With the clock ticking down on heritage registry protections throughout Ontario, city officials want to ensure a handful of historic Guelph properties are preserved for future generations.
Currently sitting in draft form, a list of 10 properties has been selected for study and possible designation under the Ontario Heritage Act (OHA) from the roughly 1,700 on the city’s heritage registry – less than one per cent.
Among them is the former Sleeman family home, which operates now as The Manor strip club.
“We’re working with the two-year timeline imposed with the alterations from Bill 23,” said city heritage planner Victoria Nagy, referring to the province’s More Homes Built Faster Act, which came into effect on Jan. 1 “Any listed property will, in two years, not have any protection.
“We want to make sure we’re providing protections to properties valued by the community.”
With so many properties on the registry, how was the draft top-10 list determined?
In short, members of Heritage Guelph (HG) were asked to provide their own list of 10 properties to be preserved. Those lists were then compared for similarities and staff added a couple more it considers to be at risk from development pressure, with one added at the request of the owner, Nagy explained.
In preparing their lists, Nagy said committee members were encouraged to “identify core properties that members feel would be a loss to the community if they were negatively impacted.”
HG is set to discuss and consider supporting the list of priorities during its meeting on Monday.
“I’m hoping on Monday we’ll be able to discuss more as they react to the results of this exercise and talk about how they came up with their lists, what each priority property means to them,” Nagy noted.
Downtown properties were specifically excluded from the exercise.
“We are looking to focus on downtown using consultant resources. We are currently in the process of putting an RFP (request for proposals) together for analyzing the downtown to essentially get a heritage conservation district there,” the heritage planner explained. “This list is about focusing our heritage staff work plan.”
A cultural heritage district provides protection to all the buildings within its boundaries, requiring city-approved permits for renovations and alterations that impact the heritage value. Individual designations protect only the one property.
In 2021, city council approved a study of the Ward West area for consideration as a cultural heritage district there. The results of that study aren't yet known.
Council has not been asked for its support of a downtown district.
The draft list also doesn’t include any properties on Catholic Hill.
“The properties on Catholic Hill, like the Basilica and the Loretto Convent, they are unlikely to receive development pressure. Even though they are obviously very important landmarks to Guelph and they aren’t designated … the diocese has been excellent stewards of these properties,” Nagy said.
“Because we only have this two-year timeframe, it’s important to focus on properties that may ultimately be lost after they are removed from the register. It is unlikely that the basilica would be demolished. That’s why it’s not on the current top-10 list.”
In 2021, the 1855-built rectory beside Basilica of Our Lady garnered an award of merit in the conservation architecture category in the 2021 awards competition run by the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals.
On the flip side of that coin, the former Loretto Convent building (circa. 1850s), which is now home to Guelph Civic Museum, sat unused between 1996 and 2011, when it opened with its new use. The diocese applied for a demolition permit for the building, prompting public backlash that ultimately led to the museum’s establishment there.
A finalized top 10 list will be presented to council for consideration late this year or early next year, Nagy said. Council will be asked to approve launching a study of the properties to determine if they meet criteria for designation under the OHA.
In order to be eligible, a property must meet at least two of the three designation criteria. It was one or more prior to the implementation of Bill 23.
Those criteria are that the property has design or physical value to the community because of its unique or representative characteristics; it has historical or associative value because of its community connection; or the property is contextually valuable for defining, maintaining or supporting the character of the area.
City staff is currently studying four properties for council to consider designating later this year.
They are 49 Norfolk St. (The Albion Hotel), 131 Ontario St. (Tytler Public School), 65 Delhi St. (location of County of Wellington’s planned 28-bedroom temporary supportive housing project) and 47-49 Alice St. (once home to Valeriote Shoe Shop).
Properties on the draft top-10 list for designation study are: (details shown as presented on the heritage registry)
108 Queen St. – Built c. 1834 Neo-Classic Vernacular; 2 storey; 3 bay; gable roof with lower slope extension over 2 storey front gallery with stout, stop-chamfered posts and plain railing; entrance with 6- panel door, divided sidelights, no transom; door above; 12 panes over 12 sash below, 12 panes over 8 above, 6 panes over 6 at ends; external north chimney later; extensive rear additions including garage and incorporating stone, gable-roofed outbuilding; large, well landscaped lot; originally faced Eramosa Road.
211 Silvercreek Pkwy. S. – Built c. 1895 "Tavern"/Motel - Queen Anne Revival, 2 storey + attic, irregular plan, hip roof, highly decorative stonework including vermiculated, octagonal corner tower complete with conical roof attic gables, clustered shaft main chimney, stone brackets, slate roof, modified additions.
167 Suffolk St. W. – Built 1862 (rebuilt1872) Neo-Classic Vernacular (Functional); 2 storey plus attic; 5 bay with parapet to gable roof plus 4 bay, two storey, flat-roofed east extension, plus 3 storey, 10 bay rock-faced concrete block circa 1900 west addition; tooled sills; hammer dressed lintels; refenestration; some 6 panes over 6 sash on ground floor of west addition, refenestration elsewhere.
9 Arthur St. N. – Built c. 1847 Ontario Cottage; 3 bay; doorcase with narrow sidelights, no transom, 7 panel bolection moulded door complete with knocker; elaborate stone trim including tool-margined raised edges and hammer dressed plinth, sills, lintels, corner quoins, pilasters and mullion to twin front windows, also with moulded and denticulated entabulature, alternating similar and vermiculated quoins to entrace; doorcase with narrow sidelights and original 7-panel bolectoin moulded door with knocker; orginal 6-pane upper sash to north side window; end chimney rebuilt; rear lean-to added 1880; mid-twentieth century front porch; large lot with 3 frontages, south side to railway; focal point to Macdonell Street; walls said to be brick under stucco.
49 Metcalfe St. – Built c. 1932 Art Deco; 2 storey; irregular shape; flat roof with parapet; curved stair wall and stepped windows; corner windows; balcony over entrance; garage extension to side; corner lot.
31 Gordon St. – Built c. 1841 Neo-Classic Vernacular; 1 storey; 3 bay; gable roof with front gable; “white” brick end chimneys with bases, projecting course and corbelled cap; tooled stone sills; pick-faced lintels; large quoins and at openings; dressed stone arch to semi-circle window to gable; 6 panes over 6 sash; bolection-moulded 6 panel door with moulded transom bar; attractive rear 1 ½ storey board and batten garage addition; corner lot.
331 Clair Rd. E. – Built c. 1850 Neo-Classic Vernacular, 1 1/2 storey, 3 bay, front gable, round-head window, gothic divisions, eaves returns.
218-220 Gordon St. – Built c. 1850, 1875 Neo-Classic Vernacular, 2 storey, 11 bay, hip roof, rounded corner (filled-in entrance), large store window refenestration, original sills, tooled stone, (much changed openings, heads renewed, modified doors), hammer-dressed lintels.
12 Eramosa Rd. – Built c. 1899 (Neo-Classic) Romanesque Revival; 2 storey; facetted corner; storefronts; rusticated stone sills and caps to piers; upper band and parapet coping; double round-head windows (one of each pair blocked) below raised parapet with pilastered centre; Number 14 later extension with blocked storefront and 3 bays above; rusticated sills & lintels.
408 Willow Rd. – Built c. 1840 Neo-Classic Vernacular, 2 storey, 3 bay, gable roof, end chimneys, entrance, fan transom, 1 1/2 storey rear wing, mature landscape.
