Looking back before moving forward
By June Chambers

"We need to look back before looking ahead."

David Chambers illuminated this thought during his presentation on heritage preservation and designation to the members of the Innisfil Heritage Committee and the public at their Jan. 3 meeting, held in the historic Knock School House.

In his introduction, David Steele spoke of Chamber's extensive background, mentioning that he served as chair for Tecumseth LACAC for 10 years and as chair of the BWG Heritage Committee for two. Over a 40 year period, he has been heavily involved in the restoration of four heritage properties. These included a circa 1870's field stone house in the hamlet of Barclay, the Brazel House, a two storey red brick house, circa 1845, the family's home in Bond Head, a circa 1860's Orangeman's Lodge and SS 6, a timber frame 1850's school house. His son, Bruce, helped with the moving and restoring of the latter two buildings and worked extensively on the restoration of the Brazel House.

David complimented the committee for the fine restoration of the Knock. Councillor Bill Pring said he hoped it would be the beginning of more projects.

A surge of interest in local history occurred during Canada's Centennial in 1967. People were searching their family roots, buying old houses to restore and century farm signs were appearing on laneways of rural homes. The Ontario government has always been supportive of efforts to protect and preserve our built heritage. In 1975, it decided to transfer this responsibility to the municipalities who appointed heritage committees, an advisory committee to council. This voluntary group of interested citizens and a member of council receive written materials from the ministry, attend workshops on a variety of topics to help them with their work of identifying building styles, recognizing architectural elements, understanding restoration techniques & having the opportunity to network with other community heritage groups.

The task of heritage committees is to make an inventory of all buildings which have architectural interest and/or historical importance. Most farmhouses are not significant historically. The committee discusses which of these are eligible to be placed on a registry. All buildings dating pre-1867 would automatically qualify. Council must approve the registry. The building department flags buildings on a registry so no demolition permits are granted for a period of 60 days.

This allows time for council and the committee to meet with the owner to investigate the heritage value of their building.

The heritage committee then recommends to council which significant buildings should be designated. Under the Ontario Heritage Act, owners of designated houses are not obligated to make any restorative changes to their building. However, if they wish to make changes, consultation with the committee and council is necessary to insure that any alterations are in keeping with the period of the structure. The object is to protect the architectural character of the building.

Chambers used slides from his extensive collection of Simcoe County's older buildings to illustrate what architectural details should be noted when doing a site visit. He pointed out the patterned brickwork on a landmark house in Newton Robinson, the plank on plank construction of a frame farmhouse in Thompsonville, the regency entrance on a stone house in Barclay, the mansard roof on Lount's Castle in Barrie, window sash with 12 over 12-window panes in a Bradford home. Photos are important records since some of the buildings have been demolished.

Although preservation and restoration costs are borne by the owner, municipalities are encouraged to partner with the province in a tax relief program that offers a 10 to 40 per cent tax relief, with the education portion of the relief being reimbursed by the province.

Most buildings are designated with the blessings of the owner who has chosen to own and take pride in their heritage building.