Black Horse Pub owner didn’t want heritage designation

The owner of The Black Horse says city council is smart not to put a heritage designation on his building – even if that means eventual demolition.

Ray Kapoor owns the building that has housed his tavern for 12 years. He’s selling it to Parkview Homes.

Paul Dietrich, the owner of Parkview Homes, wants to tear down the building and replace it with a new five-storey apartment complex.

He wants to do the same with the Pig’s Ear (which is around the corner).

The Pig’s Ear is closing April 22; there’s been a bar operating in the building for 150 years.

The Black Horse will close, too – Kapoor says he isn’t planning to relocate the business.

But on Wednesday he said the purchase of his building isn’t a done deal yet; he won’t announce a closing date for the pub until later.

In the meantime, Kapoor says city council is doing the right thing if it allows Parkview Homes to proceed with its plan.

“Paul Dietrich from Parkview Homes has a new vision and wants to invest in the downtown – and revitalize,” he said.

On Monday, city councillors voted not to put a heritage designation on The Black Horse or The Pig’s Ear.

Instead, councillors want city staff to work with Dietrich to come up with a design for his new apartments that will blend well with the downtown.

That decision is up for a final vote this Monday, at City Hall.

The two buildings are connected on either side to the Morrow Building, an elaborate 19th-century edifice that has been carefully preserved.

That building won’t be touched – it has a heritage designation, and is therefore protected from demolition.

Some people aren’t happy the two bars could soon be razed.

Ed Smith, a local citizen, said he thinks it would be a “scandal” to demolish the buildings.

He said he can’t think of a more important heritage landmark downtown than the Morrow Building.

“You can’t just shear off both sides of it,” he said. “These two are contiguous to that – it’s really important they be retained.”

Smith said the Morrow Building was in a deteriorated state when the owner painstakingly restored it, 20 years ago.

Surely the Pig’s Ear could look just as good, he said.

“It’s about time to make a silk purse out of that Pig ’s Ear,” he said. “Don’t demolish it.”

Melanie Collins, a realtor with 34 years of experience, agrees.

She moved here from Schomberg, six months ago, because she was charmed by Peterborough’s collection of historic houses.

She said the downtown buildings – such as the Black Horse – are just as important and worth saving.

“What we really need in Peterborough is a heritage district for the downtown – not just the Avenues,” she said.

A historic bar lends irreplaceable vibrancy to the downtown, she said – and that’s why people would want to live downtown. Why undermine that?

Collins finds it sad that Europeans don’t think twice about saving buildings that are hundreds of years old. In Canada, she said, we think a building is beyond repair when it is 150.

“It’s sad that we’re so disposable.”