Historical Building Demolished

This demolition just goes to show
that my concern that I could arrive
home one day to find my house demolished,
(as well as dead pets), isn't far fetched.
Fortunately the building demolished wasn't
someone's home and the building was vacant.
Read the article below.


History erased, city hall blamed
Doug Williamson, Windsor Star
Published: Friday, April 11, 2008

The chairman of Windsor's heritage committee says the city's building department "dropped the ball" when it approved the demolition this week of a former fire engine factory on Walker Road.

The Seagrave Building was on a heritage inventory list that was supposed to give it a 60-day grace period before a permit is issued, so the building could be evaluated for its historical significance and possibly protected.

The demolition permit application for the brick structure at 933 Walker Rd. should have been forwarded to the heritage committee before being approved, said Greg Heil.


"It was a very significant industrial building that we had hoped to designate (give it official historical designation) someday," Heil said Thursday. Such designation would hav

"The building department dropped the ball," Heil said of the approval to demolish the structure.

"The building has gone through multiple uses since, but it was a fine example of brick architecture," Heil said. "It could have had a very nice adaptive reuse and restoration had the right opportunity presented itself. In recent years it has been quite dilapidated."

Recently the building housed a carpentry business and auto body shop, but was empty at the time of demolition. In the last year there was a fire on the second floor, Weeks said.

Heil said buildings on the heritage inventory list are routinely referred to the heritage committee when demolition permits are applied for. "There was no referral to the heritage committee ... so we know that the process broke down somewhere along the way."

Bill Jean, manager of permits for the city, was not available for comment Thursday. But Ashok Sood, the building's owner, said he was unaware that it was on the heritage inventory list.

He said the building had been vacant for more than year, and was for sale or rent with no takers.

"I wish I knew, because we would have pursued it that way. I would have worked with people," Sood said. "It was too costly to renovate and I couldn't find anybody to go in." He owned the building for three years and plans to leave the property vacant for the time being.

He said he decided to tear it down because of vandalism and other problems. "I bought the building because I loved it, but I couldn't find anybody to do anything; there was no grants available, there was nothing."

Sood said he was told a few months ago by someone that the building had historical significance and gave the person his business card, but he was never contacted again.

"It was an eyesore, there was a lot of vandalism and it was looking pretty ugly."

Tony Gallippi, who owns a restaurant next door, said the demolition process slowed Walker Road traffic Wednesday and disrupted his normal luncheon business because vehicles blocked his parking lot.

"In this city we're too quick to tear things down," Gallippi said Thursday.

Heil said there are about 700 buildings on the city's heritage inventory, plus about 100 buildings that are historically designated. He said about two years ago a similar situation occurred and assurances were given by the city that it wouldn't happen again.

"We're not in the business of trying to designate every single building on the inventory. I would classify this one though as one of the more prominent and important buildings on the inventory, and we very, very much regret seeing it lost," Heil said.

The heritage committee, which met Wednesday evening and discussed the demolition, will ask the city's planning department to review the matter with the building department "and report back to us in terms of how this mistake was made and give us some assurance that it won't happen again."

Coun. Ron Jones, who along with Coun. Dave Brister sits on the heritage committee, said he was very disturbed that the demolition was allowed to proceed.



"I'm certainly appalled at the fact that somehow, some way, this fell through the cracks," said Jones, a retired firefighter. "This was on the list to be designated. The history of that building was so rich."

He said the city should step up efforts to protect historically significant buildings. "We have a list of buildings that we hope to designate, and we're just going to have to fast track some of these things. It doesn't bring this building back, but we certainly have to be conscientious as to handing out permits."

Weeks bemoaned the building's loss.

"It adds to the long list of buildings torn down in this city," she said. "I think it really is part and parcel of the concern of how the city thinks of itself."

A group calling itself scaledown.ca was angered by the demolition. It held a candlelight vigil, attended by about a dozen people, to mourn the loss of the building on Thursday night.

"It's incomprehensible, in this day and age, that something like this could be allowed to happed," said James Coulter in a news release. "Protecting the history and heritage of our city is critical to its identity -- past, present and future."

BUILT FIRST FIRE TRUCK

According to history buff Elaine Weeks, the factory was built in the early 1900s and housed the Canadian subsidiary of the Seagrave Fire Apparatus Company of Ohio. It was the first company to produce a motorized fire engine in Canada, according to Weeks' publication, The Walkerville Times. It operated from 1907 to 1923.


© The Windsor Star 2008