AMHERSTBURG Council will get its first look Tuesday at an extensive report outlining properties of “cultural heritage interest” in the downtown area.
The two-month study of the town’s core area catalogued properties on Dalhousie Street, the south side of Richmond Street and the east side of Bathurst Street to Park Street.
Chief building official Stephen Brown prepared a report for council recommending it approve the addition of the properties to the town’s Heritage Registry under the properties-of-interest category.
Brown said the area represents one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Amherstburg, with structures dating from the early 1800s to 1917. Fifty-eight properties are listed.
The study was conducted by Doris Gaspar in co-operation with the Marsh Collection, a local history and genealogy centre, under the direction of the town’s heritage committee. It outlines property owners, businesses, newspaper accounts of renovations or demolitions of buildings.
“What I’d love to go forward with in the next step is the stories … there’s got to be some great stories” about the people who lived in and visited the houses, said Coun. Carolyn Davies, who also sits on the heritage committee.
“There’s a lot of stories to be told. We haven’t got to that point yet … that will really create an interest in … the structures. It will create life in those structures.
“The registry doesn’t really address that but that’s what people like to hear.”
Davies wasn’t sure the exact number of properties listed in the directory but estimated once the list is approved, the registry would have at least 150 listings.
“We’ve budgeted for next year so hopefully we’ll go out and do some more,” Davies said.
“We also have to look at Anderdon buildings and Malden buildings,” She said. “We know that there’s some big old houses out there that played some significant roles … but we just haven’t got them on the registry.”
The recent study does include a property known as the Splitlog home on Front Road North that has an estimated construction date of 1835 and is among the few surviving two-storey log structure homes in Amherstburg.
The property was part of the “Indian Lands” in the former Anderdon Township, for which registered documents prior to 1880 are non-existent.
If council approves the addition of the properties to the heritage registry, those properties will be subject to a 60-day notification process before a demolition permit could be approved. That would give the town, and the heritage committee, time to determine and address the historical significance of the property.
The entire study will be available on the town’s website.