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Back to the Rockwood Academy
I hadn’t been there for decades. Yet, when greeting Andy Drenters at the door of the Rockwood Academy, I said: “This is one of my favourite places in the world.” On a beautiful day in May it was delightful to see how little things had changed
Rarely if ever in my life has there been a place like the Rockwood Academy that has brought together the personal and the professional.
Guest post: Michael McClelland on the OHA and the "New Heritage"
I'm very excited to welcome the first guest on OHA+M: Michael McClelland.
Stratford White House — OMB says no to insensitive infill
To recap from last time: the Stratford White House is an 1860s Italianate mansion dressed up with a much later oversized portico (with 18 columns!) and boasts a landscaped front and semi-circular drive. Prominently located on St. David Street, one of the “best” streets in town, the house currently has three residential units and an events facility. The property is the subject of an intensification/infilling proposal that would keep the house but cram in three new building lots on the back and west side (Areas 'A', 'B' and 'C' on the plan below).
Stratford White House blues
Sticking with Stratford, our local Architectural Conservancy Ontario branch has just heard that the branch’s nomination of the city of Stratford for induction into the North America Railway Hall of Fame has been accepted. Hooray!
Ode to Stratford
"What's past is prologue."[1]
Automatic protection — are old buildings next?
Picking up from last time… if we can — and do — have automatic protection for archaeological sites in Ontario, why not for other kinds of cultural heritage?
Digging down on automatic protection
Let’s get back to the concept of automatic protection for cultural heritage resources — the idea that they get “instant” protection without going through some form of decision process.
I say “back” because perceptive readers may have noticed that the three shipwrecks we looked at last time are not automatically protected. Or rather, they get the same automatic protection in Ontario as archaeological sites on land, but the added protection they enjoy — the no-access zone surrounding them — is not automatic. Far from it! As we saw it takes a regulation passed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council (aka Cabinet) to confer this special status.
Automatic protection in the deep
Still with archaeology and how it is protected in Ontario, what about our marine heritage?
Automatic protection — the holy grail?
What if cultural heritage resources were automatically protected? No painstaking selection, no long designation process, no council decisions and political shenanigans, no drawn-out, unpredictable reviews or appeals. The law just decrees that all heritage resources are protected, end of story.
Pure preservationist fantasy, right?
Sure, but one that may not be as far-fetched as we think.