The Wellington Catholic District School Board is looking to demolish its longtime home on Woolwich Street.
But Heritage Guelph is asking City Council to designate the building as a heritage property and protect it from demolition.
What the board plans to do with the site after the older of two adjacent buildings at 69 Woolwich St. is demolished isn’t being revealed, but the board has applied for a demolition permit for the one-storey white building, located across the road from the Sleeman Centre on the banks of the Speed River.
The building is currently listed as a heritage property, not designated.
The school board declined to share what its plans for the site are. When asked if it intended to develop the property or sell it, WCDSB Director of Education Tamara Nugent said in an email:
“With respect to your inquiry, the board is working through a process with the city however it is at the committee level and therefore we aren’t at liberty to provide any further comment at this time.”
According to Guelph’s Register of Cultural Heritage Properties, the building was built around 1875.
It is ‘listed’ as a heritage property, a less restrictive designation than it being a ‘designated’ heritage property.
Before the application for demolition is processed by the city, Heritage Guelph has given its view on the proposal, asking council to protect the building from demolition.
On July 24 Heritage Guielph carried the following motion:
"THAT Heritage Guelph recommends that Council publish its intention to designate 69 Woolwich Street, under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, based on Heritage Guelph’s assessment of the cultural heritage value of the subject property as determined at their meeting date of July 24, 2017 and based on the pending background report."
