We must do a better job at preserving landmark buildings
Anyone who's been into downtown Halifax or Dartmouth lately will have noted all the cranes and construction going on. This drive to add high rise housing is changing the face of the city. The character is fast evaporating.
A friend of mine says Halifax is losing its soul. She's been advocating to save some grand old wooden houses in her neighbourhood adjacent to Dalhousie University.
“This city is on self-destruct and will not be swayed from its course. Goodbye, gorgeous old homes on Carlton and College. Could we imagine how many hundreds lived here for more than 100 years?”
It is hugely sad when fine old homes aren't maintained, when their fine features end up smashed in the dump. Often replacement buildings are just crude concrete without character. That was part of my reaction to the news last week that Kentville's brick piece of history, Main Street Station or the former Cornwallis Inn, had been sold.
Built by Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1929 as a year-round hotel, the old inn turned apartment building has seen a lot. There were so many stories around the old Apple Blossom Festival taking place there in its heyday. The Advertiser newsroom, ad sales and layout shop were all located there once upon a time, so we heard some tales back in the 1980s.
Naturally, news of the sale spawned fear about the building's future. Local historian Louis Comeau, of the Kentville Historical Society, told CBC he would like to be reassured that the building will be preserved. New owner Joseph Arab, of Rosedale Developments in Halifax, has thus far been mum on the subject.
Searching Rosedale Developments made me wonder as the firm has a record of constructing towers. Two Dartmouth towers, nine and 11 storeys tall, with more than 200 residential units got the nod. There are plans for a 16-storey development on Gottingen Street with a modicum of affordable units.
Arab wants to construct the building on the same lot as Victoria Hall, which is a municipally-registered heritage building dating back to 1884.
The thing is Kentville has no built heritage bylaw to protect a venerable fourstorey hotel. It's kind of sad when thinking of the lessons that could have been learned.
Back in 2007, I remember
the Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society's Jay Underwood opposing the pending demolition of the Kentville Roundhouse by the town.
Should the historic former Dominion Atlantic Railway roundhouse be demolished, Underwood said it would mean the loss of, “one of the most unique and historic buildings anywhere in this province.”
He termed it the last building of its kind.
“As a railway historian, to my mind it ranks in importance with Halifax's town clock, Prince's Lodge and Cape Breton's Fortress Louisbourg.”
Locally, Underwood noted, the former railway station in Wolfville had found new life and purpose.
He offered the assistance of the society and asked for a 12-month delay to consider other options. That July the century-old roundhouse was torn down.
At the time, Natalie Bull, of the Heritage Canada Foundation in Ottawa, said the loss of the roundhouse was about environmental waste, as well as the destruction of a historic building.
In 1990, Kentville residents were divided over the fate of the truly iconic town railway station, which had been built in 1868 by the Windsor and Annapolis Railway. The two-storey wooden station was a stellar building serving passenger, baggage and telegraph traffic. It also had a lunchroom operating in one end for most of its life. It's many offices became vacant as Canadian Pacific centralized operations. VIA Rail moved its passenger service out of the old station in 1988.
I recall the late Martha Crosbie, distressed about the loss of the station, becoming active to save the Charles Macdonald concrete house in Centreville. We have some great examples of prizewinning heritage preservation in the Valley. There's Kent Lodge in Wolfville, the Rayski House in Grand Pre, Wickwire House in Kentville, Planter's Barracks in Starr's Point and the Avondale Sky Winery in Avondale
But the National Trust of Canada says that over the past three decades, Canada has lost 23 percent of its historic building stock in urban areas and 21 percent in rural areas.
The destruction of the provincially designated Reid House in Avonport continues to cause sadness. The property owner Bassam Nahas of Nanco Developments Limited and his company have yet to have their day in court.
Meanwhile Main Street Station and an adjacent property have just changed hands. Either site could be developed.