. J. Patterson and the title of Admiral and knighted for
ACORN Spring 2018 5
ACO Spring 2018.indd 5 2018-04-02 �� 8:53:52 FRAGMENTS OF INDUSTRY By Brendan Lacy and Robyn Lacy
In the summer of 2012, Brendan was during this period of con ict that Lacy, a descendant of John Harris, he was captured at sea by a French travelled to Rockwood Conservation privateer, a Corsair on February 6th, Area and saw the ruins of the Harris 1813. He wrote of his ordeal, marching & Co. Woolen Mill for the rst time. across France as a prisoner: ‘‘Oft have Interested in learning more about I when overpowered with fatigue the family history, he did not expect and sleep, fancied myself at home in to experience the space where many company of my friends: but alas! how individuals had once worked and great the change when I awoke and lived, now reduced to a grandiose ruin how distant that day appeared.” in the woods. Harris was eventually released and John Harris, one of the rst European made his way back to the British settlers of the town of Rockwood, was Isles, where he rejoined the shipping View of the tower’s date stone. Photo Gordon Lacy, 2012 Brendan’s great- great-great-great company where he had previously grandfather. Through a surviving worked. In 1820, he boarded a ship to what would eventually become the transcription of his diary held at Canada to seek further opportunities. Town of Rockwood, Ontario. In 1867, the Wellington County Museum John’s three eldest sons along with and Archives, Harris, originally from Having bought a plot of land and their brother-in-law founded the Ireland, detailed his life as a sea raised a shanty for himself, John Harris Harris & Co. Woolen Mill which was captain during the Napoleonic wars. It became one of the rst settlers of built from locally quarried limestone. The mill supplied the town and the surrounding area with textiles until around 1925 when it closed due to competition from mills in Toronto and Cambridge. Today, after several res and years of bustling activity, the mill has been stabilized as a stoic ruin within the Rockwood Conservation Area.
To approach the mill ruins today, one must drive a winding park road through thin trees and pull around to the parking lot eas th land falls away to meet the Eramosa River. There, sprawling across the landscape, with half a tower poking out of the depths of the stone walls lies the limestone ruin of the Harris & Co. Woolen Mill. On a sunny day, the stone shines austere and white against the calm of the forest, a stark industrial feature cutting through its natural backdrop. Inside, empty windows evenly spaced around each wall look out at slowly waving cedar trees. The east wall had an arched doorway complete The Rockwood Woolen Mill ruins. Photo Gordon Lacy, 2012 with limestone voussoirs as did the
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 6 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:00 windows. The carefully carved quoins extended up gently sloping hills at every corner demonstrate the level on either side of the river so that of care and detail the builders put into it was impossible to tell we were this industrial structure. surrounded by the town, and yet the chimney on the mill would Standing in a historic structure, have been visible from anywhere in knowing its rich history within the Rockwood. community and on the landscape, it is easy to imagine just how many As cultural values change over people stood in that exact spot over time, so does our relationship the years. During Brendan’s visit to the to the landscapes we inhabit. site, he found himself overwhelmed Preserving pieces of our heritage and by the history and signi cance of the transitioning these new landscapes Canoeists paddle on the Eramosa River which once powered structure, walking through doorways into roles that are valuable to the the woolen mill. Photo Gordon Lacy, 2012 and down into the room below the communities they serve is vital for the Sources: tower. A trough that carried the continuation of any culture. George Day, “John Harris Lead an Interesting Life before becoming the Founder of Rockwood”, water from the reservoir to the huge Your Own ‘Home Town’ Community Newspaper. machinery snaked across the oor The ruins represent a personal and Vol. 1, Issue 30. October, 1986. Rockwood, and ran down under the wall by the cultural, tangible connection to the Ontario. tower. Today, the preserved trough is past, not only for the Lacy family but R. O. Flanagan, “Rockwood Mill reopens against lled with smooth white river stones, for everyone who lives or has lived in a picturesque backdrop”, The Guelph Mercury and a small footbridge crosses to the the vicinity of Rockwood. The ruins Tribune. August 15, 2011. Available online: https://www.guelphmercury.com/news- other side of the room. Entering a site themselves represent the industrial story/2770849-rockwood-mill-reopens-against- like this, with so many years of history, history of the region, preserved within a-picturesque-backdrop/ visitors can almost hear for a moment the Rockwood Conservation Area as Grand River Conservation Authority, Harris and the crash of machinery and the voices a structure with signi cant physical, Co. Rockwood Woolen Mills. Public Interpretive of workers calling to one another. historical, and contextual value. Sign, N.D. Limestone structures like the mill John Harris, The Diary of John Harris, 1811 – Lacy wrote of his experience at the aren’t built anymore, and the decision 1830. Unpublished, transcriptions held at the site: of the township and the Grand River Wellington County Museum and Archives, Conservation Authority to stabilize Fergus, Ontario. Something shifted in the ruin in and preserve the structure for future my mind and the silence I was generations to re ect on the history of wrapped in slipped away. Through the area, was a great one. About the authors the window openings I could hear the soft burbling of the nearby river Today, the mill sits as a landmark and Robyn Lacy is a Cultural Heritage in the mill race. A few children romantic ruin within the conservation Specialist with Golder Associates ran by me laughing, and a couple area, representing another point of Ltd, working with historic walked onto the footbridge to take development within an ever-changing properties on a daily basis. She engagement photos. I think my landscape. It is a popular destination holds an MA in Archaeology dad and I felt the same thing, a with tourists and locals alike for nature from Memorial University of kind of unexplainable connection walks, photoshoots, weddings, and Newfoundland. Brendan Lacy to a distant past. We smiled at learning about the community’s is a descendant of John Harris. each other, no longer alone with heritage. Through restoration, the Brendan is studying architecture the weight of history. My parents structure has been conserved as an at the University of Waterloo. He and I walked out beyond the important aspect of the community to works in Toronto and has a passion ruins to where the river was full inspire future generations. for landscape and history from his and ran over slick limestone in a time at ERA Architects. narrow waterfall. The cedar trees
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 7 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:03 REMEMBERING THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AIR TRAINING PLAN By Lindi Pierce
A war memorial stands on a limestone In 1969, the Department of National escarpment above Picton, Ontario, Defense left for good. The old BCATP approximately 160 kilometres east buildings and air eld were purchased of Toronto. This is not a monument by H. J. McFarland, construction to fallen combatants or the statue of company giant and Picton’s legendary a famous commander. This Second mayor. World War remembrance is a 700- acre former air training base, looking Thirty years later, the buildings, much as it did when the British neglected and vandalized, were given Commonwealth Air Training Plan, a nal lease on life with the Scott the program for which the base was family’s purchase of the complex. Mr. created, ended in 1944. Scott had trained with the BCATP at a similar installation in Manitoba, and During the desperate days of 1940, when he discovered this site on visits when England needed to train air to Prince Edward County, he invested. crews out of range of the Luftwa e, the British government created the Mayor McFarland’s initial vision for British Commonwealth Air Training the site, to preserve and utilize the Plan (BCATP). Picton’s No. 31 Bombing buildings, has been realized by the and Gunnery School was one of more Loch Sloy Holding company. Jacqui than a hundred ight training facilities Burley has worked as manager for 17 built in Canada, sta ed by Canadians, years. She confesses that as a local to train pilots, navigators, gunners and girl, she didn’t know the historic bomb crews from Canada, Britain, the signi cance of the facility. Listening to United States and Commonwealth veterans and their families has made it countries at the start of the war. come to life.
Things changed quickly for quiet Even today, each of the thousands Picton. In April 1941, almost six of visitors enters the 688-acre hundred Royal Air Force personnel property via the former guardhouse. arrived in Picton, after a transatlantic Substantial hospital and drill hall crossing, and the train journey from buildings, smaller barracks and Halifax. During the war, the BCATP workshops, six hangars, three air strips facility had a signi cant social and and two parachute towers recall the economic impact. The in ux of work done here during the Second federal dollars, and uniformed men World War. A menacing, barbed-wire of marriageable age, changed the fence de nes the perimeter. county forever. The buildings of Loch Sloy could be The bombing and gunnery school a movie set, with street upon street closed on November 17, 1944, ve of weathered, shingle-clad buildings. months after the allied invasion of The sense of history is palpable. The Europe. In subsequent years the old Commonwealth Air Training facility served the Canadian military in facility has, in fact, made it into the other capacities, under various names. movies. Several lms have been shot
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 8 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:04 REMEMBERING THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AIR TRAINING PLAN
Many improvements have taken place at Loch Sloy since these photos were taken in 2014. Photo Lindi Pierce, 2014
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 9 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:05 there, the historic structures providing Jacqui Burley tells the story of an the perfect backdrop for wartime elderly gentleman who drove up to dramas. the gatehouse, and slumped over the steering wheel of his car. She The di erence between an imperiled approached, concerned for his health, historic building and a useful one is to nd him sobbing. His explanation a good roof. Buildings constructed took her back to war-ravaged in haste as temporary structures in Holland, a terri ed seven-year-old the 1940s have been rescued and boy and his family directly in the repurposed. Loch Sloy sta have path of advancing German troops. reroofed many of the structures in He recounted the arrival of Canadian Picton’s No. 31 Bombing and Gunnery School of the bright red steel; of the 44 original paratroopers who evacuated the BCATP. Photo Lindi Pierce, 2014 buildings at the base, only three family. Had it not been for the have been lost. These have been Canadians and the training at bases dismantled, and the windows, cedar such as this, he explained, his family shakes and structural timbers have would have perished. These personal been salvaged for repairs to other stories, the appreciation expressed by buildings. Old elements, such as 1940s individuals who experienced the war, lighting, are being retro tted; the highlight the importance of this place. green ethic is emphasized. The former BCATP base is a neglected This is adaptive reuse on a grand scale. national treasure. Canada has been Fifty-seven businesses and storage called the “aerodrome of democracy” clients – painters, photographers for its vital role in training allied air and design studios, a yoga studio, crews; others have dubbed the BCATP auto and construction services, operation the country’s greatest Several of the 1940s structures, including hangars, small manufacturers and other contribution to the Second World were erected in haste during the war. Photo Lindi Pierce, 2014 entrepreneurs – call the renovated War. Those who know it hope that the buildings home and pay the bills. In facility’s national historic signi cance 2017, the county’s iconic Taste the will soon be recognized by heritage County event was hosted at Loch organizations and by government. Sloy – the former hangars welcomed over 3000 visitors. This place which As of January 2017, the complex once buzzed with wartime activity is is again for sale. The commercial vibrant again. potential of the site is being emphasized, its runways and A long-term vision is to renovate a hangars likened to small airports like space for a museum – when funds Buttonville. After 17 years, Loch Sloy and time permit. In reality the holdings is passing the torch. Hopes entire complex is a living history are high that the values of adaptive Several lms have been shot here, the historic museum. Historic vignettes pop reuse and historical preservation structures providing the perfect backdrop for wartime into view everywhere: a parachute can both be honoured, so that this dramas. Photo Lindi Pierce, 2014 tower behind barbed-wire fencing, unparalleled link with history will not a decommissioned military vehicle be lost. beside a shingled H-hut. In summer, the shiny yellow gliders of air cadets in training rest at ease after classes, outside a weather-worn hangar.
The former BCATP installation is the About the author largest and most intact of the 111 stations built in Canada during the Lindi Pierce is a Belleville-based heritage writer and war. This place is something special; it regular contributor to County and Quinte Living, holds open the door to our past, and Country Roads, and Outlook, the newsletter of links us directly to the experiences the Hastings County Historical Society. She shares of young men who risked, and her passion for heritage architecture on her blog sometimes lost, their lives. Ancestral Roofs. Lindi is a member of ACO Quinte.
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 10 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:08 THE CREDIT VALLEY DYNAMO By Patricia Farley
Presently owned by the Credit Valley The dynamo ruins seen today are Conservation Authority, the limestone the remains of a small, three-storey ruins of the 1888 Credit Valley limestone block building, erected Dynamo, known locally as the Barber to house, not only the turbines and Dynamo, are located in Georgetown, dynamo machinery but, the family Ontario and can only be accessed by of James Alexander who received his using the Credit Valley Footpath. The orders from the mill via telephone footpath is a side trail of the Bruce and was charged with operating Trail that follows the gorge created and maintaining the machinery. The by the Credit River. This tough, just dynamo’s usefulness was short-lived over three-kilometre hike through and it became redundant in 1913 the woods beside the river, begins at when public electricity became widely The crumbling dynamo building. Photo Steve Cook, the remains of the Barber Paper Mill available in Georgetown; however, the Hiking in the GTA blog, https://hikingthegta.com, 2015. on River Road in Georgetown and Alexander family continued to reside takes you under the massive 1856 in the building until 1935. Grand Trunk Railway trestle before nally reaching the scenic ruins of the Today, much like the Barber Paper dynamo building. Before starting your Mill it once powered, the crumbling hike, take a few minutes to check out dynamo building is slowly being the Provincial Plaque at 99 River Road, overtaken by nature, with trees which gives an excellent outline of the growing within its walls, while the dynamo’s history. sounds of the nearby Credit River are accompanied by bird song and In the late nineteenth century, after chirping crickets. As of this writing, nding the existing dam and water the greatest threat to the dynamo wheel system supplied insu cient is a resident colony of beavers that power to meet the increasing regularly fells nearby trees, further demands of the Barber Paper Mill, mill damaging the structure. Happily, manager, John Rolf Barber travelled given its isolated location and the John R. Barber and the Credit River Dynamo to England and the United States in di cult hike, the dynamo is seldom Plaque, 99 River Road, Georgetown. Photo Patricia search of a solution. He eventually the target of vandals. Farley, 2017 located a manufacturer in Ohio — C. F. Brush — who built and supplied All is not lost! As part of the a 100 hp generator, which could be development of the 113-kilomtre powered by water-driven turbines. Credit Valley Heritage Trail, which will After Barber built a higher dam follow the course of the Credit River downstream from the mill, the newly from its headwaters near Orangeville installed dynamo began supplying the to its mouth at Port Credit, the About the author mill with electricity via transmission Credit Valley Conservation Authority lines through the woods. hopes to stabilize the dynamo ruins, Patricia Farley is the preventing further deterioration and Founding President of ACO In 2015, after including the Barber Mill making it safe for visiting hikers. Halton Hills Branch which on Canada’s Top 10 Endangered Places was established in 2014. list, Heritage Canada described the It should be noted that the remnants Her article on the project dynamo as “a remarkable innovation of the dynamo buildings are involving Lucy Maud dating to 1888 and reported to unprotected by designation or listing Montgomery’s Norval home have been the rst long-distance on the Halton Hills Heritage Register. appeared in the Spring 2017 transmission of hydro-electric power issue of ACORN. to supply an industrial plant in North America.”
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 11 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:12 THE FORGOTTEN PAST CHISELED IN ROCK By Jack Hutton
Tuesday, November 21, 2017, started The more he looked, the more Gagné WILLSON, followed by PITTSBURG US. o as an ordinary morning for thought that he could see unusual A second inscription, added decades Jean-Marie Gagné, the site supervisor outlines in the mud surface that later at the right, read: W. A. T. AND G. for a new hydro plant being built at faced down river. Was he missing G. BIRRELL, AUG 1919 LONDON ONT. the Bala Falls in Muskoka. Gagné is something? employed by WSP Canada, which Word spread quickly that the most designed the North Bala Small Hydro Gagné used a broom to poke at the exciting archeological nd in Bala’s Project for Swift River Energy Ltd., mud and got the surprise of his life. history had been discovered. Gunta the developer. Gagné’s task for the Someone had carved the year “1888” Towsley, president of the Muskoka day was to inspect an area where an into the granite. Gagné rushed to branch of Architectural Conservancy SREL excavation crew using heavy a nearby co erdam with a pail and Ontario, phoned a vice-president of equipment had just dug down to began throwing water at the mud. By SREL, Nhung Nguyen, to tell her that expose the Precambrian bedrock for lunch time, he had washed all mud the nd was located within Bala’s new the next stage of construction. The and dirt o two side-by-side rock Heritage Conservation District, albeit weekend digging had unearthed a inscriptions. The left-hand inscription on provincial lands so not subject to large ridge of granite that looked had “1888” at the top. Below the the municipality’s HCD Plan. Towsley down the Moon River at an angle. It year were two signatures: HIRAM was told that the nd had already was 25 feet wide, 20 feet deep and 8 DEPUY (the Y was very faint) and G. V. been reported to Ontario’s Ministry of feet high, covered by a thick crust of Tourism, Culture and Sport and that mud and soil. all work had been halted near the historic rock. The two agreed that the rock inscriptions should be preserved for posterity if at all possible.
Swift River contacted consultants to determine how to remove a section of the rock face with the two inscriptions as a permanent historical display. The challenge was a crack extending The Pittsburgh Rod and through the inscriptions that could Gun Club at Bala Falls, easily fracture. 1888 from Bob Petry’s Bala: An Early Settlement in Muskoka. Robert Meanwhile, the Muskoka ACO branch Petry, 1998. p.187. was attempting to learn who the individuals were whose signatures were chiseled into the two rock
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 12 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:14 inscriptions. W. A. T. Birrell’s signature chiseled names appear in the 1888 It’s worth remembering that none of was already known to local historians rock inscription? On December this would have happened if Jean- because he had chiseled his name 1, Pam Wong discovered online Marie Gagné had not decided to take into a granite ridge on the north side that George V. Willson was a well- a second look at the mud-covered of Bala’s North Falls on August 1, 1919. known Pittsburgh businessman who granite ridge that had been buried Unfortunately, he didn’t add where he frequently attended meetings at for more than half a century. As the was from and this remained a mystery the Astoria Hotel in New York. On saying goes, the rest is history. for many years. that same day, Liz Lundell found a photo in a Bala history book of the The newly discovered rock inscription Pittsburgh Rod and Gun Club tenting revealed that he was from London, at the Bala Falls in 1888. Her research Ontario. Based on that, Je Stewart, con rmed that Willson and DePuy a Toronto genealogy researcher, told were members of that club. Bala’s Museum that the mystery man was Walker Arthur Thomas Birrell, Further research identi ed George 19, who had just returned from his V. Willson as general manager of a overseas service during the First World Pittsburgh steel plant and Dr. Hiram War at the end of May, 1919, and had DePuy as a well-known Pittsburgh visited Bala in August. G. G. Birrell was dental surgeon. The historic photo his brother. in the history book shows 17 or 18 men in front of their tents, with seven We now know that both Birrell women o to the side. Somewhere brothers were electricians working in the photo are DePuy, aged 28, and for Hydro in the City of London, Willson, aged 35. thanks to Liz Lundell, the founding president of ACO Muskoka and author Swift River’s Nhung Nguyen had more of seven books on Ontario heritage, good news on December 20. A metre- and a second researcher, Pam Wong, thick slice of the historic Bala rock a retired occupational therapist and had just been severed in a delicate an expert in genealogical research. operation known as line drilling, Two members of London Region’s leaving both rock inscriptions intact ACO branch, Maggie Whalley and Dan for a future display. The main problem Brock, added extra details. was a slight fracture line across the letters that required many hours of Meanwhile, who were George V. advance planning. In addition to The inscribed rock face has been removed and will become Willson and Hiram DePuy whose perimeter line drilling, 10 holes were part of a permanent display. Photo Glenn Zavitz, 2017 drilled to install long steel rock bolts with bolt-on steel plates through the 10-plus ton massive block to prevent it from fracturing. Miraculously, it all worked. About the author
The historic discovery and rescue of Jack Hutton is a member of ACO the two rock inscriptions is a dramatic Muskoka. He is a retired reporter and example of what can happen when a communications director. A regular developer co-operates with local ACO contributor to Muskoka publications, branches to recognize the importance he is also a ragtime piano maestro. of local history and heritage.
Jean-Marie Gagné discovered the chiseled rock at the worksite in Bala. Photo Jack Hutton, 2018. ACORN Spring 2018 13
ACO Spring 2018.indd 13 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:16 RESURRECTING A VICTORIAN STOREFRONT By ACO London Region branch
On January 11th, 2018, ACO London’s Unfortunately, by the mid-1980s, the project to resurrect a Victorian retail stretch of Dundas between Ridout façade had its unveiling at London and Talbot streets was demolished Public Library. Over the past two as part of a proposal for residential years, ACO London, Museum London, towers and a large mall that ultimately and London Public Library worked never got built. Julia Beck, then towards moving this vestige of a mid- president of ACO London, and noted nineteenth century streetscape to a London historian Mike Baker asked space where the public could enjoy it the developer to save the façade. once again. The pieces were initially stored in a Unveiling of the Marshall Bros. Tea Company display public utilities substation before being on January 11, 2018. Photo Dorothy Palmer The building at 67 Dundas Street moved to Museum London, where was probably constructed after the they were displayed at one time. extensive downtown re of 1844. The façade remnants then went into Research done by London Public the museum’s storage where they Library’s Ivey Family London Room remained for decades. sta revealed that the building had previously housed an organ Just over two years ago, Kevin Zacher, manufacturer. It then became the Regional History Registrar at Museum workshop of stained glass artisan London, discovered untagged pieces Robert Lewis — also mayor at the in the collection. Again, fortunately, time — who may have created the Mike Baker, now curator at Elgin beautiful “67” transom window. County Museum, recognized the The transom window from 67 Dundas Street, London, façade he had helped rescue. Museum now on display at London Public Library. Photo Dorothy The building’s longest occupant was London asked ACO to help nd a Palmer, 2018 Marshall Bros. Tea Co., founded in 1873 permanent home for the Marshall by Robert and George Marshall. They Bros. Tea façade. London Public photographic evidence suggests that moved into 67 Dundas in the mid- Library was very responsive. this is correct. 1880s and soon afterwards George’s son Ernest joined the family business, To the credit of the original joiners At the unveiling, Londoners shared remaining a devoted “purveyor of ne and the integrity of the Museum their own memories of Marshall teas” until 1973. In a delightful London London vault, the remaining pieces Bros. Tea. Kathy Dokton recalled that Free Press article from 1968, Jeanne of the façade are in relatively good visiting the shop was like “stepping Graham reveals Ernest’s devotion to condition. ACO London advisor back in time … I remember an old his trade and to his customers. The Janet Hunten theorizes that the Victrola, a typewriter, with the keys photograph from this article has storefront would originally have had going sideways.” Ernest Marshall become part of the installation. its architectural detail highlighted evidently used to wear a long in a contrasting paint colour and duster coat when preparing custom
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 14 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:20 tea blends. William Clarke related Bros. Tea shop was probably one of About the branch that he became a regular visitor to the best-preserved in London, serving Marshall Bros. Tea in the early 1970s, as an exemplar of mid-19th century chatting with Ernest Marshall. Clarke retail architecture. These artifacts also The London Region branch of ACO remembers the store still having re ect the drive and commitment was founded in 1966 in response to a very Victorian atmosphere, with of Julia Beck, and her generation of the threat of destruction of the city’s Dickensian standing clerk desks and leading heritage conservationists. ACO old gas xtures still in place, even London Board member Sharon Lunau original nancial district on Ridout though electricity had been installed. added that if buildings can’t be saved, Street. In addition to that preservation we can be a guardian of the remnants campaign, the branch has celebrated Mike Baker notes that the Marshall and not just throw them out. many conservation successes during its more than fty-year history.
GHOST OF THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY By Bob Malone
The ghost of the Grand Trunk Railway Some 25 to 30 years following its lingers! Its footprint remains on the incorporation, the Grand Trunk, by stretch of its original right-of-way total length, was considered one between Newcastle and Port Hope, of the largest railways in the world; Ontario. That footprint must be visible however, there is an unfortunate in other segments along its route as side note. The later plan to enlarge well. the Grand Trunk presence in the New England/New York area was The Grand Trunk Railway was abandoned with the death of incorporated in late 1852 with the the company president. He was a object of building and operating a passenger on the Titanic. line between Montreal and Toronto. A year later, the ambitious company The Grand Trunk was one of the very expanded its charter to include a few railways of the 1850s to survive Newtonville Station, midway between Newcastle and Port line running from the east coast of and enjoy slim to moderate prosperity Hope. Photo Samuel Jones, 1860, Courtesy Newcastle Village and the United States in Portland, Maine until it was absorbed into what would District Historical Society through Quebec and southern become one of two coast-to-coast Ontario to Sarnia, Ontario. From there, Canadian railways: the Canadian the line reached Newcastle, Ontario Chicago-bound tra c was barged National Railway Company created by in 1856, a handsome station was across the St. Clair River to Port Huron, an Act of Parliament in 1923. constructed on what is now Toronto Michigan, travelling on to Chicago via Street. Many photos of the station an operating subsidiary, the Grand In the mid-1850s, the Grand Trunk exist at the Newcastle Village and Trunk Western Railroad. A tunnel was established operations between District Historical Society. also built under the St. Clair River in Montreal and Toronto. There were the 1890s. other GTR lines in Ontario, either built Starting at the lakeside community of by the GTR or added by purchase of Bond Head in Newcastle, the original other nancially troubled lines. When right-of-way is identi ed by a three-
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 15 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:22 Construction south of Newcastle. Photo W. H. Chaplin, 1906, Courtesy Newcastle Village and District Historical Society
wire pole line running east from the Line. Travelling north along Town Line operations which began some 160 bend in Lakeshore Road at the top of Road to a point about two hundred years ago. the hill, just one hundred meters from metres south of the active CN/CP main the now famous wooden bridge over line grade crossing, the old pole line For a modern-day view of this the present CN main line right-of-way. is again visible. Looking east and west remnant of original right-of-way, view Travelling east along Lakeshore Road along the pole line, the old Grand Google Earth from Newcastle to Port — a historic indigenous peoples’ trail Trunk right-of-way is visible. Hope. In many places, the imprint — the road name changes to Glovers on the earth left by early road bed Road for a short distance. Once Why, you might ask, would the Grand construction and train operations is crossing at grade the active rights- Trunk have abandoned its original clearly visible. of-way of both railways, the old pole right-of-way in favour of the present, line becomes visible again several active CN right-of-way? The answer The old Grand Trunk Railway lives on! hundred metres ahead. From the likely lies in the fact there were roadway, and looking east and west, numerous wash-outs and reportedly the old right-of-way lies immediately the loss of some rolling stock where north of the pole line. In fact, the pole the old right-of-way bordered Lake line likely lies within the railway right- Ontario west of Port Hope, so a of-way, owned by the GTR, with the move to the north seemed to be the About the author original poles and wire serving as the prudent thing to do! railway telegraph. Bob Malone is the President of As one walks, where practical, on the the Newcastle Village and District Finally, several kilometres further east old right-of-way and a piece of track Historical Society. along Lakeshore Road, one comes which may be original, one feels a real upon the Clarington /Port Hope Town connection to the original steam train
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 16 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:45 MILL RACE PARK, CAMBRIDGE By Marilyn Scott
On Sunday, July 31, 1977, dignitaries Scottish immigrants Robert Turnbull industries driven by waterpower. and the public were invited to the and John Deans founded their “O cial Opening of the Mill Race Park” knitting business in 1859 in a nearby On September 26, 1994, the park along the banks of the Grand River in house. The two Scotsmen knitted was the site of a special celebration downtown Galt. fabrics on hand frames, which their of national importance. The public wives then sewed into garments. The gathered to attend a dedication That name – Mill Race Park – is a business thrived, and relocated to the ceremony marking the Grand River giveaway as to the site’s history. So Water Street site. In 1879, son Charles and its tributaries as Canadian are the still standing sections of stone Turnbull inherited the business, which Heritage Rivers. One of ve plaques, walls and their window frames, the in 1890, purchased the even older all located in communities along skeletal remains of the long-gone neighbouring Wardlaw Mill. After it the watershed, was unveiled to woollen mill that once stood there. was destroyed by re in 1897, the commemorate the designation. What clinches it was the discovery present stone structure was built by workmen who were digging on in its place. The business grew to Today Mill Race Park is a popular the site in 1976 in preparation for become one of the leading knitting destination. Situated next to the its conversion to public parkland. establishments in the Dominion river, it has been con gured as an They unearthed the mechanics of of Canada. The mill’s still-visible amphitheatre, with the picturesque a wooden waterwheel used in the stonework, expertly built at the time stone walls and windows as a process of powering the mills along by Scottish stonemasons, is all that backdrop to the annual Mill Race the river. remains of the C. Turnbull Co. Ltd. Folk Festival and summer concerts. Special moments are captured here, Galt’s thriving industrial area was Mills feature prominently in local especially as countless wedding concentrated along this particular history. Preston, originally known as parties troop in and out for photos section of the Grand, and in the 1850s, Cambridge Mills, along with Galt and of their big day, or even the marriage several mills were built here to take Hespeler — now amalgamated into ceremony itself. Toddlers, freed from advantage of the readily available Cambridge — have each prospered their strollers, lurch around exploring, water power. and grown because of the variety of while others take a scenic shortcut to the nearby eatery. And some pause long enough to view the cogs of the original gear mechanism, still just visible through some overgrown groundcover.
The Mill Race Park in 2008. Photo Saforrest. https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File: Mill_Race_ruins_in_Galt, Ontario.jpg
About the author
Marilyn Scott is a member of ACO Cambridge & North Dumfries (formerly Heritage Cambridge), a former board member, and an active volunteer with numerous cultural organizations in Cambridge and Waterloo Region.
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 17 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:52 RELOCATING REMNANTS: REFRAMING THE WHITEHEAD HOUSE By Noah McGillivray and Alison Creba
Definition of Remnant from of Heritage Properties, and simply unfamiliar transportation and land Merriam-Webster, 2018 demolishing it was not a viable speculation logics that threatened • a usually small part, member, option. Lanterra’s consultation with and destabilized well-rooted and 3 or trace remaining ERA Architects led to an assessment permanent communities. In parallel, • a small surviving group — of the feasibility and rationale for these same threats precipitated often used in plural relocating the house to a more the rise of contemporary historic • an unsold or unused end of favourable lot. preservation as a distinct eld piece goods through the nineteenth and twentieth As the last remaining structure in centuries. Both of these developments On a cold Saturday morning in what had previously been a similarly- come to bear on the William November 2016, a two-and-a-half populated block, the lone house may Whitehead house, which, under the storey Victorian brick house at 76 be considered a remnant of early auspice of conservation practice, was Howard Street in Toronto, known as vernacular architecture in Toronto. lifted from the ground as much by the the William Whitehead house, was However, it is not simply a vestige of sheer force of capital as the hydraulic moved more than 300 metres west to the past. This structure can also be pressure of pistons. the lot at 28 Howard Street. It spent seen as an adept survivor as well as much of the day on hydraulic dollies, a re ection of evolving approaches Responding to similar threats and inching down the middle of the to heritage conservation and conditions, the practice of heritage roadway to the surprise and delight of broader patterns in the local cultural conservation has maintained a varied a crowd that had gathered to watch landscape. relationship to the practice of moving this engineering stunt. buildings. This shifting doctrine can Historically, buildings have most often perhaps best be traced through the Howard Street is the last remaining been moved for pragmatic reasons: charters of the International Council strip of the Victorian neighbourhood it was simply cheaper and/or easier of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). that was razed through the 1960s to to move a completed building than While the initial Venice Charter of construct St. James Town, a sprawling to construct a new one. As such, the 1964, in Article 7, puts an outright ban mid-century “tower in the park” movement of buildings frequently on the relocation of historic buildings development that stretches south registers a historical movement of because they are “inseparable from 4 from the former site of the William populations, and the associated the setting in which they occur” , 2 Whitehead mansion. While the traumas of migration. With the subsequent revisions have evolved narrow block north of Howard Street rise of industrial era infrastructural from this position, re ecting wider at its eastern terminus was spared development and urbanization, changes in heritage theory and by the developers of St. James Town historic and well-rooted buildings ideology. The New Zealand Charter in the 1960s, the current frenzied began to be increasingly relocated of 1992, reinforced by the Nara development climate in Toronto for new reasons; not the pull factors Document of 1994, acknowledges has seen Lanterra Developments of new frontiers within a migratory relocation can be a legitimate part carefully organizing the properties existence, but the push factors of of the conservation process when on the irregular block, only to sell the assembled land to Tridel Developments in support of a two tower and podium scheme they have planned for the site.1
While most of the buildings on the block had previously been demolished, the Whitehead house survived and remained problematically situated in the centre of the development parcel. Built in 1887, this ornamented Bay and Gable was listed on the Toronto Inventory Goads Map Fire Insurance Plan 1923, detail featuring 76 Howard St., Toronto. Annotated by ERA Architects. Courtesy City of Toronto Archives. Retrieved from: www.toronto.ca 18 ACORN Spring 2018
ACO Spring 2018.indd 18 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:52 relocation “provides continuity or maneuvers require a distinct set of cultural landscape. As such a symbol, cultural heritage value.”5 skills and tools. These processes in the story of this relocated remnant turn contribute to an expanding challenges us to further consider the Aristotle said, “Place is what is discourse which re ects a distinct what other materials and processes motionless.”6 Much of the confusion cultural moment within the city where are generated through contemporary and controversy surrounding the heritage is seen as both a burden and conservation strategies. What of the relocation of buildings stems from an asset. lesser-valued remnants, fragments, their situation in the world of place, residues? What are the stories not told the world of static backdrop. The Recognizing not only the object but about the materials and processes left concern over this change in context the process as embodying heritage, in their wake? can be tempered by an understanding the relocation of the Whitehead that the setting of a building left house also speaks to larger patterns 1 Landau 6 Huggett, 58 in situ is also subject to change — of movement within the St. James 2 Lennon, 7 7 Gregory, 128 3 Gregory, 114 8 The Canadian sometimes radically. Town neighbourhood. Regarded 4 Gregory, 113 Encyclopedia, 2018 as the densest neighbourhood in 5 Ibid. Adjacent demolitions, new Canada8, St. James Town is also constructions, infrastructural characterized by its large immigrant development and decay all population. United by experiences of interfere with this notion of a stable displacement, the relocation of this About the authors setting, and complicate notions fragment again re ects the prominent of authenticity or wholeness in a and ongoing patterns within the city. 7 Alison Creba and Noah McGillivray landscape. Had the Whitehead house Now nestled amongst its comrades, were both born in Toronto. Noah retained in situ, one possible outcome the sliver of Howard Street contains currently works with built heritage at may have seen it enveloped by the a cluster of remaining Victorian ERA Architecture after completing a glass curtain walls of the impending houses and a large vacant lot awaiting Masters of Architecture degree at the condominium, undermining its development. In this state, we may University of Toronto. He has been a proportion and de nition, but view these structures not only as member of ACO since 2015. Alison maintaining its universal coordinates. remnants of an earlier built landscape, will complete her Masters in Heritage Instead, the house was relocated to a but a re ection of ongoing themes Conservation at Carleton University lot surrounded by the last remaining of movement, conservation and in September, 2018. Her thesis is on cluster of Victorian buildings on the adaptation within the city. In this way, the demolition and deconstruction street, placing it within a familiar and the movement of Whitehead mansion of Honest Ed’s and Mirvish Village. arguably appropriate context, if not of Howard Street represents both an authentic one. a fragment of the past and current
Here, like the traditional practice of Sources: disassembling and reassembling Jenny Gregory, “Reconsidering Relocated Shinto temples in Japan, the practice Buildings: ICOMOS, Authenticity and Mass Relocation”, International Journal of Heritage of moving structures may also Studies 14, no. 2 (March, 2008): 112-130 be conceptualized as not only a procedure with its own heritage, but Nick Huggett, ed. Space from Zeno to Einstein: Classic Readings with a Contemporary Commentary. as a transmission of unique skills and (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999). the evolution of a broader heritage discourse. In Toronto, where the Jack Landau, “Tridel’s Via Bloor: Condos and Retail at Bloor and Parliament”. Urban Toronto. January real estate market has reached a 10, 2017. http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2017/01/ fever pitch, the scale and scope of tridels-bloor-condos heritage interventions may be viewed Jane Lennon, Moving Buildings: A study of issues in relation to the developments surrounding moving buildings of heritage value for which transform them. Indeed, as use in outdoor museums in Queensland. Museums increasingly ambitious proposals Australia Queensland. 2000. are made, similarly drastic measures “Toronto Feature: St James To w n”. The are being taken to retain heritage The William Whitehead house relocation in November Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http:// thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/toronto- fabric. Encompassing challenging 2016. Photo Noah McGillivray, 2016 conceptual and technical feats, these feature-st-james-town/. Jan 9, 2018.
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 19 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:54 GHOST GRAPHICS OF YESTERYEAR By Bob Hambly
For as long as I can remember I’ve legacy, but they certainly add to its been drawn to the photography character. of Walker Evans. His masterfully composed images remind us of the Throughout Ontario, in both urban beauty inherent in the architectural and rural settings, one can see vernacular of our surroundings. His examples of fading graphics on work features timeworn façades of warehouses, mills and retail stores. once proud churches, main street These once bold messages are now storefronts displaying nothing ghosts of their former selves – slowly other than their age and weathered and reluctantly losing their voices. billboards with their waning Having said that, when you happen pronouncements – all vestiges of a upon an example, they immediately former era, connections to the past. signal another time, forcing us to look “Evans,” as the Cantor Arts Center at closely at the building and imagine Stanford University’s website says, a bygone era. A remnant has a funny “had the extraordinary ability to see way of engaging the imagination. the present as if it were already the past, and to translate that knowledge Above a restaurant at the corner and historically infected vision into an of Logan Ave. and Gerrard St. in enduring ar t.” Toronto a patchwork of fragmented typography broadcasts a cryptic The preserved directory of former tenants of Toronto’s Buildings, as Walker Evans’ message to passersby. The rounded Dineen Building on Temperance Street. Photo Bob photographs con rm, provide ideal corners of the art deco LOGAN GRILL Hambly, 2017 surfaces and exposure for various font hover above the classic script forms of graphic proclamations face of the Coca-Cola logo. Both are time capsule. – signs, wall paintings, posters enclosed within a heavy white border and mosaics. These temporary suggesting they appeared at the same In the foyer of Toronto’s Dineen adornments may be distant cousins time. A Lumberking sign, with its mid- Building on Temperance Street you to architecture’s carefully considered, century Helvetica letterforms, once will nd the preserved directory permanent surface embellishments covered the aforementioned ads in a board of former tenants. Thanks to a such as friezes, frescoes and stained blanket of yellow. Today the three ads recent restoration this graphic gem glass, nonetheless, they can play a role battle for supremacy as they dissolve resurfaced, complete with its stone in understanding a structure’s history. into one another. This street corner carved title and hand painted, gold- They may not de ne a structure’s wall has become an unwitting graphic leafed lettering. A quirky mix of serif
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 20 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:54 and sans serif fonts are presented here, rendered in solid and outlined characters. This way nding relic could have been easily dismantled during the renovation. Now it o ers visitors a window into the building’s past.
Am I advocating that we preserve all building graphics? No. Like ACO’s many conservation e orts over the years, each must be assessed on its individual merit and historical relevance. Some surface embellishments are more signi cant than others. When a building is demolished it is lost forever and with it we lose a part of our history. And when we eliminate or paint over or poorly restore old advertising and signage we destroy elements that may help a building tell its story. Most of these stories can never be fully told, yet these very remnants start the discovery process.
Walker Evans, I’m sure, would agree.
About the author
Bob Hambly is a partner in the Layers of typography at the corner of Logan Avenue and Gerrard Street in Toronto. Photo Bob Hambly, 2018 Toronto-based graphic design rm Hambly & Woolley. He is a member of ACO Port Hope and ACO Cobourg. ACORN Spring 2018 21
ACO Spring 2018.indd 21 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:57 NEWMARKET’S GHOST CANAL By Gordon Prentice
The monumental remains of of town worthies made their way to was cancelled by Robert Borden’s Newmarket’s “Ghost Canal” serve as an Ottawa, led by the persuasive Mulock. incoming Conservative Government ever-present reminder of one of the The federal cabinet gave the go ahead in 1911 the costs were projected to hit great follies of the closing years of Sir for work to begin even though all of $1 million – a colossal sum of money Wilfrid Laurier’s Liberal Government the engineering studies had not been in those days. (1896-1911). completed. The four canal locks would be massive Laurier was persuaded by York North’s The Prime Minister assured the structures, each with concrete walls 12 M P, Sir William Mulock, to build a delegation they had a friend in court feet thick at the base and narrowing canal north from Newmarket to Lake in Sir William, “whose persistence in a to 5 feet at the top. The lock chambers Simcoe – a distance of 13 miles – to good cause was notable.” would be 33 feet wide. They would be up to 27 feet deep. These were The Chief of Trent Surveys, the megastructures. engineer E. J. Walsh, was asked to draw up plans which he worked The plans called for the Holland on in early 1905. Walsh, who was River to be dredged but it was soon subsequently pilloried as the man discovered that a few feet below the responsible for runaway costs, riverbed was “hardpan” — earth as blamed the top civil servant at the impenetrable as concrete. Department of Railways and Canals, a certain Mr. M. J. Butler who, in 1906, By the time Mulock left Parliament The Newmarket Canal under construction, 1908. gave the job to someone else. in 1905 to become Chief Justice of Photo Courtesy Newmarket Historical Society. the Exchequer Court of Ontario it Had that work (the Newmarket was clear that the project was posing allow the town’s manufacturers, Canal) been left in my charge the demanding challenges – above all, merchants and farmers access to the Government would have avoided securing an adequate water supply. Trent Canal System and to markets much unpleasant criticism, and across the Great Lakes. However, one the country spared an absurd In his paper on the Ghost Canal, the blindingly obvious point was initially extra outlay of several hundred much-admired Newmarket historian, overlooked. Would there be enough thousand dollars. the late George Luesby, wrote of the water to ll the canal? paradox: “The remarkable engineering Walsh later described Butler as work completed on the canal stands In 1904, the Grand Trunk Railway had discourteous and unprofessional, in stark contrast to the implausibility just jacked up its freight rates by 35 saying, “One could not expect much of the whole project – there was no to 50 per cent, infuriating the town’s better from a parvenu whose previous water.” mercantile elite. Mulock responded by authority was exercised chie y over championing an alternative – a canal. navvies and shanty-men.” Ouch! And, in another paradox, the project It was an election year after all and gave a shot in the arm to the canal Mulock was again the Liberal standard Construction began in 1906 and promoters’ arch rival – the Grand bearer. He had a riding to rally and a costs quickly spiralled out of control Trunk Railway, which found itself cause to promote. as speci cations changed and the with contracts to deliver mountains engineers hit new, unforeseen of construction materials to the lock In Newmarket there was huge support problems. The early estimates sites. for the idea and, on February 21, of $360,000 proved to be wildly 1905, a mighty 65-strong delegation optimistic and by the time the project By 1908 an army of 400 men and 300
22 ACORN Spring 2018
ACO Spring 2018.indd 22 2018-04-02 �� 8:54:58 teams of horses were working on the this canal, and we all know that locks. The Conservative MP for North nothing is more necessary for Simcoe, J.A. Currie, mocked: a canal than water… therefore I condemn this expenditure as Throughout the summer people extravagant and a wanton waste go there in pilgrimages to see this of public money. great public work of Ontario: it is something like the Colossus of The MP Samuel Sharpe described the Rhodes or like the Suez canal, and canal as “a farce” and a “monstrosity”: people go to see it out of curiosity, and they get an object lesson that It would be a splendid diversion opens their eyes to the way this if they (the Prime Minister and Government is wasting public other Ministers) would organise money. a picnic up there and take the whole House of Commons up to The Lock at Holland Landing. Photo Gordon Prentice, 2018 The surviving structures that can be the Newmarket canal in order to seen today, from Newmarket north exhibit this great public work. I to Holland Landing, were needed can assure you, Mr. Speaker, that to address the 43-foot di erence in the Members would not require elevation between the two places. But long rubber boots nor life preservers without a plentiful supply of water it nor even bathing suits because was later estimated it would take two there is not sufficient water in that and a half weeks to ll the lock basins canal with which they may even in the summer, just when the canal moisten their lips. would be most heavily used. And so it nished as it began. No The future of the Newmarket canal water, no canal. was a frequent topic of debate in Parliament with the then Conservative By the time all work was abandoned Opposition excoriating the Laurier and the sites cleared in 1913, an Liberals for their pro igacy. impressive 83 per cent of the canal had been completed. The huge lock On July 28, 1911, the day before gates were never installed but the Remnants of the Newmarket Lock. Costing almost $1 million, the Commons was dissolved for the receiving hinges are there to see. there was never enough water for navigation on the canal. election, the Conservative MP for Photo Gordon Prentice, 2018 Centre York, T. G. Wallace, expressed The massive concrete locks remain, outrage. The cost of the canal, he their solid enduring presence a silent fumed, had risen inexorably from witness to “Mulock’s Madness.” $297,000 to a projected $967,000: About the author The Parliamentary debates can be viewed at There has been no estimate made “Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources”, Gordon Prentice is President of the that this canal would be of any Library of Parliament, parl.canadiana.ca Newmarket Branch of ACO. commercial value whatever, and George Luesby. Newmarket’s Ghost Canal. what is more, no plan has been Newmarket Historical Society, 1989. 2nd devised for furnishing water to edition prepared by Terry Carter.
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 23 2018-04-02 �� 8:55:03 CHELTENHAM BRICKWORKS By Peter Stewart
Located on the south slope of the Fredrick Bruce McFarren, who became which required a cycle of loading, Niagara Escarpment, just west of the a prominent gure in Canada’s clay heating, cooling and unloading. village of Cheltenham in the Town of brick industry.”i In 1915, the operation Caledon, remnants of the Cheltenham was licensed as the Interprovincial At the peak of production 90,000 Brickworks are clearly visible from Brick Company. bricks a dayii were processed at this Mississauga Road west of the Credit facility. Brick was shipped by rail to River. The site provides important The clay was extracted from a pit locations as far north as Sault Ste. lessons in the understanding of the just west of the brickworks complex Marie and as far east as Halifax. The value of industrial activities to the and taken to the two production Toronto market was served by truck. economies of rural communities in buildings. There it was processed After 50 years of production, in 1964, the early twentieth century. and formed into brick and from there then under the ownership of Domtar the bricks were loaded into the six Corporation, the brickworks were The brickworks sit atop a signi cant downdraft kilns. The kilns were red closed. Queenston shale deposit, which was from a series of ovens spaced equally well-suited to the manufacture of down each long side of the kiln. They Today, the remnant structures include bricks. The Hamilton & Northwestern were exhausted through the oors of two brick production buildings where Railway (then owned by Canadian the kiln into an underground exhaust the shale was processed and shaped National Railways) ran along the system. The six 50-plus foot tall brick into bricks, the original poured east boundary of the property chimneys extracted the heat from concrete coal bunker at the east end between the river and the brickworks, under the kilns, thereby creating the of the site, and ve of the original providing a key transportation link to downdraft e ect within the kilns. six brick chimneys that exhausted external markets. By 1922, a railway tunnel kiln had the downdraft kilns. The shafts that been added to the site’s downdraft connected the kilns to the chimneys “Established in 1912, the industrial kilns. This tunnel kiln represented and the kiln foundations also remain complex of the Cheltenham brickyard the latest in brickmaking technology below grade. was constructed over two years with and was the rst of its kind in Canada. full production beginning in 1914. It allowed continuous ring of the In 1977 the remnant buildings, by Its early development is attributed to bricks, unlike the downdraft kilns then part of a Heritage Resource Area designated in the proposed Niagara Escarpment Master Plan, were threatened by a demolition application to the Niagara Escarpment Commission. Demolition was not allowed, based on the determination by the then Ministry
About the author
Peter Stewart is an architect and partner in the rm of George Robb Architect. He is a past member of the provincial executive of ACO and also a past member of the board of CAHP. Watercolour of brickworks in full production, circa 1923. Artist: Marten, Courtesy of Robert Long, P.Eng.
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 24 2018-04-02 �� 8:55:03 of Culture and Recreation that these remaining structures contribute to our understanding of “the post- 1900, larger scale development in brickmaking” and had a signi cant impact on the growth and stability of the surrounding community. At the peak of production 90, 000 bricks a day were processed at this facility. Photo Richard Seck Photography, 2017 Brampton Brick Limited reopened the site in 1990 for the purpose Limited to provide a current condition Views of the remaining buildings of extracting clay for its brick assessment and conservation plan for and structures are available from manufacturing facility in Brampton. the Cheltenham Brickworks. Mississauga Road and the former While the original pit had a limited life, railway right-of-way, which is now the having been exhausted by 2011, the Since then, Brampton Brick Limited public Caledon Trailway system. larger property o ered an anticipated has undertaken conservation work minimum 30-year productive life based on the conservation plan. There have been informal discussions from several other identi ed pit The site has been grubbed and any in regard to future uses on the site, sites. As a condition of their license unsafe subsurface conditions, caused especially those that provide a new under the Aggregate Resources Act, largely by collapsed underground use for the original buildings. The Brampton Brick Limited mothballed shafts related to the former kiln site could be fenced-o from the the buildings that remain based on exhaust system, have been stabilized on-going industrial activity to the drawings prepared by OCA Architects or lled in. Concrete repairs have west and access provided from the in 1992. This work included blocking been undertaken to the coal Caledon Trailway. Appropriate new up existing windows openings with bunker. Corrosion damage to steel uses might include a rest station and concrete block, renewing the security framing and reinforcing has been washroom facility for those hiking the of grade-level doors, minor masonry stabilized. Masonry repairs have been trailway or biking in the Caledon Hills, repairs, minor structural steel repairs, undertaken to stabilize the chimneys. or a museum dedicated to the history and removal of earthen ramps that Doors to the buildings accessible at of brickmaking in Peel Region. The provided exterior access to the second grade have been replaced with sheet Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto has oors of the fabrication buildings. steel doors, resembling bank vaults, set a pretty high standard for this kind to minimize vandalism, which until of adaptive reuse by creating viable In 2013, the Town of Caledon recently has been a major concern and vibrant community event space. designated the Heritage Resource for the owner. All of the conservation Is it possible to do the same at the Area lands, identi ed in the 1977 NEC work has been coordinated by Lauren Cheltenham Brickworks? ruling, under Part IV of the Ontario Mulkerns, Environmental Manager Heritage Act and entered into an at Brampton Brick Limited and Sally Heritage Easement Agreement with Drummond, Heritage Resource O cer Brampton Brick Limited in regard to of the Town of Caledon. the on-going maintenance of the parcel and its heritage resources. Today, as Brampton Brick Limited To guide this process, George Robb is actively processing clay from the Architect, along with Ojdrovic site on a daily basis, the site remains Engineering Inc. and MHBC Planning, a restricted industrial operation was retained by Brampton Brick and is not accessible to the public.
i “Cheltenham Brickyard, Statement of Cultural Heritage Value or Interest,” Town of Caledon, 2013. The Cheltenham Brickworks ceased production in 1964. ii “The Cheltenham Brickworks, A report for the Niagara Escarpment Commission,” Historic Planning Photo Richard Seck Photography, 2017 and Research Branch, Ministry of Culture and Recreation, 1977.
ACORN Spring 2018 25
ACO Spring 2018.indd 25 2018-04-02 �� 8:55:10 TORONTO’S SLEEPING GIANT By Julian Mirabelli
Beyond the huddled skyscrapers of downtown Toronto, along the shores of Lake Ontario, the Richard L. Hearn Generating Station quietly rests amongst overgrown weeds, its commanding presence still tangible despite the broken windows and water-stained bricks that de ne the site today. The neglected behemoth, once a symbol of prosperity and growth, supplied electricity to millions of Ontarians, but now lies in a state of decay and near-abandonment deep within Toronto’s Port Lands.
Opened in 1951 as a coal- red generating station, the Hearn employed over 600 workers at its peak, with twelve giant turbines churning out 1,200 MW of energy, burning roughly 400 tonnes of coal per hour. The current chimney was constructed in 1971 and, standing 215 metres high, was the tallest structure Toronto’s Richard L. Hearn Generating Station opened in 1951. Photo Richard Longley, 2017 in the city until the CN Tower opened in 1976. The station was converted entirely to natural gas in 1971 and remained in operation until it was decommissioned in 1983, due largely to concerns around air pollution and an over-abundance of energy supply in Ontario. It continued to be used in some capacity until 1995, when it was shut down completely; its short- lived life span contrasting with the permanence of its scale. It was listed on the Toronto Heritage Register in 2003.
The size of the Hearn cannot be understated. Measuring in at over 650,000 cubic metres in volume, it is three times the size of the Tate Modern in London and was the largest enclosed space in Canada at the time of its completion. The towering central spaces of the Hearn can t the Statue of Liberty upright unimpeded, Hearn’s Turbine Hall during the 2016 Luminato Festival. Photo Julian Mirabelli, 2016 amongst a tangle of steel beams and
26 ACORN Spring 2018
ACO Spring 2018.indd 26 2018-04-02 �� 8:55:16 columns that seem to continue for be stabilized, a concrete topping was eternity. necessary to make the oor even, and over 9,100 square metres of acoustical Since 2002, the Hearn has been leased material had to be hung from the to a lm company, who had started ceiling. Evidently, the investment was but then abandoned plans to turn the worth the experience. building into permanent lm studios. Most of the industrial equipment, Once the festival ran its 17-day course, including the twelve massive turbines, all installations were removed, and was unceremoniously discarded from the Hearn returned to its previous the building. Now, all that remains dormant state, awaiting the next of the Hearn’s industrial past is the injection of energy to bring it back to machinery in the control room and life. The music stage during Luminato. Photo Julian Mirabelli, a few pieces of equipment scattered 2016 throughout the building’s massive Fortunately, that injection of life There is solace in knowing that interior spaces. may not be far o . In 2017, the City amongst city planners, design of Toronto unveiled its detailed professionals, and politicians, there is Since closing its doors, the Hearn Port Lands planning framework, more or less a consensus that this site had been largely forgotten by the envisioning a new mixed-use deserves something more than ice public, serving mainly as a playground residential, commercial, industrial, and rinks, or more than just another condo for urban explorers. In recent years, recreational neighbourhood in the or o ce development. Luminato however, the Hearn has moved back 356-hectare brown eld district. provided a glimpse, a split-second into the spotlight, and rumblings of ash of true potential for the Hearn, a future awakening are beginning to Within the Port Lands plan, the Hearn but it also left us with some burning make waves. Generating Station is earmarked questions. What about the Hearn is so as a future “community hub” and is captivating to its audiences, and what It began in 2010, when German described as a catalyst that would fuel about it is worth keeping? How do we architects Behnisch Architekten came development in the area, attracting occupy the space without diminishing forward with a proposal to install a visitors from both near and far. the qualities that we aim to keep? sports complex within the Hearn that Reinforcing its elevated status, a included three ice rinks, an idea that southward extension of Broadview After the success of the festival, the was quickly dismissed by the City Avenue is planned to terminate challenge now is to harness that for not utilizing the building’s full next to the Hearn, complete with an creative energy and use it to transform potential. extended streetcar line that would this massive relic into something that provide public transit directly to the can rede ne the identity of the city. Then, in 2016, Toronto’s multi-arts site. Luminato Festival chose the building For decades, the Hearn provided the as the main hub and venue for In the eyes of the municipal energy to power our everyday lives; it their annual event. The initiative government, the Hearn is a prime is about time we returned the favour. was wildly successful. The festival location for the revitalization of a broke attendance and donations heritage industrial site, similar to records, with many people coming Toronto’s popular Distillery District, simply to wander the vast spaces Evergreen Brick Works, or Wychwood of the Hearn. Installations included Barns. Each of these projects About the author a 2,000-seat music stage, a 1,200- transformed a neglected industrial seat theatre, a restaurant within the site into a vibrant urban destination, Julian Mirabelli is an Intern control room, and Michel de Brouin’s each acting as a community hub Architect at EVOQ Architecture and One Thousand Speculations — the with a mix of uses that cater to both a freelance writer at UrbanToronto. world’s largest mirror ball, suspended private and public functions while still ca. His studies and work experience in the 300-metre long viewing respecting and celebrating the site’s have focused on the design of gallery above the Turbine Hall which, industrial past. public spaces, adaptive reuse, and during the short time Luminato was heritage conservation. He is a lover operating, was reportedly the longest All of this, of course, is still of all things urban, with a passion columnless gallery space in the world. hypothetical and many years away for cities and a rm belief in the from fruition. But the message is clear: role of architecture as a driver of It was no easy feat retro tting the the Hearn is a unique opportunity to urban and social change. building for public use. There were no create something extraordinary. What services or electricity, staircases and that extraordinary thing might be is an elevator needed to be installed, still unknown. deteriorated building materials had to ACORN Spring 2018 27
ACO Spring 2018.indd 27 2018-04-02 �� 8:55:18 SPRINGING TO ACTION By Devorah Miller
Architectural Conservancy Ontario at both the provincial and municipal is long in history, small in stature, levels, and the politicians we elect and powerful in impact. An early will be making important decisions brochure explains that ACO was that will a ect our towns and cities formed by “public spirited citizens for years to come. who for several years had seen the ne buildings of colonial days perish As we approach the elections with neglect....” I am struck by how this spring on June 9 and then well that description still ts today. again on October 22, let’s make Public spirited citizens indeed! It sure that the people we elect to is truly impressive what can be serve our communities hear our accomplished by people who are voices. For information about key determined to protect something election issues and tools you can that they cherish. use to engage politicians in your community, you can read our Eighty- ve years on, the work monthly e-newsletter Nutshell, continues, and it’s not for the faint or check out the resources on our of heart. Some pieces of our history website at www.arconserv.ca. crumble slowly from neglect or Together, let’s do our best to make come crashing down all at once, this election year count for heritage. while others are hollowed out, pieces kept for show like a stage set. Devorah Miller Keeping spirits up is challenging, Development Manager, ACO but we do, because we know that [email protected] heritage matters. The buildings and cultural heritage landscapes that we save are sweet victories that live on as a testament to our e orts.
For Ontarians who care about historic preservation, elections If you’re not receiving our monthly e-newsletter provide us with an opportunity to “Nutshell” and you would like to, you can subscribe at talk about the importance of our tinyurl.com/ACOsignup. We’ll keep you up to date about architecture, history and cultural current heritage issues and events, and share the latest landscapes with a broad spectrum stories, research and resources. of politicians. This is an election year
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 28 2018-04-02 �� 8:55:19 THE BARCLAY POST OFFICE By Elaine Splett
The rst post o ce in Innis l was built In 1974, Mr. and Mrs. Chambers in 1841, and the rst postmaster was received permission from the Benjamin Ross. Municipality of Innis l to use the one- and-a-half-storey eldstone house Francis Barclay emigrated from as a Tea Room and Craft Shop. Other Dumfries, Scotland, and settled in rooms contained locally made pottery, Innis l in 1849 on a 200-acre lot. weaving, quilts, baskets, wooden toys He built a log house for his wife, and antiques. Agnes, and their nine children. Barclay prospered as a farmer and he Mr. Chambers used his carpentry replaced the frame dwelling in 1870 skills to shore up the sloping oors, with a sturdy eldstone building. The restore some of the six-over-six building was moved to its current window sashes, and repair the simple site, now 7335 Yonge Street in Barclay, transom and sidelights framing The south façade in 2018. Photo Elaine Splett around 1906. the four- paneled front door. Local tradespeople were hired to bring the property at 7335 Yonge Street. The George Barclay, one of Francis’s four wiring up to code, install a proper Post O ce building may be used as a sons, became a magistrate and the furnace, replace a septic tank and t part of the new Health Hub Project in Postmaster. He carried the mail in another washroom to serve the Innis l. between Innis l and Stroud, two miles public. north of Barclay, for thirty years. One Post o ces have been preserved corner of the Barclays’ back kitchen The quality of the original mason’s across Ontario. Two ne examples are was partitioned o to become the workmanship is evident in the cut the Waterloo Post O ce, built circa Community Post O ce. stone façade. The wide baseboards, 1912, and the Newmarket Post O ce oor-boards, the period door panels constructed circa 1915. The Barclay The Barclays sold the Post O ce and and mouldings would be very di cult Post O ce is not as grand as these the building became a home to many to replace today. examples and doesn’t have a clock other types of businesses. There was tower, but it is an integral part of our a bank-barn on the property. It was The building was sold to the new rural history in Innis l — founded by rebuilt in 1954, after the original barn owners in 1982. The house is now people who worked the land — and it burned down. It housed a turnip- called the Chimienti Homestead. The is part of our heritage. waxing operation. building was severely damaged in December 2014 in a re.
The building was added to the Town About the author of Innis l Registry in 2009. The notice of intent to designate was issued in While working as an Interior Designer 2017. The application was sent to the and an Architectural Technician, Conservation Review Board in 2017. In Elaine Splett developed an interest May of 2017, the town learned that a in heritage buildings. She joined the demolition permit was being sought ACO Toronto Branch in 2016 and has to destroy the building. contributed a number of articles to ACORN. As of January 2018, the Town of Barclay Post O ce in the early 1900s. Photo Innis l has agreed to expropriate the Innis l Heritage Committee
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 29 2018-04-02 �� 8:55:20 LOST AND FOUND: REPURPOSING FRAGMENTS TO ANIMATE PUBLIC SPACE By Hannah Hadfield, Tanya McCullough and Leora Bebko
In the 1950s, as the city continued Curated by three graduate students Campbell and his wife Hannah, the to grow, many older buildings in from the University of Toronto’s house was saved from demolition Toronto’s downtown core were Museum Studies program, the in 1972 and moved from its original demolished to make way for modern exhibition will feature groupings location east of Jarvis Street to the o ce towers. Rosa and Spencer Clark, of carved stones from such iconic intersection of Queen Street and passionate supporters of the Arts heritage structures as the Toronto University Avenue. From the vantage and Crafts movement and eager to Star Building, the old headquarters point of the Georgian house and preserve examples of handcrafted of The Toronto Bank and The Bank garden with its modern backdrop masonry, rescued architectural of Montreal, and the Imperial Oil of o ce and condo towers, one is fragments from some of these historic Building – all chosen to highlight acutely aware of the juxtaposition buildings and relocated them to their the craftsmanship and history of of the old and new. The property is a Scarborough home, now known as Toronto’s lost buildings. Working perfect setting to welcome fragments the Guild Park and Garden. Although in collaboration with the Campbell of Toronto’s past back to their home in many of these fragments are now on House Museum and the City of the city’s downtown. display on the grounds of Guild Park Toronto, Museums and Heritage (see ACORN Spring 2016), other stone Services, with support from J. D. Recognizing the need to increase pieces have languished in storage. Strachan Construction Ltd., Historic opportunities for the public to interact Restoration Inc., Blackwell Structural with, and learn from, objects in the For the rst time in 60 years, the Engineers, and ERA Architects City’s collections, “Lost and Found” will public will be able to see some of Inc., “Lost and Found” will create demonstrate that these architectural these previously hidden pieces in an opportunities for re ection and fragments can still make an impact. exhibition entitled “Lost and Found: discussion about how to conserve the Conceived in the same vein as recent Rediscovering Fragments of Old city’s surviving architectural heritage e orts to repurpose other salvaged Toronto.” Beginning in May 2018 for and how the Guild Park’s salvaged Toronto pieces, like the Sam the a year, the exhibition will be installed pieces can animate today’s urban Record Man and Honest Ed signs, the in the garden of Campbell House landscape. curators hope that this exhibition will Museum. encourage further projects of this Campbell House – itself a salvaged type and act as a pilot for future use building – is a tting location for and display of the Guild Park stone the “Lost and Found” exhibition. pieces. Built in1822 for Chief Justice William
About the authors
Hannah Had eld, Tanya McCullough and Leora Bebko are all second-year graduate students in the Museum Studies program at the University of Toronto. While their respective backgrounds range from studies in history, archaeology and English The original Toronto Bank at 78 Church Street. literature, collectively they share Courtesy of Bibliothèque et Archives Nationale du a strong interest in the history of Toronto and its heritage. Column capital from the old Toronto Bank Québec, P547, S1, SS1, SSS8, D1, P908R/Collection building. Photo Leora Bebko, 2018 Magella Bureau/Toronto/Bank of Toronto/Published by The Federated Press, Limited, 1915. 30 ACORN Spring 2018
ACO Spring 2018.indd 30 2018-04-02 �� 8:55:23 Heritage Professionals needed for important work across Ontario
The Architectural Conservancy of Ontario is frequently asked to recommend heritage professionals with a variety of specialties. We are currently updating our resource list for our members, and we are planning to introduce a Heritage Professionals Directory in ACORN magazine. If you would like to be included in this list, if you would like to recommend that a person or company be included, or if you would like to be a part of the ACORN directory, please let us know!
For more information or to submit a recommendation, please contact [email protected]
Heritage Allies, Please Step Forward
Back in 1933, a group of heritage advocates led by Toronto architect Eric Arthur saved Barnum House, one of Ontario’s finest examples of neo-classical architecture, and created the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. Since that time, ACO has played a part in saving hundreds of buildings across the province.
ACO still works on behalf of all Ontarians, and your support is vital.
If you want to help fund ACO’s work, please consider becoming a “Heritage Ally.” Donors who give $100+ annually to the provincial office, either through a one-time gift or through small monthly donations, will be included in this group of grassroots supporters.
What does your support accomplish? It helps ensure that:
• communities trying to save beloved buildings from demolition receive information and support • young professionals who want to work in heritage-related fields have access to mentoring, learning opportunities and support • politicians are kept informed of the environmental, social and financial benefits of heritage conservation • exceptional professionals and students in the heritage field are acknowledged and recognized for their work
Best of all, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you’re supporting Ontario’s heritage for future generations.
To support ACO, simply go to canadahelps.org and select “Donate Now” or “Donate Monthly.” The full link is www.canadahelps.org/en/ charities/architectural-conservancy-of-ontario-inc/
You can also contact us directly at [email protected] The door knocker at Barnum House, Thank you, Heritage Allies. We have a lot more work to do! Ontario Heritage Trust
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 31 2018-04-02 �� 8:55:23 TWO SAULT STE. MARIE REMNANTS By Chris Tossell
From June 7- 9, 2018 the Community The North West Company Canoe Company, a Captain Bruyeres of the Heritage Ontario Annual Conference Lock of 1797 Royal Engineers prepared a report will be held in Sault Ste. Marie. (September 10, 1802) detailing the Since time immemorial, the Sault The 1797 Canoe Lock was the rst construction and operation of the rapids were a traditional indigenous canal and lock constructed to link lock. At that time, the lock was still in gathering place, then a fur trading Lake Superior and Lake Huron via the use. post operated by the North West St. Mary’s River. The lock itself was 38 Company and eventually by the feet by 9 feet, linked to a waterway If the lock was still being used in Hudson’s Bay Company. This was cleared of rocks and a boarded 1814, it is assumed that it was largely followed by paper-making, iron and towpath of 2580 feet in length for destroyed in the American raid of that then steelmaking industries founded oxen to pull the 36-foot freighter year. In 1886, a Judge Steere and a Mr. by Francis Clergue. canoes. Wheeler of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, with the assistance of Joseph Cozens, Here are two examples of our The rst recorded mention was a provincial land surveyor of Sault Ste. “remnants of the past.” Curiously both a survey by Theodore de Pincier Marie, Ontario, located and excavated are on the same property at 75 Huron dated 1797 conducted by order of the lock remains. The oor and Street but portray two totally di ering the North West Company. In 1802, foundations of the lock were revealed aspects of the Sault’s development. following a dispute between the to be in perfect condition. Their North West Company and the XY ndings were recorded by Douglas Brymner, the Dominion Archivist in the “Report on Canadian Archives, 1889.” The report also contained record drawings of the lock prepared by Mr. Brymner.
Almost a hundred years later, in 1895, the existence of the lock was brought to the attention of industrialist Francis H. Clergue. Clergue re-excavated the site, retained the original oor timbers and foundations but rebuilt the walls in stone instead of timbers. What can be seen today is the lock as recreated by Francis H. Clergue.
In 2015, members of the Sault Ste. Marie Municipal Heritage Committee drained the lock and con rmed that the 1797 timber oor was still in place and was, where tested, sound.
As can be seen from the accompanying photo, the stone walls of the Clergue restoration are unstable and have been temporarily The North West Company Canoe Lock in Sault Ste. Marie. Photo Chris Tossell, 2016. braced. Plans have been developed for restoration to the wooden original
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design as recorded by Douglas of the business name refers to the under the Ontario Heritage Act. Brymner but retaining a portion of assembly of companies formed the stone retaining walls by Clergue. by Clergue in the period between We may expect the buildings of Fundraising has commenced. 1895 and 1903. These include entrepreneurs (and Francis Clergue power generation, pulp and paper might be viewed as the ultimate The Algoma Conservatory of Music production, shipping, railways and entrepreneur) to be quickly erected Building, 1901 mining interests. in the most cost-e ective manner possible. Clergue’s buildings were This ne example of Richardson The building itself was built using di erent. He invested in talented Romanesque turn of the century red sandstone excavated during the designers and used quality materials architecture was originally the construction of the Sault Ste. Marie in structures designed to last. The General O ce Building of the Canal and Lock which opened in Algoma Conservatory of Music, the Consolidated Lake Superior Company 1895. It is thought, but not con rmed, current owners of the building, have founded by Francis H. that the building’s architect was inherited a building which is in almost Clergue. Readers attending the 2018 Edward Francis Head who worked for the same condition as the year in CHO Conference will likely hear a Francis Clergue between 1898 and which it was built. considerable amount about the 1902. Head was in all probability the entrepreneur Mr. Clergue who has designer of the other ne Richardson Remnants of the past, yes, but also been designated as a “Person Romanesque building on the adjacent constant reminders of the growth of of National Historic Signi cance” in site known as the Machine Shop. Sault Ste. Marie from the Canada. The “Consolidated” portion Both buildings have been designated original indigenous meeting place and fur trading post. This — and much more — you will be able to see during the June Conference. Coincidently, 2018 will mark thirty years since the last Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee Conference held in Sault Ste. Marie at which the seeds of Community Heritage Ontario were established. We look forward to seeing you here.
About the author
Chris Tossell, MRAIC, CAHP (Building Specialist) is a member of the City of Sault Ste. Marie Municipal Heritage Committee. For details about the Sault Ste. Marie 2018 Ontario Heritage Conference, please visit the conference website: www. ontarioheritageconference.ca.
The Algoma Conservatory of Music built of Sault Ste. Marie red sandstone. Photo Chris Tossell, 2016
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 33 2018-04-02 �� 8:55:27 Come join us in beautiful Sault Ste. Marie for our 30th anniversary conference!
Conference attendees can expect a varied itinerary featuring inspiring guest speakers, visits to local heritage landmarks and opportunities to experience all that Sault Ste. Marie has to offer.
For more information about the conference program, booking information at the Delta Hotel (the main conference venue), and tours, go to www.ontarioheritageconference.ca
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ACO Spring 2018.indd 34 2018-04-02 �� 8:55:27 photographer: Cat O’Neil Cat photographer:
Bricks and Mortar: The craft of heritage conservation Meaningful heritage conservation relies on craft carried out by people with superior skills and extensive expertise in their trade or field. These abilities are gained through experience and sensitivity to the historic fabric. Without skilled practitioners, heritage fabric may become damaged or even lost.
The Fall 2018 issue will feature examples of superior craft in glass, plaster restoration, stone, masonry, fittings and metalwork, brick, terra cotta, and woodwork.
Articles should be a maximum of either 450 or 900 words in length and “encourage the conservation and reuse of structures, districts and landscapes of architectural, historic and cultural significance to inspire and benefit Ontarians.”
ACORN Before commencing work on an article, please send your proposal to [email protected] to avoid duplication and ensure editorial and photo guidelines are received. Deadline Fall 2018 for submissions is July 16, 2018. Submitters are encouraged to look at past issues available on the ACO website. Call for Submissions
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