Demolition ‘made me feel sick, shocked’
Former resident says requests to spare Ancaster’s Brandon House were bulldozed, just like the building was
On April 4 after a call from a friend, Joanna Speller rushed up to Ancaster, in time to see her old family home being ripped down stone by stone.
The 1867 Brandon House survived a lot of things, but not a demolition permit handed out by the City of Hamilton to a numbered company.
“It made me feel sick, shocked, I wasn’t prepared for it,” Speller said.
The graceful stone house anchored the corner of Rousseaux and Wilson streets. From his home office, Dr. John Brandon looked after the needs of the village. Years later when the Speller family moved in, Joanna’s dad named it the Brandon House.
“My dad was English, and that’s what you do, you name your house,” she says.
When Speller was growing up, chickens roamed in the backyard near the barn, and over to the houses next door including one built in 1825 and still standing.
“People would tell me when they turned the corner and saw the house, they knew they were home,” Speller says.
Many people are worrying about the future of Ancaster’s remaining heritage buildings. Speller is one of them. That’s why she wrote to the city’s heritage planning department in late December 2019 requesting Brandon House at 462 Wilson St. be designated a heritage property.
It took almost two months for that request to go anywhere. It was a late addition to a meeting of the Municipal Heritage Committee on Feb. 20. It was received with no discussion and six weeks later the house was a pile of rubble.
It’s thought that when a heritage designation is requested for a threatened building it puts the breaks on demolition long enough to research, document, and discuss.
Sometimes the new owners can be persuaded to save historic buildings.
In the case of Brandon House, the demolition permit was issued March 26, the house was demolished April 4, the day before the province put the brakes on construction projects, including demolitions.
The demolition is raising red flags, and so is the heritage legislation that offered no protection for the 153-year-old house.
When Speller asked why it took almost two months for her request to be put on the heritage committee agenda, the city blamed the delay on Christmas holidays but did admit to, “some breakdown in communication.”
In fact, the heritage committee also met on Jan. 16, but the city said it was too late to add it to the agenda, even though the city told Speller the request was received Jan. 3.
Yet, items are often added to agendas minutes before meetings begin.
The city also stated in an email to Speller that planning staff was alerted on Feb. 10 by the building department that a demolition permit was being reviewed for Brandon House, a house on the city’s inventory of heritage buildings.
But, it appears the heritage committee was never told of the demolition threat, even at their Feb. 20 meeting.
Municipal Heritage Committee member Janice Brown confirms that.
“Never. I learned about the demolition on Facebook,” she wrote in an email.
Reading agendas, bylaws and legislation to try and understand heritage regulations is confusing. Heritage properties may be on three different lists, properties of “interest,” properties that are registered, and properties that are designated.
But, the demolition over the Easter weekend has galvanized residents. A petition by a group called Save Ancaster’s Built Heritage has nearly 4,000 signatures.
They want a public accounting of how the Brandon House went through the demolition permit process while Speller’s letters and calls to the city went unanswered.
And they join Speller in asking that potential demolition to the two older buildings next to the Brandon House be put on hold.
After initially saying nothing could have been done about the demolition, Ancaster councillor Lloyd Ferguson is reacting to public outcry by sending a motion to city council asking that 40 properties in the village core be added to the city’s list of registered heritage properties.
In a further email response, the city said, “We will continue to look for ways to improve our processes as we discuss the additional vulnerable Ancaster properties that Ms. Speller has identified.”
For now, it is unknown what will replace the historic Brandon House.
No building plan was required since the property is not zoned residential.
All that’s left of the Brandon House is a stone wall defining the property. It now has SHAME written on it in big red letters.