Fire hall foundation unearthed
One of the challenges of renovating the Peterborough Public Library was this surprising find
Construction challenges, including the discovery of a buried Edwardian-era foundation, has caused a slight setback to the more than $12-million overhaul of the Peterborough Public Library, according to the city manager overseeing the project.
Workers digging on the northeastern corner of the site found parts of the foundation of the fire hall that once stood on Aylmer St. between Simcoe and Charlotte streets, said Gillian Barnes, the city’s project manager for facilities and planning initiatives.
The project, which began late last June, is expected to be done this fall. Initial estimates were for 14 months, which would have saw construction completed in late August.
The materials that once comprised about half of the old foundation had to be excavated before work on the new foundation could begin, Barnes said.
The former fire hall was built in 1908, three years after the city was incorporated, replacing a fire hall that once stood alongside several other municipal buildings at Water and Simcoe streets, now home to Peterborough Square.
It was three stories high so that it could house accommodations, like a kitchen and sleeping areas, for the city’s firemen, said Elwood Jones, archivist at Trent Valley Archives. The fire station even had an exercise tower in its back yard.
The building was razed to make way for the main library, which opened in 1980. It closed as the city’s new fire hall opened on Sherbrooke St. about fire years before that.
Interestingly, an early-20th century city fire chief once lived in the red brick building at Aylmer and Simcoe streets razed as part of the library renovation and expansion, Jones said. The city is converting the site into green space and parking as part of a library square.
A lot of work has gone on inside the completely-gutted location, Barnes said.
Those travelling on Bethune St. at the rear can now see the openings for a bank of new bay windows that will be installed. The building will also have a front glass facade.
A new, grand staircase that will connect the main level to the lower level, the new home of the children’s department, is being constructed. So is a new elevator.
Toronto architectural firm The Ventin Group has done the redesign. The library was originally designed by architect Ray Moriyama, who designed the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
Progress on the library project has also been hindered by dewatering that required drilling of monitoring wells and applications from the Ministry of the Environment, according to a report by community services director Ken Doherty tabled at the Feb. 27 committee of the whole meeting.
As-built drawings of the library were also not wholly accurate, causing interference to the placement of new mechanical and electrical services, he wrote.
Even after construction is completed, there will still be much work to be done before the newlook library can open its doors, Barnes explained.
It will take a month to six weeks to outfit the library with shelving, furniture and IT components and to move all of the books back to the site.
“It’s quite an expansive moving project,” she said, adding that it may be quite fitting if the library re-opens in October, for Canadian Library Month.
The lower level of Peterborough Square remains the temporary home of the library. It opened May 19 after the main branch closed April 30.
For more information, contact the library at 705-745-5382 or visit www.peterborough.library. on.ca .... Project updates can also be found at pplmoves.blogspot.ca/.