Blacksmith shop makes endangered list
An Edmonton blacksmith shop slated for demolition has landed on a list of top 10 endangered places compiled by the National Trust of Canada.
The A. Minchau blacksmith shop, a red brick building that opened in 1925 on 81 Avenue and 101 Street, earned a spot on the 2018 cross-Canada list.
“Weak legislation and inadequate financial incentives place this Old Strathcona boom town gem at risk,” said the National Trust website.
Scott Ashe, the city’s principal heritage planner, said the Minchaus were a family of German blacksmiths. At one point, there was a residence attached to the shop, he said.
“They lived on this property for multiple generations. It’s one of our few connections to early industrial history.”
The city is considering a demolition permit from the site’s owners, Cejay Ventures Ltd. The site is zoned to allow a 12-storey building, something virtually no other property in the neighbourhood has.
Demolition is not something that the property owner undertook lightly, Ashe said.
The heritage department worked with the owner for three years to explore options for the building ’s use, which included offering grants to restore it.
“He, in good faith, looked at options to retain it,” Ashe said. “This is the end of a long road of exploring things.”
The National Trust website said the city has been hampered by the Alberta Historic Resources Act, which, unlike legislation in most other provinces, requires municipalities to compensate owners for lost development value when it proceeds with a heritage designation without the owner’s consent.
Ashe said the building was first identified as significant during the city’s first inventory of heritage buildings in 1933.
“It’s a modest building, but much of our architecture here in Edmonton is quite modest,” he said.