Why 40 historic buildings in Ancaster just got harder to demolish

Forty historic buildings along Ancaster's 200-year-old downtown just became a littleharder to demolish.

Hamilton city council, meeting via video link, voted Wednesday to add 40 old buildings, most along Wilson Street East, to its list of registered heritage buildings. The propertieswere already on the inventory list, but with this new move, anyone who wants to demolish one will have to wait for 60 days. That buys more time for council action to protect it.

The move comes after a developer demolished the Brandon House, a landmark 1860 house at the corner of Wilson and Rousseaux, earlier this month, says Coun. Lloyd Ferguson.

The owner got a building permit in March and by early April, it was torn down, Ferguson said. People were outraged.

"I was getting more emails about Brandon House than I was about the pandemic," he said, "and I got a lot of pandemic ones."

Ancaster is one of the oldest communities in Ontario, established in the late 1700s, in part because its waterfalls were powerful fuel for industry at the time. The town is home to some ofHamilton's oldest buildings, including 180 that predate Confederation in 1867. Those include Harmony Hall (1816), Griffin House (1828), and the Andrew Sloss House (1855).

Brandon House was one of them. Dr. John V. Brandon owned a cigar box factory dating back to 1833, and in 1860, was practising medicine, says the Ancaster Village BIA. The housewas located at 462 Wilson St. E. The building is gone, and the city hasn't received plans yet for what will go there.

A property search shows a numbered company,2691893 Ontario Inc., owns the property after buying it for$1,625,000 on May 9, 2019. Before that, it was owned by members of the Romain family as far back as 1991.

After seeing Brandon House go down, Ferguson went to the 2015 Wilson Street secondary plan, grabbed 40 properties destined then for the city's heritage inventory and put them in his motion. Councillors supported it.

"I've been through a steep learning curve with Brandon House," he said.

"Ancaster's a great small community. I get that change is inevitable, but everyone wants to protect the heritage features."

In the 60-day waiting period for demolition, council could choose to designate a property, said Jason Thorne, general manager of planning and economic development. In the designation process, heritage planners look at a property and identify historic features that must be maintained in any future plans. That takes some time, Thorne said, and the list is long.

"In a typical year, eight or10 are brought to council for designation," he told council, although heritage staff are trying to modify that process to make it faster.

Ferguson's motion specifies that the Wilson Street properties should be given high priority.