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An 1870’s farmhouse at 132 Clair Road West burned to the ground in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 21. The house has been vacant since 2006, and yes, it had heritage value. The land was originally part of Puslinch Township and was annexed by the City of Guelph. The land was first settled in 1830 by Simon Eustace (b. 1892) and his wife Bridget (b. 1807), immigrants from Ireland. They likely first built a log cabin on the site, cleared the land, and the later house was built sometime prior to 1877. The farm was later bought by David Maltby, and then John Clair.
It’s such a shame that the south end of Guelph is losing, or has already lost, much of its historic past. The Tolton farm on Clair Road East burned down (mysteriously) in 2005. The Hanlon and Clair farms were demolished, and “replicas” (nothing original) were built in the Westminster Woods subdivision. Luckily, the Carter-Moffatt farmhouse (the beautiful stone house on Coopers Court in the Clairfields subdivision) was saved.
The fire is still under investigation.
It’s official! MPP Liz Sandals announced today that the Province of Ontario’s MIII infrastructure program has awarded the $5 million request from the City of Guelph towards the restoration of the former Loretto Convent into the expanded Guelph Civic Museum.
This is exciting news, because it means the $6 million threshold in government-level funding has been reached, and the project can move ahead as planned.
The Civic Museum first identified the need for expansion over five years ago. The current site cannot be expanded on site and the museum is bursting at the seams with artifacts, storage and lack of programming space. The Diocese of Hamilton and the City of Guelph negotiated a 75 year lease term to use the Convent, a structurally sound Pre-Confederation limestone building, for the Museum.
This is great news!
Leanne
A recent commentary in the Mercury is critical of the concept of putting a civic museum in a building the city does not own. The writer compares it to building a swimming pool in your neighbours backyard. Personally, that sounds like a great deal.
The business case for adaptive re-use of the convent for a museum is quite brilliant. To use the swimming pool analogy: if I was planning to build a pool anyway, and my neighbour was not using his backyard, and he offered me full and exclusive use of his yard for three generations of my family, at a token $1 year cost, I would take up the offer in a millisecond. I would keep my own yard open for a garden and greenspace, and in effect, double my useable yard space with my neighbours blessing and support.
The convent is an empty building. The financial and environmental cost to demolish is significant (up to 1/3 of Ontario landfills contain demolition waste). The Diocese has no future planned use for the site and has offered it to the City for use as a civic museum for a nominal cost. They were not strong-armed - they fully understand the beneficial synergies that would come from this partnership. The current museum is bursting at the seams and will be moving forward to secure a new site at some point within the next five years. To buy or lease a new building at market value would be costly. A long-term lease with the Diocese (ie.50-100) years removes this expense.
If Council failed to act to secure the Convent site, the cost to relocate the museum will not disappear, it would just be deferred into the future. Past councils have done this with a number of capital projects which had led to a huge backlog of community needs - main branch library, south end firehall, civic administration centre, etc.
Losing the Convent would mean the City would have to relocate the museum by purchasing or leasing another building at market value. In order to meet the museums future needs, they will need a building twice the size of the current facility, at an estimated cost of $1,000,000. Leasing the convent for an estimated $2 per year means that million dollars can be spent on other things or invested.
I share the concerns expressed about the number of capital projects on the horizon. Guelph cannot lose its AA financial rating. But we cannot continue to defer capital projects in perpetuity. Our city as a whole suffers when we fail to act on identified needs. We must prioritize our projects carefully in order to finance them effectively - and we will do this.
If you haven’t been to visit our Civic Museum lately, I encourage you to drop by the facility on the corner of Dublin and Waterloo and experience this community gem.
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