Alma College: Why heritage preservation in Ontario doesn't work ...

[Towered]

Yay! Bring on the SmartCentre! It's progress! *drools like a cow*

 

[Hydrogen]

What a shame.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Those fire pictures are surreal. It's unlikely that a depressed manufacturing town like St. Thomas will ever build anything with as much architectural presence as Alma College.

Sean, don't forget the RCAF's training academy (or something like that) which is just outside of town on the way to Port Stanley. A streamline moderne gem.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

Those fire pictures are surreal.

kinda reminds you of the great toronto fire, but only in color.

 

[unimaginative2]

That's tragic, but not terribly suprising. I guess it doesn't really matter if it had already received a demolition permit. I can't believe anyone would think that demolishing a building like that is a good idea. I mean, it's just so blatantly obvious that it'll be one of those things that people deeply regret after about two years.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I am more interested in seeing whether there will be a backlash from the town resulting in councilors being turfed.

AoD

 

[adma]

To report another current victim of a "suspicious" fire: the Kapuskasing Inn.

Maybe the clearest parallel in recent Toronto history was the burning of the Avenue Rd church w/the Gustave Hahn murals in 1995...

 

[ShonTron]

Those fire pictures are surreal. It's unlikely that a depressed manufacturing town like St. Thomas will ever build anything with as much architectural presence as Alma College.

Sean, don't forget the RCAF's training academy (or something like that) which is just outside of town on the way to Port Stanley. A streamline moderne gem.

I got a pic of that as well. It's now Elgin County offices, across from the regional mental health centre.

 

[ShonTron]

The Elgin County office south of town that HD mentioned.

The Hospital across the road. Part of the same former RCAF station? (RCAF was everywhere in SW Ontario, places like Clinton and St. Thomas and Aylmer and Exeter and Hagersville and even Brampton - old OPP grounds).

The Elgin Courthouse is threatened as well.

As is the old NY Central Station.

 

[Ummagumma66]

thats such a shame, they should be preserving sites like that, I there was any justice, it would be rebuilt, and whatever was to go there goes somewhere else, my heart sank just looking at those pics of the fire.

 

[Hipster Duck]

I am more interested in seeing whether there will be a backlash from the town resulting in councilors being turfed.

AoD

Alvin, I sadly doubt that any heads will roll. Small town politicians would sell their town's soul to attract a few blue collar jobs or any form of meagre investment. If a Second Empire mansion from the town's halcyon days is obstructing plans to expand a call centre's gravel parking lot, then off with its head! Who would dare to stand in the way of "progress"?

It's like in that Simpsons episode where they try to film "Radioactive Man: The Movie" in Springfield. Mayor Quimby, so desperate for the revenues that the town will get from filming, tells the production crew: "We'll blow up our dams, destroy forests, anything! If there's a species of animal that's causing problems nosing around your camera, we'll have it wiped out! "

That kind of petty desperation is ubiquitous in small towns. After all, displaying that kind of mentality when it comes to governance is the essence of provincialism. It is the definition of thinking small. It's why small towns fail to become bigger places both in the literal and figurative sense.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Hipster:

I was just wondering whether people living in St. Thomas feels attached to this building enough that this sorry episode would serve as reminder of the failure of their politicians.

Considering that these hertiage resources are exactly what small towns can capitalize (read Niagara-On-the-Lake) for economic revival, it's extremely ironic that they are still treated with such callousness. Like there is now one less reason to visit St. Thomas AND spend money there.

AoD

 

[unimaginative2]

I don't have side-by-side pictures to compare, but at first glance the building looks a lot like 1 Spadina Circle. Remember that building was also to be demolished in Toronto's "Everything Must Be Modern" phase, so it's not a uniquely small-town phenomenon.

 

[ShonTron]

1 Spadina Circle (Knox College) is a very apt comparison architecturally. Alma College was interesting as it was actually a collection of buildings, including a chapel and other outbuildings, and was at the view terminus of a minor residental street.

Knox College had an even more commanding vista, but didn't feel so big being at the middle of a wide urban street in a large city.

 

[adma]

Hipster:

I was just wondering whether people living in St. Thomas feels attached to this building enough that this sorry episode would serve as reminder of the failure of their politicians.

Perhaps the nearest comparison point might be in Guelph, where council decisions on Wal-Mart et al led to the massive victory of a "green" slate last time around...