Historical Building Burns (NF)

[steve_paul]

Alma College in St. Thomas, built in the 1870's, caught fire (arson suspected) on Wednesday. The building had been abandoned since the early 90's and has been a fight between all 3 levels of government and the heritage people as to what to do with it. Not sure of the whole history, etc of the college but she was a beautiful building and too bad it had to end this way for her.

 

Alma College in 1891

 

 

Alma College in 1939

 

 

Alma College on Wednesday

 

 

 

 

 

Sad to see such a beautiful building end up this way.

[Gerritt]

I remember that place well... I spent many an evening drinking beer with buds behind it

 

From the G&M

 

 

 

Two teens arrested in Ontario fire

 

JOSH WINGROVE

 

Globe and Mail Update

 

May 30, 2008 at 11:14 AM EDT

 

Two teenagers have been arrested after a fire razed a heritage site in St. Thomas, Ont., this week.

 

Politicians in St. Thomas, south of London, pledged to push to rebuild the facade of historic Alma College, a former school for girls, after it caught fire Wednesday.

 

The region's MPP had met with Premier Dalton McGuinty's staff just hours earlier to push for an order to preserve the building.

 

The flames gutted the building, which had been unused for more than a decade – the subject of a long battle between the owners, who hoped to demolish it, and the city. Much of the college collapsed in the fire. The rest was torn down Thursday.

 

Two boys, 15 and 16, were arrested Thursday night, and were to appear in court Friday on arson charges, police said.

 

”It is really a horrific end for such a beautiful, beautiful building,” said Alma alumna Suzanne van Bommel, who had been pushing to preserve the building.

 

”Everyone is mourning,” added Dawn Doty, a resident who had gathered more than 3,000 signatures to save the old school. ”It's a nightmare.”

 

St. Thomas had been fighting to save what it could of the iconic building, designed in the style of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa and University College in Toronto. The Ontario Municipal Board approved a plan last week that would have seen the facade and part of the main tower preserved, while allowing the rest of the crumbling building to be demolished for public safety.

 

Steve Peters, MPP for Elgin-Middlesex-London and Speaker of the Ontario Legislature, met with Peter Wilkinson, Mr. McGuinty's chief of staff at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, just hours before the fire, to press for support for preservation in light of the OMB decision.

 

Joined by Ms. van Bommel, Mr. Peters was pushing for a 60-day stop-work order, so that a last-ditch effort could be made to save the building. The Ministry of Culture had previously refused such an order, not wanting to interfere with the OMB, but the Premier's aide was receptive.

 

”He agreed to look into the situation,” Mr. Peters said. ”But, three hours later, the building was gone.”

 

Mr. Peters, who worked at Alma for a summer in 1985, and St. Thomas Mayor Cliff Barwick both said Thursday that they will push for the OMB decision to be enforced, despite the fire.

 

That means any new development by the owners would have to replicate the facade and main tower.

 

”I'm certainly going to be pushing the OMB decision be honoured,” Mr. Peters pledged, adding that he had previously urged Culture Minister Aileen Carroll to work to save the building, which is owned by the Zubick family of London.

 

Alma College opened in 1881, a school for girls from around the world. It closed after a teachers strike in the 1980s and was sold to private developers. Many of the buildings on the site have been torn down over the years, but the main, three-storey, yellow brick building had remained, as did a chapel, which is thought to be salvageable after the fire. Neither building had been occupied for 14 years, sitting with broken windows, leaky roofs and no downspouts.

 

The Zubick family released a statement through its lawyer after the fire, saying it had ”invested great time and effort to bring new life to Alma College” and pledging to co-operate with investigators.

 

A photometric survey crew documented what was left of the facade before demolition began Thursday, so that it could be replicated.

 

Ms. van Bommel was told of the college's fate about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, while at Queen's Park.

 

”I'm sure the entire wing of the building heard my reaction,” she said. ”I'm heartbroken.”

 

Alma's supporters hope the college's fate will alert the province to problems with its Heritage Act. The act was revamped in 2005, giving powers to cities to step in and prevent what is called demolition by neglect: letting heritage sites decay until they must be torn down. St. Thomas tried to do just that with the college, but the city's new bylaw was thrown out in court after a challenge by the owners.

 

”It's a microcosm of everything that's wrong with the heritage system in this country,” said Natalie Bull, executive director of the Heritage Canada Foundation, which placed Alma on its list of endangered buildings in 2006. ”The system really failed this building every step of the way.”