Heritage protection marches on with this May meeting of the Heritage Guelph committee. On this agenda, there’s a whole new list of potential designations, 10 in all, plus a couple of new reports; one is about a demolition of a listed heritage property, and the second is about a stretch of road work coming in one of the older areas of town. Let’s check out what all is on the agenda for this May Day edition of Heritage Guelph!
NOTE #1: If you would like to delegate to one of the items at the meeting, or to access an alternative meeting format, get in touch with Jack Mallon, Heritage Planner, by email at jack.mallon [at] guelph.ca or by calling (519) 837-5616, extension 3872. Deadline is April 29 at noon.
NOTE #2: This meeting will take place in-person at City Hall and virtually on Cisco Webex. You can find the link on the agenda page for this meeting on the City’s website.
117 Surrey Street East: Draft Council Designation Report – Most recently the home of the Italian restaurant Sugo on Surrey, this building is more well-known to local heritage nerds as the William Allan House, which was constructed for the man that bears its name sometime in the second half of the 1850s. It’s a detached two and a half storey house made of broken course, tuck pointed limestone with limestone quoins with a new-classical design and Georgian features. According to the report it meets five of the nine criteria to designate under Ontario Regulation 9/06.
240 Woolwich Street: Draft Council Designation Report – This is actually several lots with one address on Woolwich Street and then five facing Norwich. The Barclay Terrace began initially as separate buildings at 7 and 9 Norwich, but the rest of the complex was built in short order and was complete by 1875. It’s namesake, James Barclay, was a Scottish immigrant and building contractor who’s contributions include the Drill Hall here in Guelph and the Manitoba Penitentiary in Stony Mountain, Canada’s oldest operating federal prison. As for the Terrace, the staff report notes that it meets a whopping six of the nine criteria to designate under the regulation.
89 Surrey Street East: Draft Council Designation Report – Presently home to the Brain & Body Co, a wellness clinic, this is historically known as he Thompson Cottage in honour of its first one, land broker Robert Thompson. An Irish immigrant, Thompson started as a carpenter and then then went into business for himself as a land broker and in the process he laid out the initiation growth of Guelph in the mid-18th century, and his cottage, with its limestone and brick character, also set the tone for the area in terms of its style. According to the report, the building meets five of the nine criteria to designate.
2 Suffolk Street West: Draft Council Designation Report – In the late 1870s, Guelph businessman Thomas Worswick built a house for his family and a home office of his business, the Worswick Machine Co. It’s a late Italianate style home with Neo-Georgian details made with yellow pressed brick, and it meets three of nine criteria to designate.
18 Paisley Street: Draft Council Designation Report – Easy to miss just a little further up Paisley past the Market Fresh plaza, this building has been known as the Kloepfer Custom Framing & Gallery. This cottage debates back to the 1870s when it served as the manse for the Paisley Primitive Methodist Church, and while the church burnt down in 1907 and moved to a new church building on Margaret Street, the manse remains and it stand till this day when it meets three of the nine criteria to designate.
1 Norwich Street West: Draft Council Designation Report – See 240 Woolwich Street: Draft Council Designation Report above.
3 Norwich Street West: Draft Council Designation Report – See 240 Woolwich Street: Draft Council Designation Report above.
5 Norwich Street West: Draft Council Designation Report – See 240 Woolwich Street: Draft Council Designation Report above.
7 Norwich Street West: Draft Council Designation Report – See 240 Woolwich Street: Draft Council Designation Report above.
9 Norwich Street West: Draft Council Designation Report – See 240 Woolwich Street: Draft Council Designation Report above.
57 Kirkland Street: Request to Demolish a Listed Property – This house may have been built in 1875, but all the heritage value in the world couldn’t save it from the ravages of fire. The property owner is requesting that the house be taken off the registry so that it might be more easily demolished.
Exhibition Park Neighbourhood Infrastructure Improvements Preliminary Design Project: Cultural Heritage Evaluation Report – There’s some major road work coming to the area around Exhibition Park, and parts south of there along Glasgow Street. Part of the prep work for this was a Cultural Heritage Report prepared by ASI, who identified six different culture heritage landscapes and 588 known and built heritage resources in the area. The buildings themselves will not be effected because the focus is the roads, but there will be some mitigation efforts like vibration monitoring, construction restoration and tree protection.
Guelph Politico 