Chris has submitted another comment / argument complete with pictures.
The historic picture shown was no doubt taken at a point in the building's history when it had lost the clapboard cladding.
I only became familiar with te structure while it sat at the roadside
A remnant of clapboard could be seen still fastened under the peak of the roof. At one point,
patches of insulbrick, a cheap product used to keep the elements off the shaved logs underneath were still visible.
It was never a log house as some have claimed. Clapboard cladding was its original finish.
The lack of cladding is what caused the log corners to rot and require replacement.
Christopher, I do not pretend to be an expert. But I accept that Van Nostrand of Vandorf is as close to an expert on historic housing in this area as any we are likely to find.
I am in the business of seeking out advice that I comprehend and accept on the basis of the evidence.
$100,000 was budgeted for the project before I came back on Council in 2003. My position was , it should not continue to be included in the town's budget.
I don't recall support from any other member of any of the three Councils responsible for ten years of budgets since.
Taxes were raised and funds were allocated for the purpose. over and over again.
It was a majority decision of Council with no public outcry of note,
The location is fine, highly visible . How the building is used determines the amenities required.
Sprinkler systems are not required in every building. Factory Theatre has no sprinkler system.
Hydro is connected.. Heat can easily be provided.
Not only is the building visible to the passing parade, it is situated at the beginning or end, however
your walk takes you , of the town trail system.
There's a bocce court, open to the public close by.
Chris, you are a self-professed aficionado of history. You must know municipal boundaries had little relevance to the community that was the Village of Machells Corners and the farms and families stretching out from the intersection where the post master was located.
Former Councillor Walt Davis told me once how it was in Aurora in his younger days.
If a person wanted to make headway on Yonge Street, he had to step off the sidewalk onto the road.
The sidewalk was jammed with groups catching up with a week's gossip.
Farmers and wives in from the country to pick up the mail and grocery shopping chatting with the
town's residents.
Settlers families on the farms grew up , found sweethearts in the villages and elsewhere and founded their own families in the town's and villages or wherever.
Walt himself, married Jessie from a farm in Pottageville.
I believe the donation to support saving the Petch House came from an Aurora ancestor of the Petch family.
The name Petch is common in Aurora. I think a Council photo on the wall of the Town Hall
has a Petch in a Council group. I think I can see his face as I write.
I didn't favor spending money on an old structure that no-one had a use for. But the majority of four Councils did.
The project has finally moved forward.
The forlorn, decrepit ,old remnant of the past no longer sits rotting at the side of a road, a testament to a council's lack of resolve.
There was resistance within the town hall. There still is. Councillor Thompson's comments bore a reflection of it.
The only question outstanding is; does Council have authority or does the town building department make the determination.
We are about to deal with that.
And it's well past time.
Friday 25 October 2013
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3 comments:
"Christopher, I do not pretend to be an expert."
That's okay, he does...about everything.
14:09
Now now, he does not pretend. In his mind he is an expert. He can find a reference in Wikipedia to prove it.
I agree with you, Evelyn. Driving past the Petch place on its last location during all the fuss about saving it, I used to say a small prayer that some kid wouldn't start a fire close to it and ignite the firetrap. Not because I thought it should be saved but because of all the trees surrounding it that would be destroyed.
It is fine where it is now. I'm pleased you asked about it because most of us had forgotten it.
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