Landmark buildings being revived, razed
Renewal or wrecking ball?
For some of the region’s landmark heritage buildings that are being restored or repurposed, 2017 was a good year. Others have a date with destruction.
The year ended with promising heritage news. Windsor city council decided in December to renovate a 96-year-old firehall in Sandwich to become a new library even though the estimated cost had more than doubled to $5.5 million.
“If the city isn’t prepared to step up and save historic buildings, particularly in Sandwich Town, why would we expect others to do the same?” Mayor Drew Dilkens said Dec. 18 in a clear vote for local heritage buildings.
The old firehall on Mill Street was used as a fire station until 1964 and the property includes a 1915 brick stable for horses that pulled fire wagons.
MORE HERITAGE HIGHLIGHTS
Anyone driving along Riverside Drive near Walkerville can see how the Walker Power Building is being transformed. In March it was called the most exciting commercial development in Windsor. In 2016, the building was purchased for $899,000 and in March, investors said about $10 million will be spent to transform the top three floors into offices and the ground floor into restaurants and cafés. By December, the windows had been removed and some wood construction had started.
There was promising news for a downtown Windsor landmark in November. Local developer Dino Maggio, his son and the owners of Cypher Systems Group got together to buy the former Chatham Street Fish Market and Loop building for $1.6 million.
The 1912 building was originally an auto showroom and garage. The investors said they will spend “multi-millions” to try to get the building to look close to its original appearance and create high-end lofts on the second floor, apartments on the first and second floor for students, commercial or office space on the main floor and a possible restaurant in the basement where the former Coach and Horses pub was for years.
The former International Playing Card factory, a 1928 Art Deco building on Mercer Street, will be turned into a French immersion school by the Greater Essex County District School Board. In early 2017, the school board had been seeking to demolish all or part of the building but was denied by city council. In a November report the architectural firm for the board said the building, which is in rough shape, will be deconstructed and reconstructed brick by brick to look like the original building. The board also plans an addition at the back.
The windows at Willistead Manor and its coach house are being repaired and re-installed as part of a $1.95-million restoration project for the city-owned attraction, which was designed by renowned Detroit architect Albert Kahn and built in 1906.
In January, the public should finally get to see inside of the University of Windsor’s new School of Creative Arts complex in the former Windsor Armouries. The building was constructed in 1902.
WRECKING BALL
In early December city council heard two historic industrial buildings are so neglected they should be torn down.
One was the former Riverside Brewery, a landmark edifice along Riverside Drive for 94 years. The other was the 110-year-old Lufkin Rule building on Caron Avenue just south of Wyandotte Street West.
There was some hope the neglected Lufkin Rule building, where tape measures were manufactured from 1907 to 1948, could be saved, but by Dec. 18, the city, which owns the building, issued an emergency demolition permit.
The building has been vacant for years and was at risk of imminent collapse, a report said.
St. George’s Anglican Church in Walkerville was torn down in September to make way for three upscale homes. The former church buildings dated back to 1921 and 1955 and the diocese had a report that the buildings should be condemned.
HERITAGE BRAND CENTRE
A bronze statue of Hiram Walker is expected to be placed along Riverside Drive near the Hiram Walker and Sons distillery in 2018 as Windsor promotes and remembers its whisky heritage but there was concern in 2017 over the fate of the Heritage Brand Centre at the historic Hiram Walker and Sons distillery.
The building isn’t in jeopardy, but in February Beam Suntory which owns the Canadian Club brand, announced it was closing the brand centre. Tours stopped March 31. Pernod Ricard, which owns the Hiram Walker distillery and makes Canadian Club whisky for Beam Suntory, had leased the Canadian Club Brand Centre to Beam Suntory and city officials were hoping something could be worked out between the two companies so the brand centre could be revived.
Days before Christmas, Clarkson Hine, senior vice-president of corporate communications and public affairs with Beam Suntory, said in an emailed statement that the company has had “constructive dialogue with the City of Windsor and other interested parties to seek ways we might be able to reopen the Heritage Centre. We’ve made progress and these discussions will continue into January.”
WHO KNOWS?
The mayor was trying to find a new use for the old Windsor Jail in Sandwich and asked the public for ideas in October. Dilkens said the jail, which dates back to 1925, is worth saving but the problem is finding a new use that is feasible for the building. The jail is owned by the province.
Earlier this year, lawyer Paul Mullins volunteered to conduct an analysis on what could be done with Assumption Church, which closed in 2014 and has been the subject of two failed fundraising campaigns.
STREETCAR NAMED CONTROVERSY
In a 7-4 recorded vote in October, city council approved accepting the donation of streetcar No. 351 from Penalty Box restaurant owner Van Niforos and spending up to $750,000 to have the 99-year-old street car restored as “an authentic piece of Windsor’s history.”
COUNTY HERITAGE
In Amherstburg there was good news for the 201-year-old Belle Vue House in December. Terry and Susan Whelan presented officials from Amherstburg’s historic Belle Vue House with a $20,000 donation in memory of their late parents, Eugene and Elizabeth Whelan. The home, which dates back to 1816, was on the endangered list for demolition by neglect by Heritage Canada’s National Trust. The town bought the house in 2016 and members of Belle Vue Conservancy have raised more than $305,000 toward their $1-million fundraising goal.
In February, the town of Essex recalled explosive history. Its heritage train station survived a 1907 explosion and another blast levelled part of the downtown on Valentine’s Day 1980.