Two weeks ago it was the Sandford House, now it’s the Gray House.
Mississauga’s depleted heritage catalogue appears to be sitting in the middle of a shooting gallery.
In retrospect, the Gray House never had a chance after the lease for the bar and restaurant was allowed to lapse by the new owners, Fram/Slokker. They bought it from the original owners, the Gray family that had founded St. Lawrence Starch.
A house unguarded is an invitation to disaster. The beautiful stained glass, some with 19th century designs, was ripped out. Ornate plaster structures, from which the chandeliers hung, disappeared. A fireplace was ripped from the wall.
The developer, Mississauga’s own Frank Giannone, a Port Credit resident since 1984 listened when a group of concerned residents, led by John Cassan, a local real estate agent, made a pitch to move the house. Giannone said he’d give it to them for a buck, and throw $200,000 into the pot for the restoration, whose cost just kept rising.
But there were problems, lots of problems. The fledgling group met with the City and started to realize the enormity of its task. The house probably could not legally be moved onto nearby Lion’s Park as planned. Where was the business plan to create and finance the marine museum to honour the rich fishing heritage of Port Credit? And always (understandably) there was the bottom line, how much money can you raise?
The developer, wanting to revisit an earlier Ontario Municipal Board case that approved two buildings of 10 storeys on the land, met with residents. A much more ambitious plan was hatched. In a deal valued at $7.5 million, Fram/Slokker would donate property for public uses that would refresh the dilapidated Lion’s Club pool and park nearby and incorporate the Gray House into a new branch library to replace the 50-year-old building, constructed on landfill beside the Credit River.
The idea was sailing along until the greater public got wind of the library move. Then everything swiftly fell apart.
Never underestimate the emotional attachment of a community to its schools, its parks or its libraries — the spaces in which they put down their roots. Residents love their library where it is, thank you, even with its outdated architecture, inadequate size and very obvious limitations.
Mayor Hazel McCallion tried her best to drive the deal through but local councillor Carmen Corbasson dissented. A council chamber full of residents helped convince most of her colleagues she was right.
The cost of the decision is the loss of the Gray House, as every councillor knew when they voted.
It’s hard to find a scapegoat in all this, although everybody is trying hard. Giannone says it’s been five years since the file was opened and he has been open to many alternatives. He feels members of the ratepayers group initially supported the deal, then changed their minds when the public opposition to the library move became evident.
The residents wonder how the onus of saving a significant public building somehow gets to be their prime responsibility. They are just a few people who care deeply about their community, not deal-brokers and fundraisers.
The condominium development is still on the books. Giannone wants to build a 22-storey apartment building and a 16-storey seniors’ residence.
With the Ontario government’s mandated intensification strategy for municipalities, this project in the shadow of the GO Station would seem to be the poster child for smart growth. If council doesn’t approve it, the OMB almost certainly will.
If that happens, a lot of people will look back and wonder why the Gray House had to take the fall for a deal gone wrong that seemed to make such obvious common sense.
Comments (6)
Currently working in the U.S., I was very sad to learn of the demolition of the Gray House. Worse, I had sent email to Councillor Corbasson at least twice suggesting that the shell of the house be moved and annexed to the library in its present location, thereby preserving the structure AND expanding the library floor space. I never heard back, though it would seem something had trickled through to the Fram-Slokker people who then proposed to incorporate the house into the library at their proposed location. It seems heritage will always take second place to political expediency and the almighty dollar.
Posted by Alex Hillar | May 14, 2007 1:17 PM
Posted on May 14, 2007 13:17
The (not so funny) thing is that the city believes it has everything under control while they wait for their monthly car allowance cheques to come rolling in. One or two months of councillor car allowances (on top of their "base" salaries) is probably equal to the entire annual funding the miserable HAC receives each year. And they were warned by staff at the March meeting that designations (which would have protected the Gray House) must be constricted to the pathetic $5G they receive from Paul Mitcham's budget each and every year. Much of that is already allocated to parties apparently.
Mississauga is the polar opposite of Markham (and also by comparison, Brampton) even though we have undergone a similar rural-suburban transition. What makes one jurisdiction utterly fail and another garner the Prince of Wales heritage award? The answer is leadership and staff. Hazel fiddles and sings for the Chinese media while they burn and bulldoze our irreplaceable heritage assets. This is one problem Hazel can't blame on a higher level of government, i.e. the province. It is 100% the McCallion legacy that heritage has been driven into the ground in this so-called perfect city of several hundred thousand.
Has Mississauga bottomed out on heritage issues? I doubt it. Just as we hear the phrase. "the perfect storm", Mississauga heritage has become "the Perfect Mess".
And the beat goes on.
PS Thanks Muse for your efforts. This is a city without a conscience. We've had none for too long.
Posted by Eric Rogers | April 6, 2007 2:33 PM
Posted on April 6, 2007 14:33
Here John.
Hazel McCallion's actual words during the March 28, 2007 Council meeting so there's never any doubt.
I matched her efforts to sway councillors with the last moments of Gray House on Saturday, March 31, 2007
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7308781531534095769&hl=en
Signed,
The (I don't know why Councillors put up with such abuse) Mississauga Muse
Posted by The Mississauga Muse | April 2, 2007 10:52 PM
Posted on April 2, 2007 22:52
Gray Lady Down
While in the course of activities that precipitated the demolition of the Historic Gray House in Port Credit; many organizations and individuals showed much energy, passion, commitment and expressed their feelings with great emotion. Yet, no one showed any empathy for anyone else’s’ side of the story; and least of all, no empathy for the old historic home.
Now it is gone; and probably like the dozens of tragic loses in the past; it will soon be forgotten.
I once heard a comment that there is hardly anything at all in Mississauga that is a hundred years old.
I answered back, “A hundred years from now; we still won’t have anything a hundred years old.”
Posted by Stephen Wahl | April 1, 2007 1:30 PM
Posted on April 1, 2007 13:30
We'd have to hybrid Green Grids (Windmills and Solar panels) right onto the Heritage property sites before negotiating provincial/federal environment double indemnity protection clauses into Heritage Acts.
If Tim Peterson and John Tory are going to renegotiate Mississauga’s Fair Share and local hydro waffling, it’s bigger than one man (the tax payer) when a provincial leader might try to ban birds (endangered species) flying into windows prior to comparing the costs of metering light bulbs after 16 stories before sharing the $6,000 costs of actually assembling (small scale) solar panels and windmills?
Posted by Wayne Nagy | April 1, 2007 12:40 PM
Posted on April 1, 2007 12:40
Mississauga has no heritage plan whatsoever. I wish there was someone at city hall that would have the vision to preserve heritage properties just like Markham has.
Mississauga has the second worst record for Heritage Preservation in Ontario.
It's a shame really, and no one but the brains at city hall are to blame.
Posted by Jerry P | March 31, 2007 11:17 PM
Posted on March 31, 2007 23:17