Share:

Browse by category

Share:

Recovering from disaster

Charlotte Street in downtown Peterborough

Photo: Charlotte Street in downtown Peterborough

By

Jim Leonard

Buildings and architecture

Published Date: Jan 28, 2011

On the afternoon of July 14, 2004, the skies opened up over the city of Peterborough. Throughout the day, evening and especially overnight, the city was battered by a non-stop deluge of heavy, driving rain. The municipal storm sewer system was quickly overwhelmed.

In a 24-hour period, almost 240 millimetres of rain fell on a city that prior to 2002, (when Peterborough endured a much less severe flood) had never experienced any flooding at all – at least not since local weather statistics were first kept. Normally, only about 67 millimetres of rain falls in Peterborough for the entire month of July. Almost four times that volume fell in just one day during the 2004 flood.

The impact of the flood was widespread and devastating. By the morning of July 15, much of the city looked virtually unrecognizable. Streets and basements were heavily flooded as the intense, localized storm progressed. A state of emergency was declared.

The downtown core was hit especially hard. Standing water was over six feet deep in many areas. Streets were impassable.

The Peterborough Public Library, located in the heart of downtown, was heavily damaged. In the early morning hours of July 15, as the rainfall intensified, several heavy plate glass windows on the ground floor shattered under the weight of the flood waters that now engulfed the building. A torrent of sewage-contaminated water and debris spilled into the expansive lower level of the library, cresting to over 12 inches. Flooding impacted the reserve book collection and a nationally significant cultural treasure known as the Balsillie Collection of Roy Studio Images that had only recently been relocated.

The Balsillie Collection comprises over 300,000 historical images, mostly glass plate negatives. It represents a nearly complete body of work generated by Peterborough’s Roy Studio, one of Ontario’s most accomplished photography businesses. The Roy Studio flourished in Peterborough from 1896 to 1992. It documented every facet of life in an Ontario community for 100 years. Only a small handful of photo collections in Canada are comparable in size, scope and range of subject matter.

For several decades, the massive collection had been housed in a filthy, cave-like storage room in the basement of the old photo studio located just a few blocks from the library. In spring 2000, Jim Balsillie, co-owner of Research in Motion, purchased the collection and donated it to City of Peterborough. Staff with the Peterborough Museum and Archives then launched a painstaking cleaning, packing and relocation effort that took over two months to complete. The entire collection was safely relocated to a climate controlled, 400-square-foot, purpose-built storage facility in the Peterborough Public Library. A comprehensive archival conservation, cataloguing and digitization program was then launched.

The morning after the storm, City staff waded into the mess and began to assess the damage. It was determined that only about 10 per cent of the Roy Studio collection (or 30,000 negatives) had been submerged under flood water.

The City immediately called in ROSCO Document Restoration of Montreal and the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) to assist with salvage efforts and emergency planning. All agreed that time was the critical factor. The longer the negatives remained wet, the greater the risk of destruction. Those negatives not directly exposed to flood water faced a dramatic spike in relative humidity, and thus a very high risk of mould infestation.

The wet negatives and related material were removed from the library and placed in freezer trucks. They were slowly frozen to a temperature of minus 20 degrees Celsius to arrest mould growth, then transported to ROSCO facilities in Montreal.

Flood water was pumped out of the library and fans were installed to thwart mould growth. Contaminated drywall, damaged furniture and equipment were removed from the building.

For more than two years, ROSCO completed a careful stabilization of the affected negatives. Although only a small fraction of the total collection was damaged, it still represented several thousand negatives. Innovative conservation techniques were required to salvage such a large volume of fragile material. The negatives were freeze-dried, then cleaned and re-housed. They were returned safely to Peterborough in October 2006.

In the aftermath of the flood, museum staff undertook a comprehensive risk assessment of the library’s interim storage site, and installed a walk-in freezer vault at the Museum and Archives to store fragile film negatives from the collection. The most fragile negatives and prints damaged by the flood were digitized to capture and preserve the images.

Due to the quick and well coordinated response by City museum staff and its partners, including Fleming College, the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) and ROSCO, not one image was lost as a result of the 2004 flood.

In March 2007, the Peterborough Museum and Archives received the Canadian Museums Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Conservation for its ground-breaking rescue and restoration efforts.

Lower level of the Peterborough Public Library

Photo: Lower level of the Peterborough Public Library

Lower level of the Peterborough Public Library

Photo: Lower level of the Peterborough Public Library

Emergency cleanup in the main storage facility of the library’s lower level

Photo: Emergency cleanup in the main storage facility of the library’s lower level

RelatedStories

The Canadian Niagara Power Generating Station was opened for a special Doors Open weekend on October 26-27, 2019. (Photo: Niagara Parks)

How Doors Open Ontario activates the province’s communities

The Ontario Heritage Trust’s Doors Open Ontario program works with communities and partners to open the doors, gates and courtyards of Ontario’s most unique and...

Re-saturating calcimine paint on decorative plaster moulding from 1817. Reproduction rosettes at top left. Homemade traditional plasterer’s tools at bottom left. (Macdonell-Williamson House, Chute-a-Blondeau)

The case for craftsmanship

One of the greater pleasures of working in architectural conservation in Ontario is the opportunity it provides to work with traditional building materials: the timber...

CBC's Murdoch Mysteries

Quiet on the set

Shaftesbury is the company behind the hit television series Murdoch Mysteries and Frankie Drake Mysteries, both of which air on CBC in Canada and are...

Photo courtesy of the First Christian Assembly in Philadelphia, USA

The economic halo effect of sacred places: Measuring civic impact in an innovative new way

Nestled in the old city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Old St. George’s United Methodist Church is a “mother church” of the denomination and the oldest Methodist...

Brockville Railway Tunnel

Case study: Brockville Railway Tunnel

Location: 1 Block House Island Road, BrockvilleOwner: City of BrockvillePartners: Brockville Railway Tunnel Committee (plus countless generous donors)Original use: Canada’s first railway tunnel and part...

Mudtown Station Brewery and Restaurant

Case study: Mudtown Station Brewery and Restaurant (Owen Sound)

Location: 1198 1st Avenue East, Owen SoundOwner: City of Owen SoundPartners: Kloeze Family (Mudtown Station Inc.)Original use: Passenger train station (Owen Sound Canadian Pacific Railway...

Windsor Armouries, now the School of Creative Arts (SoCA) at the University of Windsor

Learning from the past

Heritage has always been at the heart of the University of Windsor’s ambitious plan to preserve the century-old Windsor Armouries and transform the building into...

Toronto’s Distillery District (Photo: Josh Evnin)

Museums and heritage: Building livable communities through soft power

Museums and heritage are engines of urban redesign and revitalization. Lord Cultural Resources has worked in 450 cities worldwide on some 2,600 museums, cultural plans...

Restored heritage interior

Heritage buildings and the evolution of workspace

I work for Allied Properties – a leading owner, manager and developer of urban workspace in major Canadian cities. Allied’s units are publicly traded on...

Thunder Bay District Courthouse (Photo: Courthouse Hotel)

Case study: Thunder Bay District Courthouse

Location: 277 Camelot Street, Thunder BayOwner: David Sun, Business owner/InvestorPartners: Ascend HotelsOriginal use: CourthouseCurrent use: Hotel The former Thunder Bay District Courthouse sits perched atop...

Kingston City Hall National Historic Site during movies in the square

Heritage builds vibrant communities and cultural economies in Kingston

In 2010, the City of Kingston released its first Culture Plan – a document that shared a sustainable, authentic, longterm vision for cultural vitality in...

MacNab-Charles heritage conservation district

The economic value of heritage districts: How assessment growth in heritage conservation districts compares with non-designated areas in Hamilton

There are competing views about the value of heritage properties. On the one hand, there is a growing consensus on the esthetic and economic development...

Photo courtesy of Clare Ronan

Reside: When heritage preservation translates to affordable housing

Raising the Roof is a Canadian charity that provides national leadership in homelessness prevention through various initiatives. Reside is one such project that creates affordable...

Old building (Photo: Paul Burk)

Old places support a sound, sustainable and vibrant economy

In Why Old Places Matter, I wrote about the many reasons that old places help people flourish. Yet, I intentionally saved the discussion of how...

Rideau Canal, Ottawa (Photo: Destination Ontario)

Revitalizing communities – The power of conservation

Over the past few years, I’ve spoken and written extensively about value – exploring questions of what we protect, how we make those decisions, and...

Interior of Assumption Church (Photo courtesy of Kevin Mannara)

What was and what will be

The term symbolkirchen can roughly be translated as a “symbol bearing church.” Such churches point to living realities beyond ourselves and hold the potential to...

McIntyre headframe – part of Doors Open Timmins

Ontario’s rich industrial history

Northern Ontario has unique structures, not familiar to many, spread out through small northern communities, reflecting its rich history and its vast wealth of precious...

Christ Church, Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal of the Mohawk – Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory

Christ Church, Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal of the Mohawk – Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory

During the American Revolution, the Mohawks were forced to flee their homeland in upper New York State. In 1784, after spending several years in Lachine...

Four generations of the Williamson family

A story of two families

What a story the Macdonell-Williamson House and property can tell! Its location – with a commanding view overlooking the Ottawa River (where goods and people...

2007 excavations uncovered Macdonell’s icehouse and smokehouse

Perspectives on a site: Artifacts, fragments and layers

When the Trust conserves a property as complex as Macdonell-Williamson House, we consider a variety of perspectives related to the site as an artifact –...

Aerial photograph of Macdonell-Williamson House with the Carillon Dam in the background (Photo: Carl Bigras)

Understanding Macdonell-Williamson House through four artifacts

It is tempting, while admiring Macdonell-Williamson House’s centuries-old stone walls, Palladian grandeur and picturesque setting, to conjure up an era defined by continuity – when...

New and old timber sections prepared for insertion of reinforcing steel plates

Engineering a solution: A structural perspective of Macdonell-Williamson House

The structural rehabilitation of Macdonell-Williamson House has provided a great opportunity for the engineers at Quinn Dressel Associates to contribute to the preservation of a...

Everything Old is New Again, October 7, 2013. (Photo: Kim Lovell)

One hundred years of entertainment

Birthdays are about celebration and, in the case of Toronto’s Elgin and Winter Garden theatres, a toast to 100 years of entertainment history. In 2013...

The 1913 John McKenzie House

Partnering for conservation

The Ontario Heritage Trust has a number of conservation tools available to protect and preserve heritage throughout the province. Conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements...

Larger centres such as Stratford, Cobourg and Carleton Place (shown here) included performance venues within their civic buildings

Treading the boards

Performance venues command an important presence in Ontario communities. They tell us about the aspirations of the people who built them, and they reflect the...

Magnus Theatre 2002 (Photo: Thunder Bay City Archives)

Second run: A new life for an Ontario theatre

Since the early 1970s, Magnus Theatre in Thunder Bay has made a commitment to urban renewal and the reuse and repurposing of community buildings. The...

The Elgin Theatre (Photo: John Allman)

Perspectives: The Elgin Theatre at 100

Looking back by Wayne Kelly When theatre entrepreneur Marcus Loew brought Loew’s Theatrical Enterprises to Toronto in 1912, he envisioned an “intricate, moneymaking machine,” a...

Full Frontal T.O. - Exploring Toronto's Architectural Vernacular

Resources: Building communities: Heritage conservation districts

What's on the shelf Full Frontal T.O. – Exploring Toronto’s Architectural Vernacular, by Shawn Micallef with photographs by Patrick Cummins. Coach House Books, 2012. For...

Downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake – a frequently visited heritage conservation district.

Heritage conservation districts: The most popular tool in the heritage toolkit?

When the Ontario Heritage Act came into force in 1975, municipalities across the province suddenly had the authority to protect and enhance “groups of properties...

Barberry Lane streetscape in the Meadowvale Village HCD (Photo: City of Mississauga)

How districts change

Meadowvale Village – a once-small, rural village – is located on the Credit River at the north end of the City of Mississauga. In the...

The Bell House at 151 Stanley Street, New Edinburgh (Photo courtesy of Joan Mason)

Grassroots heritage: The stewards of New Edinburgh

Located in the City of Ottawa at the confluence of the Rideau and Ottawa rivers is the historical community of New Edinburgh. With its roots...

Port Hope was a recipient of a Community Leadership Award in 2008. The award was presented to Councillor Karen O’Hara by Lincoln M. Alexander, former Chairman of the Ontario Heritage Trust, and David C. Onley, Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor. (Photo: Tessa J. Buchan)

Heritage conservation people

Growing up in Port Hope fostered a belief that every community had an amazing main street. That ignorance was shaken when I returned from university...

50 West Street, following the tornado (Photo courtesy of Bob Davis)

The Goderich story: A lesson in survival

For the past 18 months, West Street in Goderich has been as much a construction site as it has a place of service and retail...

From wall to wall and kiln to kiln, thousands of individual types, styles and techniques of artistic graffiti can be found at Evergreen Brick Works, dating back to the early 1980s (Photo: Michelle Scrivener)

Off the wall

Storytelling takes inspiration from many sources. Traditionally, museums weave a narrative from real objects: a vase, a coat, a building or a historical site. At...

The Elliott-Harrop Barn is one of many buildings to explore at Country Heritage Park.

Keeping Ontario’s farm heritage alive

In our ever-expanding world, less arable land is available to grow the food we need to survive. As farms disappear across Ontario, buildings and implements...

Cambridge City Hall

Heritage in the public realm: Everything old is new

Ontario is growing. As municipalities across the province expand, so too does the need to revitalize existing municipal facilities to house and adapt to new...

Wood conservator and master craftsman Alan Stacey instructing heritage staff in traditional preservation techniques at the Ontario Heritage Centre.

Investing in preservation

It is an unfortunate reality that the preservation of our heritage remains the exception rather than the norm. What is a common-sense approach to living...

York, Upper Canada, ca.1804 (detail), Elizabeth Frances Hale Image courtesy of Library and Archives Canada, 1970-188-2092.

The roots of democracy: Ontario’s first parliament buildings

As the bicentennial of the War of 1812 approaches, excitement is building at the site of Ontario’s first parliament buildings in Toronto. Responding to fears...

Doris McCarthy at Fool’s Paradise, May 2005 (Photo: David Lee)

Doris McCarthy’s Fool’s Paradise will inspire future generations of artists

With the passing of Doris McCarthy on November 25, 2010, the country lost a revered and talented artist, best known for her landscape paintings. McCarthy’s...

Peterborough Lift Lock National Historic Site of Canada © Ontario Tourism

Into the Kawarthas

When visitors first enter Peterborough’s stately city hall, they should look down. Inspired by the City Beautiful Movement – active in Canada from 1893 to...

Hutchison House

Peterborough’s Living History Museum

Hutchison House holds a special place in the social history of Peterborough. Local volunteers built the house in 1836 to persuade one of their first...

The Peterborough Lift Lock, an engineering marvel (Photo courtesy of the Trent-Severn Waterway Archives)

Exploring the Trent -Severn Waterway

Built over a period of 87 years, the Trent-Severn Waterway stretches 386 kilometres across the heartland of the province, linking Lake Ontario with Georgian Bay...

Creating Memory, by John Warkentin

Resources: Finding our place in Ontario’s history

On the shelf Creating Memory, by John Warkentin Becker Associates, 2010. Toronto has over 6,000 public outdoor sculptures, works of art that provide a sense...

Historic Unionville (Photo courtesy of Regan Hutcheson).

Designations in bulk

Understanding Unionville, by Regan Hutcheson A visit to Unionville is like a journey back in time. Located north of Toronto in the heart of Markham...

One heritage volunteer and activist is Linda Hoad, a retired librarian who has an encyclopedic knowledge of Hintonburg’s history and whose research has saved city staff hours of work over the years.

Leading by example

Ontario towns and cities have been designating properties under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act since the passage of the act in the 1970s...

Hill House, built circa 1855 by Hiram Hill, owner of the Morpeth Dockyard. This Italianate residence provides confirmation of the affluence early Great Lakes shipping and Chatham-Kent agriculture created for people in the mid-19th century. (Photo: Dan Reaume)

Cataloguing a community

The amalgamated municipality of Chatham-Kent includes a number of early settlements that encompass thousands of heritage buildings. Recently, Heritage Chatham-Kent (HC-K), our municipal heritage committee...

12 Victoria Terrace in downtown Brampton, one of 17 properties designated by Brampton city council on March 11, 2009 (Photo: by Jim Leonard)

What a difference a day makes

On March 11, 2009, Brampton City Council designated 17 individual properties under Part IV (Section 29) of the Ontario Heritage Act. The simultaneous passing of...

Viewing Fulford Place from the Olmsted gardens. Photo: George Fischer

Tracking Olmsted in Ontario

An undiscovered legacy of work left by landscape architects Charles and Frederick Olmsted Jr. exists in fragments of landscape across Ontario. Their father, Fredrick Law...

Dismantling select terra cotta pieces in the façade of Toronto’s Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre that are deteriorated and require replacement.

Maintaining a national treasure

Toronto’s Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre is an inward-looking building of interior architecture. The exterior, by contrast, appears massive but plain. The singular exception...

Foxley – The Ambery-Isaacs House, designed by Albert Kahn, on Devonshire Road (Photo courtesy of Pat Malicki)

Walkerville: The heritage of a company town

Among the shrinking number of 19th-century company towns, Walkerville – part of the City of Windsor since 1935 – remains an outstanding example of what...

An onsite workshop was created at the station, employing local youth and teaching them how to restore historic windows.

Seeing better days

The St. Thomas Canadian Southern Railway station (CASO) occupies a prominent position on the city’s main street. Perhaps it is the station’s sheer size –...

Fort Malden National Historic Site, Windsor (© Ontario Tourism 2010)

Exploring Ontario’s southern peninsula

As you roam the highways and waterways of Ontario’s southern peninsula, a tapestry of stories unravels. These stories speak about settlement and growth, a testament...

A military encampment at Tecumseh Park, c. 1885. Tecumseh Park has been a military reserve since 1794 when Simcoe ordered the establishment of a shipyard on this site.

The history of Chatham-Kent

Chatham-Kent’s rich cultural heritage began long before European settlement when large stockaded villages and Neutral Indians dominated the Thames River and the Lake Erie-Lake St...

Toronto Jewish Old Folks’ Home (1918), Toronto

A legacy of support: Faith-based community

Reaching out to those in need has long been a part of Ontario’s religious tradition. Faith-based groups offering medical and social assistance arrived with the...

Art deco-designed Holy Blossom Temple

Toronto’s synagogues: Keeping collective memories alive

Collective memory is cultural memory – what is remembered about an event by a social or cultural group that experienced it and by those to...

Canadian Churches: An architectural history, by Peter Richardson and Douglas Richardson, with photographs by John de Visser

Places of Worship resources

Publications Churches: Explore the symbols, learn the language and discover the history, by Timothy Brittain-Catlin Collins Press. Churches and cathedrals, intentionally imposing and dignified, contain...

Fifth Church of Christ Scientist, Toronto

Ontario’s postwar places of worship: Modernist designs evoke traditional styles

The years following the Second World War were characterized by a sense of renewal and optimism. Places of worship built in Ontario during this period...

Third-floor unit, Glebe Lofts, Toronto

Adapting today’s places of worship

Adaptive reuse of religious buildings can simultaneously preserve significant heritage sites and benefit communities, but in Ontario those who want to make these conversions face...

Brockville’s Court House Square offers an excellent example of non-conformist Gothic in an urban setting

Gothic traditions in Ontario churches

The importance of worship in 19th-century Ontario can be measured by the church buildings erected in the province during that time. Invariably, Ontario denominations turned...

St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church is one of 20 designated places of worship in Hamilton and one of three in the city with an Ontario Heritage Trust conservation easement

From Hamilton, a municipal perspective

Places of worship are often stunning buildings, constructed in forms and styles that have existed for thousands of years around the world, using specialized techniques...

The Sharon Temple’s barrel organ was built around 1830 by Richard Coates (Photo: Katherine Belrose)

The music of worship

Goethe said that “architecture is frozen music,” but why did he say this? Was it because Christian church interiors, with their columns and arches, seem...

Anglican Church at Magnetawan (1933) by A.J. Casson (National Gallery of Canada)

Art in the church and the church in art: Work of the Group of Seven

Talented and renowned artists have long been commissioned to decorate the interiors of places of worship, where they often turn the walls and ceilings into...

Built in 1836, the Auld Kirk in Mississippi Mills is an early example of a Presbyterian church in Ontario

Form and function: The impact of liturgy, symbolism and use on design

During the 19th century, the location, physical condition and stylistic merit of churches were publicly discussed as reliable indicators of a community’s value, moral fabric...

Beaverton’s Old Stone Church benefits from a dedicated group of stewards

Enduring stewardship preserves a treasured heritage church

Located just east of Beaverton, the Old Stone Church, built in 1840 by a predominantly Scottish congregation, is a simple but handsomely proportioned small Georgian...

Windsor Mosque, Windsor

The changing face of worship

The architectural style, massing, materials and date stones of a place of worship offer clues about the congregation’s history and values. Likewise, the building’s size...

First Baptist Church, Chatham

Religious freedom in the promised land

Eli Johnson toiled on plantations in Virginia, Mississippi and Kentucky before making his bid for freedom in the “promised land” – the term used by...

With its associated cemetery and rural landscape, St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Church is a Haldimand landmark

Places of worship in Ontario’s rural cultural landscape

The cultural landscapes of rural southern Ontario contain a variety of heritage resources – land patterns and uses, built forms and natural features. Within these...

Ste-Anne-des-Pins, Sudbury

Churches of “New Ontario”

In the middle of the 19th century, northern Ontario remained much as it had been under the French regime – a region of Catholic missions...

Interior of Assumption Church, Windsor

Ontario’s rich religious heritage

From the First People who for thousands of years conducted religious and cultural ceremonies at places they believed held spiritual significance, to subsequent arrivals who...

Christ Church Anglican, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory

Christ Church and the Queen Anne Silver

Located in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on the Bay of Quinte, Christ Church houses a silver communion service dating to 1712. This remarkable service represents an...

Thoughtful details in the fence around St. George’s Anglican Cathedral (Kingston) make it an important part of the church’s landscape

Sacred landscapes in Ontario’s communities

While places of worship are a visible aspect of Ontario’s heritage, they are part of wider cultural landscapes that can include supporting structures, burial places...

Trust Researcher Erin Semande (left) and planner Laura Hatcher conducting fieldwork for Ontario’s Places of Worship Inventory.

Launching the Places of Worship Inventory

Survey, documentation and research – these are the first steps in the conservation process. How can decisions be made about our heritage without first acquiring...

Light of the World depicted in stained glass at the St. John the Evangelist in South Cayuga

Adventures in light and colour

Light is a fundamental aspect of all architecture, especially places of worship. Light has always been considered a manifestation of the spirit, providing guidance, comfort...

Ste Bernadette Church, Bonfield

The challenge of change in the Catholic Diocese of Pembroke

In May 2006, the Catholic parish of Ste Bernadette in the small northern Ontario community of Bonfield celebrated the 100th anniversary of its church. A...

The vacant former St. Joachim Roman Catholic Church, Lakeshore

The challenges of ownership

Historic places of worship may possess cultural heritage values that engender public support for their preservation, but these values sometimes differ from the spiritual and...

Demolition of the Palmer Livery Building, Cambridge, March 27, 2007 (Photo courtesy of Ken Hoyle)

Subsidizing demolition

In nature, there is no such thing as waste. Nature operates in an endless web of interconnected cycles of use, transformation and reuse. The concept...

The heart of the Ruthven estate is this two-and-a-half-storey limestone Greek Revival-style mansion

Heritage in harmony: The integration of natural and cultural landscapes

Approximately 11,000 years of human culture are recorded in Ontario’s landscapes. Most existing natural landscapes in Ontario today have intrinsic cultural heritage meaning and significance...

The Huron Historic Gaol (1839-42) is designated a National Historic Site

The sustainability of place

Located on the Lake Huron shore at the mouth of the Maitland River, Goderich is known as “Canada’s Prettiest Town.” It is situated in what...

Wychwood Barns (Photo courtesy of du Toit Architects Limited)

Rebirth of the Wychwood Barns

The Artscape Wychwood Barns – near St. Clair Avenue West and Bathurst Street in Toronto – were created when five historic streetcar maintenance barns were...

Smallwood calculated that saving the Wallis House (shown here) diverted the equivalent of 500,000 blue boxes of debris from entering landfill

Discarding the past

When an old building is torn down, we lose more than just the structure. We lose a bit of our past. The foundation walls and...

The Fairfield White House, Bath

Heritage off the 401

Highway 401, stretching from Windsor to the Quebec border, is one of the busiest highways in North America. Anyone who has journeyed east of Toronto...

The dining room at Fulford Place in Brockville

Building on the past

Eastern Ontario offers an array of impressive historic houses. Some of these houses – owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust – are featured...

L’église catholique St. Brigid, Ottawa

La nouvelle St. Brigid

L’église catholique St. Brigid d’Ottawa est entrée dans une nouvelle ère. Depuis presque 120 ans, elle se dresse au cœur d’un quartier divers et dynamique...

Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, Almonte (Photo courtesy of John T. Fowler, Photography for Education)

From mill to museum

The big oak door of the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte in eastern Ontario swings silently open as it has done for over 10...

Statue of Samuel de Champlain, Ottawa (Photo © Ontario Tourism, 2009)

Ontario's eastern treasures

Inhabited by Aboriginal Peoples for 7,000 years, present-day eastern Ontario is rich with heritage. The area gradually transformed as French and later United Empire Loyalists...

Rockwood Villa (Photo © Ontario Realty Corporation, 2009)

The Rockwood story

Behind the stately façade of Kingston’s Rockwood Villa lies the history of mental health services in Ontario. Built in 1842 as a residence for local...

Gun port in the basement crypt of the Bank

The character of adaptive reuse

In his 1947 essay titled “The Past in the Future,” architectural historian John Summerson (1904-92) offered this description of an old building. He was speaking...

One noteworthy example of a successful adaptive reuse project was the conversion of this former post office into 91 market-rate units

Second chances for Peterborough’s priceless heritage

One of the greatest challenges to creating a healthy downtown is getting people to live there. While Peterborough’s historic centre is full of beautiful heritage...

The Jami Mosque in Toronto was formerly a Presbyterian church, converted in 1969

The heritage of faith – Ontario’s places of worship

In 2006, the Ontario Heritage Trust began compiling an inventory of significant pre-1982 purpose-built places of worship located throughout the province. These remarkable cultural treasures...

A study is being conducted that will hopefully result in the establishment of the Old Sydenham Heritage Area (representing approximately 550 properties) as a heritage conservation district

Kingston’s heritage: Time and again

The City of Kingston sits at a strategic location, halfway between Montreal and Toronto, where Lake Ontario meets the western end of the St. Lawrence...

Alma College, 1891 (Photo courtesy of Elgin County Archives)

Alma College remembered

By mid-afternoon on Wednesday, May 28, 2008, Alma College in St. Thomas was reduced to a smouldering ruin. The loss of this significant site to...

The former Bank of Montreal in Hamilton was converted for use as the Gowlings Law Office

Understanding adaptive reuse

In our efforts to conserve heritage properties, finding a use can be our greatest challenge and our greatest opportunity. An unused, vacant heritage building is...

Thunder Bay’s Tourist Pagoda

A renaissance of northern heritage

After railway development connected this once-isolated area to the rest of the province at the end of the 19th century, the abundant natural resources attracted...

Sir Harry Oakes Chateau, Kirkland Lake

Adventurous workers wanted for remote locations – Housing provided

The exploration, settlement and development of northern Ontario were motivated by the exploitation of the region’s natural resources – primarily fur, timber, gold and silver...

McIntyre Mine Headframe, Timmins

Northern icons

The towering McIntyre Mine Headframe in Timmins. The Clergue Block House and Powder Magazine in Sault Ste Marie. St. Francis of Assisi Anglican Church in...

1907 Right of Way Mine with growing community in background

The historical Cobalt Mining District – A community resource

At the turn of the 20th century, Cobalt was a small and isolated lumber camp. In August 1903, two lumbermen – James McKinley and Ernest...

Volunteers play an important role at the Niagara Apothecary

Friends of the Trust

Throughout its 40 years, the Ontario Heritage Trust has developed strong partnerships with local communities. Among these partnerships are those with the groups whose efforts...

The Winter Garden Theatre, George Pelekis

Raising the curtain: How the Winter Garden Theatre was rediscovered

In December 1913, Loew’s Yonge Street Theatre – the Canadian flagship of the mighty Loew’s empire – opened in Toronto. Two months later, the opulent...

Fort York, Toronto. © Ontario Tourism 2008

The past empowered

The buildings, structures and landscapes that comprise our cultural heritage are products of the intricate interplay between people and place over time. What is preserved...

The Sir Aemilius Irving House, Hamilton

Have you seen this building?

In November 2007, the Sir Aemilius Irving House in Hamilton was demolished by its owner to make way for a new building. Unfortunately, local heritage...

Enoch Turner Schoolhouse

Enoch Turner Schoolhouse – a citizen’s legacy

When the province of Ontario introduced the 1847 Common Schools Act, municipalities were given the power to introduce taxes to fund public education. Toronto city...

St. Raphael’s Ruins

Counting our blessings

Built in Glengarry in 1821, St. Raphael’s Church was one of Ontario’s earliest Roman Catholic churches. Constructed under the supervision of Alexander Macdonell – Upper...

Traditional building materials (McMartin House, Perth)

Building assets

Which is more sustainable – an artificial or live Christmas tree? This is an environmentalist’s conundrum, and it illustrates the paradox of “sustainable” building materials...

Repairs to the Gordon Block, Stratford (2007)

The guiding principles of sustainable architecture

In the late 1990s, the Ontario Ministry of Culture introduced Eight Guiding Principles in the Conservation of Built Heritage Properties, which are in common use...

Sheppard’s Bush, main house

Inside Sheppard’s Bush

Charles Sheppard (1876-1967) moved to the Town of Aurora in 1921, after making his fortune in the Simcoe County lumber industry. Brooklands, his modest estate...

View of the Don Valley Brick Works site, looking south (Photo courtesy of Evergreen)

Evergreen Brick Works: Rethinking space

Evergreen – a national charity – builds the relationship between nature, culture and community in urban spaces. With its revitalization of Toronto’s Don Valley Brick...

A 1930s view of the town site taken from the north, looking towards the mill (Photo courtesy of The Ron Morel Memorial Museum, Kapuskasing)

Discovering the City Beautiful

On July 25, 2007, the Ontario Heritage Trust and the Town of Kapuskasing unveiled a provincial plaque to commemorate the town plan that helped shape...

401 Richmond Street, Toronto – an example of a green roof

Fact or fiction: Demystifying the myths around going green – Moving toward a more sustainable architecture

Sustainable: able to be maintained at a certain rate or level . . . conserving an ecological balance by avoiding a depletion of natural resources...

Tip Top Lofts, Toronto (Photo: Context Development)

Sustainability for old buildings: A developer’s perspective

Adaptive reuse provides a sound and sustainable approach to the renewal of our urban fabric, as illustrated by the conversion of three Toronto buildings to...

Casement windows of the Oval Boardroom

In praise of older windows

Façade: a word of double-edged meaning. Architecturally, it refers to the face of a building. In literature, more often than not, it connotes a front...

Fraserfield, South Glengarry

Building on our successes

The Ontario Heritage Trust’s heritage conservation easements conserve some of Ontario’s most significant heritage sites. Good stewardship of easement properties includes regular maintenance and periodic...

Barnum House

The story of Barnum House

Barnum House, on the north side of Highway 2 (Danforth Road), west of Grafton is historically significant for its association with the Barnum family. It...

$29 million restoration of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre by the Trust in 1987-89 (Photo: George Pelekis)

The R’s of conservation

An earlier generation spoke of the three R’s as “Reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic.” They were the fundamentals of education in the 19th century and considered...

Battlefield House

Battlefield House Museum and Park – A pioneer in the history of preservation

Nestled under the Niagara Escarpment and situated in a park connected to the Bruce Trail, Battlefield House Museum National Historic Site in Stoney Creek is...

The Mason-Girardot House – a Victorian Italianate house built c. 1879 in the former town of Sandwich – is one of the properties participating in Windsor’s heritage property tax relief program

Leading the way in municipal heritage planning

What’s happening in your community? With significant amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act in April 2005 and a strengthening of the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS)...

Clark-McCleary House, rear elevation

Exploring Country Heritage Park

In March 2006, the Ontario Heritage Trust acquired a cultural conservation easement on Country Heritage Park. Located in Milton, this designed heritage attraction was created...

Fulford Place

Heritage conservation at our front door

The term “porte-cochère” has continental flair, though humble origins. In French, it means “carriage door” and originally referred to a covered entryway into a courtyard...

Homewood Museum in Maitland

Heritage by numbers

Ontario’s heritage is an immense and complex jigsaw puzzle. Every individual element of heritage creates a whole . . . a sort of heritage by...

Parading into the Spencerville Mill grounds is the Glengarry Pipe Band (Photo: The Spencerville Mill Foundation)

Saving the Spencerville Mill – Preserving community heritage

The Spencerville Mill, a fine cut-stone flour and grist mill, is located on the bank of the South Nation River in the small rural village...

Today, the Ashbridge Estate is widely known in Toronto’s east end for its lush gardens. The Estate is owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust. Its extensive collection of artifacts and archaeological discoveries celebrate the evolution of the Ashbridge family.

The biography of a house: If these walls could speak

Researching family history is a popular pastime for many who want to uncover their family’s unique past and discover how they contributed to Ontario’s growth...

Peterborough's Market Hall, before

Winning the battle

There are countless examples across the province of successful restorations of Ontario’s treasured heritage sites. Although the challenges are great – funding being the primary...

Peel Heritage Complex, Brampton

Our cultural heritage places: how heritage buildings adapt

Although heritage remains a year-round activity for many of us, Heritage Day is celebrated annually on the third Monday in February. This year’s theme speaks...

George Brown House

Snapshots of the past

A flash of phosphorus. A whiff of smoke. And an image is captured. Photographs have chronicled our lives for over 150 years, remaining one of...

Detail of reproduced George Brown House central hall wallpaper

Historic wallpaper: Finding what’s beneath

Wallpapers first appeared in Canada as early as the mid-17th century. These oldest papers were block-printed, hand-painted or stenciled. Pattern and colour was applied to...

Penetanguishene Centennial Museum and Archives

Small-town museums key to small-town success

For 18 years, my wife and I raised our two sons in the Town of Richmond Hill just north of Toronto. When we moved to...

Upper Canada’s first parliament buildings

Breaking news: Saving our First Parliament

It was announced on December 21, 2005 that the site of Ontario’s first parliament buildings in Toronto has been saved. The Ontario Government, in partnership...

Macdonell-Williamson House

Unearthing the past: Discoveries at Macdonell-Williamson House

Built in 1817, Macdonell-Williamson House in eastern Ontario reflects the ambitions and aspirations of retired fur trader, John Macdonell. His life was fraught with financial...

The earliest brick structure in the City of Hamilton – the Book House, located in Ancaster – was recently lost to a suspected case of arson. (Photo: Sharon Vattay, City of Hamilton)

Moving forward with heritage conservation

Thirty years ago, when the Ontario Heritage Act was new, I was a young planner with about a year’s experience working in London, England and...

This decorative cupola adorns McMartin House, a Foundation property in Perth

The healthy roof: Staying on top of heritage preservation

The following excerpt appears in Well-Preserved: The Ontario Heritage Foundationʼs Manual of Principles and Practice for Architectural Conservation (Third Revised Edition), by Mark Fram (Boston...

Mrs. Greenwood donated this property in the memory of her late husband; it will be known as the John Edward (Ted) Greenwood Sanctuary (Photo: Sylvia Barkman)

New natural heritage easement properties

John Edward (Ted) Greenwood Sanctuary On March 30, 2005, the Ontario Heritage Foundation received – from Mary Greenwood of Nakara, Australia – a 100-acre (40-...

Coldwater Grist Mill – serving the community since 1833; an active part of Doors Open Huronia since 2002

The new Ontario Heritage Act: The evolution of heritage conservation

An important shift has occurred in Ontario’s legislative framework for heritage conservation. On April 28, 2005, the Ontario Heritage Amendment Act (Bill 60) received royal...

Trent University, Peterborough

Trent University under the modernist microscope

Throughout the developed world, attention is being given to the built heritage of the modern era. Organizations such as UNESCO's World Heritage Center, the International...

The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre (Toronto). In 1987, a basement is excavated under the lobby corridor, and the grand staircase is suspended in the air.

Working with superstructures: The framework for Ontario's heritage buildings

Last issue, we discussed the importance of a solid foundation when preserving heritage structures. In this issue, we see how a buildingʼs skeleton holds everything...

Leidra Lodge

Leidra Lodge – A new conservation easement

June Ardiel has been a patron and leader in Ontario's arts community all her life. She has authored a book on the public art of...

Toronto-Dominion Centre (Photo: The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Ltd.)

The changing face of heritage: The International Style – Toronto’s Toronto-Dominion Centre

In the second quarter of the 20th century following the First World War, Europe saw the emergence of a significant movement in architecture. This “modern”...

Homewood Museum in Maitland

The Homewood collection

As you drive east along Highway 2 between Brockville and Prescott, you will find the robust Georgian Homewood Museum deeply set back from the road...

Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site

Inside Uncle Tom's Cabin

At a bend in the Sydenham River near the town of Dresden stands Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site. The museum – built on the site...

The Sharon Temple

The Sharon Temple and the heritage of faith

While most of Canada celebrates Heritage Day on the third Monday in February, Ontario celebrates Heritage Week. The theme developed for Ontario Heritage Week 200...

Share:
Share: