Owners of two properties in Cookstown will have to wait a bit longer as the town investigates their heritage impact.
At its Sept. 13 meeting, council approved the request of the Innisfil heritage advisory committee to procure peer reviews of the heritage impact assessments submitted for 15-17 Queen St. and 7 King St. N.
“There have been some questions brought up regarding the properties and the legitimacy of the impact assessments,” said Deputy Mayor Kenneth Fowler, who chairs the heritage committee. “They’re looking for further information on it before any decisions are made. It’s simply just crossing Ts and dotting Is.”
The impact assessments were presented to the heritage committee during its Aug. 10 meeting. Both reports were prepared by LHC Heritage Planning and Consulting, a firm based out of Kingston.
Both properties were deemed to have “contextual value” by the consultants, meaning they support the commercial core landscape of downtown Cookstown and are consistent with the guidelines of the Cookstown Heritage Conservation District, but do not have any specific design, physical, historical or associative value.
The structures at 15-17 Queen St. were built about 75 years apart. The one-storey building at 15 Queen St. may look like a relic of colonial construction when it was built in 1953.
“The applied log-style cladding gives the impression of a log cabin; however, this is a veneer overlaid on the building,” the consultant’s report states. “The one-storey structure is not a representative example of any architectural style or influence.”
At 17 Queen St., consultants found the building, likely to have been constructed between 1865 and 1870, to “have been subject to significant modification,” both inside and out, which is why it is currently part of the Group D classification under the Cookstown Heritage Conservation District plan and guidelines, a “non-contributing property.”
When evaluating the property against the criteria found in the provincial regulations, the consultants stated “the property is not a rare, unique, representative, or early example of a style, type, expression, material, or construction method,” adding the two-storey structure at 17 Queen St. “does not represent any one architectural style and has been extensively modified.”
A three-storey commercial structure is proposed to replace the buildings at 15-17 Queen St., which, while taller than others on Queen Street, the consultants believe will be “consistent with a ‘conservative contemporary’ approach as required by the Cookstown HCD plan and guidelines.”
That’s the conclusion reached by LHC in its analysis of 7 King St. N. as well. On that property, a development proposal calls for a three- to four-storey commercial building, broken into seven sections. LHC noted the Cookstown heritage plan also encourages “adaptive reuse along King Street for vacant and/or underutilized buildings.”
A quick look at the long-boarded-up 7 King St. N. makes it seem like a prime example for “adaptive reuse.”
The first 30-plus years of the property are shrouded in mystery, as little is known about the chain of ownership from 1844, when the Crown patent for Lot 1, Concession 1 was granted to John Perry, to 1871, when census records identify Alfred and Mary Ayerst as living on the property.
The structures that stand there today seem to date back to about 1904, the consultant’s report said, when a fire insurance plan showed a new two-storey wooden structure, largely set back from its King Street frontage. Until 1949, a blacksmith shop was situated on the property when it was converted into a service station.
Despite the home being nearly 120 years old, LHC found nothing rare or unique about it. Rather, it was typical of the time in the materials used and the construction methods undertaken. It does connect to Cookstown’s past, however.
“The property is historically linked to its surroundings as a former blacksmith shop used during the predominant period of development in the (Heritage Conservation District) (1880 to 1919),” the report stated. “The two-and-a-half-storey vernacular residence was constructed during the predominant period of development … and is, as such, historically linked to its surroundings.”
Part of the peer review process will be to see if there were gaps in the impact analysis provided by the consultant, director of planning and growth Andria Leigh told councillors. Staff will work to provide a scope of the review and obtain a consultant, but, as it is related to proposed development, the cost of the review will be invoiced to the developer.
